Mixed bag of a day…flu and thoughts on the holidays
My flu/cold/thingy is really getting annoying. I go from moderately okay to barely able to move and huffing and puffing like I just ran a marathon when I barely walked across the room. Yesterday, I got a lot of stuff done because I could just sit and work but I needed a few lay-downs on the couch to do it. Today isn’t as bad but I’m definitely not okay.
Hyperion is back to work and he’s got the cough and congestion so I feel really wimpy complaining about my wee symptoms. But then I’m on a lot of meds for my allergies and asthma so that might be giving me a edge up on the worse effects. I don’t think it’s the big baddie that’s going around — my belief is we’re just overtired and stressed and the convention just put us over the top. I’m reading that a lot of people at the convention came home with cold/flu and even a few cases of H1N1.
It seems all gatherings are a chance to share germs. When you think about it, it makes sense that everytime you go to a convention, kids come home from college on holiday, you visit a new city or town — you’ll come home with a case of some type of illness (especially if you fly with a bunch of strangers on a plane with recycled air).
Basically, we get used to our own or usual germs and stuff. But when you travel you find new and excitingly different germs and viruses to bring home. I’m beginning to think it’s inevitable: travel = sick for a few days after return.
Meanwhile, I’m getting some reading done but only the light stuff I don’t have to concentrate on too much. I’ve also started to enjoy my collection of Christmas films. It’s my favorite holiday because of the spirit and love that seems to abound at this time of year. Hyperion says I’m starting early this year but my son will be here for Christmas (he usually only makes it for Thanksgiving but will miss it this year). So, there may be some reviews of Christmas movies coming up over the next few weeks. Most of them will be older movies but it’s nice to visit the old standbys every now and then and see how they stand up to the passage of time.
I don’t care for the commercialization of Christmas — we don’t even do the gift thing in our family or at least not more than one gift for just the immediate family (the grandmothers, Hyperion & me, and my son). That’s it. But I love the lights, the music, the friendliness, and the IDEA of Christmas. For the entire month of December I try to do nice things for people hoping it will help me form new habits that will last throughout the year. It does sort of at least it keeps me trying to be a nice person because those of you who don’t know me — I’m a bit snarky and I really don’t have a lot of patience with foolishness — like paperwork for the sake of paperwork, and make work just to say your doing something, and nit-picking just because you can when no one gives a hoot anyway.
So, how many of you are up for pledging to be a better, kinder, more friendly person during the holidays no matter how bad traffic gets or how long the queues are at the stores. Anyone?