Union Station
January 18th, 2013
Okay, my suggestions of things to do when you are sick or laid up. This is my list.
1. Enjoy having people take care of you.
2. Read. I like to catch up on books I want to read but never have time.
3. Write. I like to lie around and read and write using my energy for getting myself into a vaguely sitting position.
4. My favorite sick foods: Tea and honey. Vinegar and honey with hot water. Toast and honey. Scrambled eggs with toast and honey. Toasted English muffins with honey in the little crevasses. Sometimes I like apple sauce. Chicken soup with vegetables and garlic. With tea and honey. I’m like Winnie the Pooh when I’m sick. I actually would like to have a honey jar to put my paws into, but I don’t want people to think I’m a silly bear. I do know some Winnie the Pooh songs though. Ask me sometime, I’ll show you.
5. Sleep. And sleep some more.
6. And when you are not tired, not hungry, but too worn out to read or write, watch movies. Then you’re sort of relaxing. Or, you can just sit around watching The Family Guy. I thought about it, but then I remembered one important problem: I have no television. You have to be hooked up to television to watch it.
Technically the flu gone. I’m sort of better, I’m sure I’m not contagious. But my chest is still crackly, and I feel like a Raggedy Ann or as I mentioned earlier like I was run over by a herd of water buffalos. This is a really boring flu. It stays for three weeks. It comes to your house and just starts camping out and holding onto you with its nasty little fingers. I find it frankly very boring.
Train stations. I’ve spent way too much time sitting around in them this year. Which is also boring. As I write this I’m doing a two hour wait at the San Diego train station because I got there in time for my train but didn’t realize it didn’t stop so I had to go to the other San Diego train station to catch a train two hours later. This isn’t as fun as it sounds. Since I’m taking the train to San Diego every week, I need to figure this out.
Home at midnight and up at 5 to catch my flight to Albuquerque. It’s cold in New Mexico, but I expect that I will have a really good time anyway because I’m seeing my friend Darlene and she’s always super nice to me. There was the one time I was visiting her and ended up in the hospital right before Christmas. It sounds more fun than it was.
But most of the time I have a grand time in Placitas. Darlene treats me like I’m special. Which is cool. Everyone wants to feel like a queen now and then.
I said to the husband this morning, “Why don’t you treat me like I’m a duchess?”
And he said, “But you’re not.”
And I said, “Or the queen of England?”
And he said, “We already established this. You’re not a duchess or a queen or anything. And we’re not in England.”
“What a bummer,” I thought. I mean, I’d always hoped that I’d discover that the people who dropped me off at the Farm were not my true parents and I was actually a princess. In disguise. But maybe not.
French toast. French toast is the best food when you’re sick. French toast made with white bread, NOT the usual whole wheat bread you keep in the house normally. With just butter, no syrup.
Don’t forget the orange juice … to chase a shot of juiced ginger root and garlic cloves!
God Bless You for your comments. I stumbled upon your blog entry too late, what with still enduring the crackly throat, being tired, and a head full of stuff. But, Kate Gale, you didn’t mention the crabby icky-face man that inhabits us when we’re sick. I can’t get past the nasty mood. I too read like a fiend, but couldn’t write because I couldn’t get past the sinus blockage. Which fueled the icky man inside me. All the things you mentioned had to do with making you feel good. But how did you get past the ornery side of oneself to even THINK of the things that make you feel good?
It’s hard not to be in touch with your inner bitch. But, I try.