Coughing to Comedy & Happy Birthday, Grandma

Last week was a hectic week for me and a long day at work on Friday.  Lots of people are sick or getting over being sick but still coughing their germs around.  I didn’t feel great on Friday night, and I was glad it wasn’t freezing when I had to walk my dog.  By Saturday, my ear, throat, and head hurt, and I had a chest cold.

I was glad it was the weekend and one without commitments to anyone else.  I did think, however, of a co-worker who didn’t attend a meeting on Friday due to being sick.  I attended the meeting and got sick later.  Seems unjust.

I managed Saturday with tea, gargling, ginger ale, and Tylenol.  But by Sunday, my stomach was the focus.  Ugh.  Switched to peppermint tea.  If not for needing to walk the dog, I’d have slept more of Sunday away.  In spite of what felt wrong, by evening I was hungry.  I ate oatmeal.

It sucks to be sick.  One of the benefits is supposed to be not having to feel guilty or concerned about not doing anything.  I did feel concerned.  I had many things to do.  Another benefit is having the opportunity to appreciate our body’s many functions.  I do.

When I was little and got sick, my grandma* took care of me.  She was quite good at that.  She grew up when people dealt with polio, died of pneumonia and infections, and all sorts of things most of us do not deal with.  I grew up before vaccinations for many of the things we vaccinate against now.  She saw me through measles, German measles, chicken pox, asthma, and all the colds and scraped knees of my early years.  She was very proud that I don’t have one pock mark from scratching.  She had me polka-dotted with Calamine lotion and too afraid of her to scratch.  My mother would buy me Archie comic books and hang out with me when she could.  

 

Being grown and sick means I still have to walk my dog, buy food, make tea, watch my apartment get more cluttered, etc.  I’m whining.  But it isn’t the end of the world or anything, and I’ve lived through much tougher circumstances, God knows.  I just wanted to whine a bit.  By Monday evening, I was feeling a lot better though I do have something wrong in my ear.  It might be connected to teeth issues or it might be an infection that is traveling around my body.  My worst thought is that it is something awful from cell phone use.

In the spirit of the world ending, my apartment continues to threaten to collapse.  A few months back, my bathroom and kitchen ceilings were replaced and painted.  Now there’s a leak from above making a situation where not only will those ceilings need replacing again, but the wall shared by both rooms will probably need replacing as well.  It is sometimes difficult to take all this in stride, but again, these are physical problems that, while very inconveniencing, are fixable. 

I normally work most evenings to supplement my morning job income.  Working many evenings really limits my other endeavors.  Now I am on holiday break (unpaid) from one job.  This is my chance to try to do the other things I do.  So I am glad to say I will be performing at the Ooba Lounge in Brooklyn on Wednesday and the Grisly Pear in the Village on Thursday this week.  Next week on Thursday, I’ll be in Johnny Zito’s show at Goodbye Blue Monday in Bushwick, Brooklyn.  If you’ve been meaning to get to a show, all of these shows are free.  And just in case the world ends on 12/21, you might want to not put this off.

 

 

 

*My grandma's birthday is December 15th.  Though she's passed on, I feel her with me much of the time.  Happy Birthday, Grandma.