I'm Good at Being Sick

This week my family is coping with what might be a a bad head cold or a mild flu. We are quickly burning through cough drops, Dayquil, Vicks Vapor Rub, and orange juice.

My poor husband is developing abs of steel through hourly coughing fit workouts. He's carefully timing drug dosages to fit a busy schedule of meetings and a few job interviews. At least he can work from home.

 Oldest has recurring fevers, but must soldier on with school and work, so is sharing this virus with the retail and college worlds.

So far, Youngest has been spared. Due to his unique health, he had to do the heavy lifting on the annual local event we call Dumpster Day.  Hopefully he will continue to be immune.

The rest of us are snotty, germy messes.

Which means I feel slightly better.

It is a strange phenomenon among some of us with autoimmune diseases, that when our immune system has something legit to do, it temporarily stops reeking havoc on other parts of our system.

My nose is awful, but I'm sleeping slightly better and haven't needed the serious pain meds all week.

Also, I don't cough. My mother will deny this, but at some point I was told to knock it off during a coughing fit and due to a rare moment of obedience, I did.  I wake myself up with the need to sneeze, but am spared the all-body pain of coughing that torments my sweetheart.

Timing is good. Next week is the Annual RD blog week, headed up by the brave and hard-working Rick  of RADiabetes. That means I will ideally post every day.

 Feeling a little better this week has given me bit of a head start. I've written two and have two started. Not needing to curl up in fetal position for half an hour every two hours is great for productivity

I'd hit the town to celebrate feeling better, but the snot and the sneezes--I'd better stay home and write.

On an unrelated topic, one of my podcasts, More Perfect has released an album of songs inspired by the amendments to the constitution. I've listened to them twice now and am looking forward to this season of the podcast when short stories and explanations of each of the amendments will be the focus.

Listening to the songs made me do a constitutional review and a little bit of research. Many were written from the point of view of people who still haven't fully enjoyed the rights the constitution should have given them.

For example, Native Americans were not made citizens and given the right to vote until 1924. 1924.

()f course, even the most privileged American women couldn't vote until 1920.)

The whole album, and the previous season of the podcast are good lessons on the struggles that have occurred and still need to occur before we can truly live up to our own ideals.

THE PODCAST is about the onset of Autumn and the love/have relationship Emily Dickinson and I have with it. Fall would be hands-down the best season of the year if it didn't lead to winter.

THE KNITTING

I've finished a cute scarf that is now in my shop.

The baby blanket is making slower progress than planned because I pulled out a lot of work that was too narrow and re-knit it--a fun part in most creative processes. One more section to go.