Sunday, October 9, 2011

Unfinished post Found!: "Weddings, Flu Shots, and Head Colds, Oh my!"

I found this whilst paroosing the long unopened file "Jill's stuff" on the desktop of our computer while the laundry is processing. Yes; that's right. My life has become thus; I only have time to mearly paroooose my PAST musings while I wait for the laundry to cycle and the baby to wake up. ANYWHO - an unfinished taste of how once upon a time I could (and did) write:

Lilacs? Roses? No, I can't smell anything right now ...


I blame the flu shot. I never get a flu shot. Mostly because I don't think that vaccines should be taken every year. Also, for the last four years I've been operating under the umbrella of NO health insurance and would rather spend $1.50 on a box of Kleenex and soda crackers than $15.00 on a flu shot. And in the years preceding that if I had the flu I probably mistook it for a really bad hangover and dealt with it accordingly and moved on with my life.

But this year, thanks to the new job, I not only have health insurance but the company actually brought in a nurse to sick us with the dead virus carcasses, and on top of that gave us incentive to do it; grown up peer pressure, I discovered, means you'll do anything for a chance to win a free PTO day.

So I venture into the big cold conference room, and wander down to the far end of the long table where the little old nurse is sitting with her needle kit. I unbutton my cuff and try to force the sleeve high enough up my arm to expose my shoulder and before I know it I'm in the drawing for that PTO day!

Two days later, I don't have a free PTO day but I'm starting to get little head aches and am waking up with a stuffed up nose and a sore throat.

The weekend hits and just an FYI for anyone reading this; sushi, a box of wine, and staying up until 3:00am will not do you any favors in your battle against an encroaching virus. Needless to say by the time Sunday comes and I'm in less than great condition. Monday comes and all my co-workers start calling me snot-ball and I go home early. Now, because I didn't win that PTO day and I was scheduled to take Friday off because I'm in a wedding on Saturday, I go into work on Tuesday. The snot-ball remarks continue, but the co-workers get defensive in the name of their own immune systems and lobby for me to work from home the rest of the day.

I muddled through the rest of the week with limited productivity, unless you count astounding people with the massive amounts of goo I could produce with just my nose five minutes after clearing it an accomplishment. But thanks to Nighttime Wal-phed I at least managed to get some sleep...

Now this was written some time around October 13th or 14th of 2010 (that's right Debbie - that's your wedding I was referencing). For those not in the loop of my rediculious year to follow I will sum up:
1 month later - Neal buys a VERY pretty ring (shhhh - I wasn't supposed to know that)
1 month after that - Jill and Neal agree on a price for a house far far away; Jill still has no ring - but suspects it's precence somewhere in the apartment ...
1 month after that - Neal FINALLY gives Jill the ring! YAY :)We are engaged and scheduled to move into our new home the end of February! Everything is going according to plan :)
2 weeks after that (and 2 days LATE): All plans change; guess what - We're gonna have a baby.
 
That's only the first half - we are not even out of January at this point! But just listing it out makes me relive it all over again and I think I need to go cry a little bit and then take a nap. Next up I'll revisit the rest of the last year and will attempt to capture the emotional magnatude it present(ed/s).