aceofkittens

My foul mood is even worse because I am sick. I was going to write this long, ranty post, but instead, I think I am just going to take to my sick-bed.

Gosh, it seems I was whining about eye trouble just yesterday, but it was actually more than two years ago. Time flies.

( TMI about my latest eye escapade. Sorry, no photos! )

I think I am finally 98% over my lingering bad cold! Hooray! :)

Too bad I have to spend this glorious day at work. :P

I spent most of this past week as sick as the proverbial dog, my pinkeye blooming to "Eye of Sauron" grandeur. It started in the left eye, then went into the right. ETA: But sadly, I didn't think to take a picture of it! D'oh! My co-workers freaked out so much that I got forcibly sent home, so I got to work from home! I got a lot of work done and I am hopeful that this bodes well for being allowed to work from home in the future.

( Typhoid Ace )

Despite the fact that my eyes and my cough are both better, I am still feeling fairly sick and low on motivation. I haven't been to the gym in over a week and some of my best pants are punishing me by no longer fitting. Damn you, pants! Lie to me, why don't you?! :) I think tomorrow I will try to start up my running again.

Oddly enough, last year at this time, I was in the same exact place I am now: sick with a nasty phlegmy illness (and whining about it!). In that same entry, I vowed that I would start cooking more and start posting more about it.

Obviously, I got over last year's nasty illness (so that gives me hope for this year's). But I didn't really post all that much about my culinary adventures and I certainly never offered up any photos of these degustatory delights. That's because I am lazy. I actually have been cooking a lot more lately, mostly soups (as evidenced by my recent romp with Botulism Soup).

My signature soup right now is what I call "The soup that is too hot for anyone else to eat." plumb_crazy tried a slightly less spicy version of this soup on his last trip to LA. I have since enhanced the recipe, by which I mean that I tripled the amount of cayenne pepper I put in there and started using jabanero peppers instead of jalapeno peppers. I also like to dump chili powder and dry mustard into the pot, just for a bit of kick. The soup contains random other vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage, zucchini, carrots, onions, and various peppers. I don't get bored of eating this soup. It definitely clears the sinuses.

Now I have all these mangoes that I bought during a Costco frenzy. I already found a recipe for mango & jabanero chutney that I will probably make. But in trying to get rid of the mangoes, I've decided I want to know how you — yes, you, my loyal readers — eat your mangoes!

Thus, The Mango Poll: (Shoutout to mango_king)
( Mango Poll )

This weekend was a Lost Weekend for me. Sadly, it was not lost in a haze of vodka, kittens, and gummi bears like I would have liked; instead, I was wracked with endless fever dreams due to my latest bout of mysterious illness (which I picked up either from a small sick child or from licking everyone's tonsils at the Orbit Room on Drinksgiving).

In any case, one of the things I did do this weekend was cook a dish from a recipe. Unsurprisingly, I didn't do a great job with it. See, I'm not much for recipes — I'm more of seat-of-my-pants kind of chef. ("Hmm, this banana bread frosting looks like it needs more powdered sugar. And more sour cream. Hell, let's just turn it into crepe batter!") But I used to have a whole set of "signature" dishes and I realize I can barely even remember what they were. I think I used to make this tasty baked portobello mushroom with chopped olives, walnuts, and cilantro... and I seem to recall making red pepper halves filled with pine nuts and melted feta cheese. And of course my famous apple cake. Hmm... more fever dreams?

In any case, because I've got entirely too much other shit to do AND I'm still sick, I've decided I'm going to cook more again and post the adventures in this journal. Since I don't eat, I'm afraid some of you may be forced to suffer as the guinea pigs in this new life experiment.

Weh, weh, I am sick.

:*(

That's my nose. Just call me Rudolph. Blow, blow, thou bitter nose, thou art not so unkind, etc.

Nyquil, why hast thou abandoned me?

(Someday, I'll catch up on LJ...)

So, last night, instead of going out on the town, I took a dose of my new $45 cough syrup. I took it around 11:00 p.m. and went to bed soon after that. I woke up this morning, with effort, at around 11 a.m. At 1 p.m., I felt the overwhelming need to go to sleep again, and did so. fillyjonk woke me up with a phone call at 3 p.m., at which point I was able to get up again. After we hung up, I puttered around a little, then went back to sleep, around 4:30. I woke up again just now (8 p.m.).

It turns out that one of the two main ingredients in this cough syrup is hydrocodone, which is basically an opiate narcotic. "As with all narcotics (the cough syrup) may produce marked drowsiness and impair the mental and/or physical abilities required for the performance of potentially hazardous tasks such as driving a car or operating machinery..."

Hello, nurse! Yeah, I noticed that bit about the drowsiness and the impaired mental abilities! :) Well, the good news is, I hadn't coughed once all day, until just about a minute ago. The bad news is, obviously, I can't take this stuff and go to work.

In other news, Friday night, I had a celebrity sighting: Barbara Streisand & James Brolin, who had been attending a movie at my friend's theatre. The funny thing is, that I had asked, "Hey, any celebrities here tonight?" just as Baaabra and James had walked past. I probably never would have noticed them on my own.

I don't have walking pneumonia! See, I knew it. Blahblah, severe bronchitis/infection, blahblah. But I guess I was heading toward "Borderline," so it's good that I went in and got the new pills. These new pills have some interesting side effects, but I'm just going to ignore that and keep taking them.

In the meantime, my darling toastmantom has gifted me with a pic which I am pondering making my new default LJ userpic. I've had Britney, patron saint of My Cat Hates You, as my default userpic since I started this LJ. I love that kitty's expression and attitude, but maybe it's time for a change?

[Poll #515449]

To speed up the recovery of my lungs, I went and had me some Ebay moments. This is on top of having gummi bears and Diet Coke for dinner. I live life to the fullest!

Yesterday, I was stupid enough to go back into work. I have this psychosis about giving in to illness, so I will just keep going until I fall over. toastmantom understands. Well, yesterday, I went in and during our weekly staff meeting, I started having one of those coughing fits which ended in retching. After that, I was unanimously voted off the work island... my tiki torch was extinguished, and I went back home.

I had already established that my doctor couldn't see me til next week, but after numerous pathetic phone calls, I got the receptionists to give the doctor a message to please change out my antibiotic. Four hours later, success! I was able to sleep somewhat last night/this morning and though I am still hacking out my lungs, I feel like I may be on the mend. Yay!