When karma and sleeplessness collide

On Thursday, after the unpleasant Badass drama of Wednesday, I came in to work to find out that EPOD was scheduled to be out of the office all day. It was at that point, or really at lunchtime, that I decided to do what any good employee would do. I took two of my friends to lunch and we polished off two pitchers of sangria.

We laughed, we giggled, and had a really, really nice time. I finally relaxed for the first time last week since Heather and I chilled out Saturday night with some vino. It was nice to just have my girls with me.

While we were waiting for the check, I noticed that my throat was really starting to hurt. Hurt as in "pain of a thousand flaming swords stabbing my throat repeatedly." I shrugged it off as possibly being very dry and hot in the restaurant, and we headed back to work.

As we pulled back in the parking lot, I noticed that EPOD's car was back. SHIT. I went slinking back to my office and after dropping my purse off, went into the restroom and proceeded to gargle as much citrus-flavored mouthwash as I could, put some Visine in my eyes, and then sprayed myself all over with stinky hairspray. I went back into my office and shut the door quietly, and then pounced on my Blackberry...

Me to Cat Door: "Great news, cat scan is normal, went out at lunch and got drunk. Is that wrong?"

Cat Door to me: "I thought you did that every day."

Yeah. Not so much. So after about an hour, I finally was summoned to EPOD's office to review some reports with him and I managed to keep my shit together. The buzz had worn off and I was just back to my usual goofy self.

Note to self: Catching a buzz at lunchtime on Thursday is not a good idea. Catching a buzz at lunchtime on Thursday and having your boss show up unexpectedly and then trying to hide it is guaranteed bad karma.

By the time I got home Thursday, my throat was really hurting. Like worse than the flaming swords. So I brewed a whole pot of green tea and guzzled it down, popped some Motrin, and then crawled into bed as soon as Monkey Man went to bed.

Friday arrived and I felt better. Or at least in the morning I did - at lunchtime I went and met Cat Door downtown for lunch and felt just fine. By the late afternoon, I was feeling like pure death and decided that throat lozenges were only going to prolong the agony without actually solving anything. I drove straight to the urgent care place, was in and out in 20 minutes with a diagnosis of an upper respiratory infection in the very early stages. So early that if I hadn't had my usual doctor, they probably would've sent me home with nothing but the "it's only a virus" speech. After hearing my tales of woe about my eight sleepless weeks, he hooked me up with some antibiotics without question and sent me on home.

So I've been laying kind of low - other than a trip to WalMart and hauling Monkey Man to a birthday party complete with petting zoo, I have been in bed watching lots of Real Housewives episodes. Joey has disappeared to Bleaksburg to watch his beloved Hokies and with a 5:30 game time, it will be really, really late when he comes home. And if he wakes me up, I will kill him. Period.

I actually do feel better. I think/hope I caught it early enough to keep it from moving into my chest. And I have really rested today. And I have been taking Tylenol Multi-Symptom Cold - normally I eschew such things, but this time I am determined not to be miserable and therefore make everyone around me miserable. I need to kick this thing before my parents come, because the last thing my dad needs is to catch some crud from yours truly.

*****

I decided to accept Amy's friend request. She posted on my wall right away, I replied back and asked if she's coming into town during the holidays.

Maybe we can meet for coffee or something. I'm throwing the olive branch out there, so we'll see what happens from here.