Meds

I'm so frustrated with the coughing. My soon-to-be-nurse roommate recommended some cough medicine. Now, I feel like I'm barely here.

I think that means it's time for bed.

Betterish

I didn't have a fever today, but I'm coughing a lot. A lot. I'm really tired of it.

That is all.

I Tried

I fully intended to go to work today, excepting a fever. I needed to do some training today, and I was one day away from getting perfect attendance for the month (perfect attendance equals a free hour of PTO, so it's a nice goal to shoot for, and you get it by not coming in late and not calling out). Alas, the thermometer read 100.7 this morning. That's a fever to my normally 97-ish self.

Adolf understood and said that we all seem to be passing something around. It's nice to have a supervisor who doesn't have a few cows when you call out (unlike the super who earned the nickname I've been using).

Right now, I'm either way too hot or shivering with cold. It's very annoying. I can only sleep so much though. Now might be a good time for more sleep....

Shield Failure

Everyone around me at the office is or has been sick. I saw Fae this weekend. She was sick. I saw my mom this weekend. She was sick. Add that I haven't been getting much sleep since Friday night. You guessed it, now it's my turn.

I've been fending off germs to the best of my ability for weeks. I think they finally overpowered me. In fact, one of my coworkers just now asked if I was sick. I replied that I'm miserable. He said, "Finally!" I know he was joking, but still. I wanted to not be sick!

Yay. Time to go home.

You Have to Think About That

Yesterday, I learned the power of a close community to spread important news. It's more than a community, it's a family. In a matter of hours, we all knew what had happened.

I use "knew" very loosely. We really don't know anything. It was sudden and unexpected, even though we knew he had been struggling for a while. This was never in the framework of possible outcomes.

First, we thought of his struggle. Then of his wife and children. Then of the event he was helping us plan. My friend said she felt bad for thinking about it at all.

But, we have to. He was coordinating much and, though we must go on without him, we must go on. It doesn't feel right and it doesn't feel fair, but we have to.

I knew him for a short amount of time compared with others of my chosen family, but I have yet to meet a kinder gentleman.

Dear friend, I know your pain has ended. I find comfort there, and I hope your friends and family do too.

Discovery

I want to tell you a story. It involves six friends and an adventure of discovery.

For these six friends, their playground was the entire neighborhood, and they all lived on the same street. To children, the neighborhood was a large place of endless adventure.

There was a small creek that separated their neighborhood from the next one over. They would often follow the creek east, where it became rather brook-like in many places, and some parts were very deep. In the summer, they would swing from vines that hung from the trees. In the winter, they would pretend they had ice skates and slide along the frozen surface. Usually. Someone would always find the thin ice over a deep part. Always.

The creek flowed west. That's why they would travel east, to someday find where it began. One day, they found a nice little pond. There were huge rocks all around, and water poured from a great metal tunnel in the concrete wall. That tunnel led under the highway. Many spiders and other critters lived there, but it was a mark of bravery to walk through the tunnel, straddling the trickle of water, to the other side.

Not much of this side was ever explored. The shores of the little creek were soft and lined with moss here. Not rocks and sand and the great roots of great trees like the side they knew. They were afraid to go much further, in the unknown world on the other side of the highway.

So, one autumn, when they had broken all the vines from swinging, they decided to explore the creek West, were it flowed. It carved a long and twisted path through the trees. They never went very far in this direction. Mostly because they knew there was no highway to tell them how far from home they had gone.

This day, they kept going, picking their way through the trees and laughing as they went. They started to see things they had never seen along their little creek before: deeper waters and the unmistakable beaver-chewed stumps of trees. They turned a bend in the creek and found something amazing. It was a grand lake, blocked at one end by an impressive dam, with lodges interrupting the still surface. A Great Blue Heron waded in the shallows, and a tall hill, which later became perfect for sledding, created the southern border.

This place was a wonder. It was not far from their homes, but they had lived and explored for years without ever knowing its existence. They dubbed the lake Jabsse, using their initials. They brought their parents to share in their discovery, to stare at the wondrous beauty of a heron taking flight. To be sad at the break in the dam, and rejoice when the beavers started building a new one.

Jabsse Lake was the best of playgrounds. Nature happened around them, and they lived and played among it, never tiring of the ever-changing lake, and the calming presence of the creatures that lived there.

Perhaps it began then.

Call it Done

The weekend, that is.

The party was fun. Civilization kicked my bum, but we're not a play to win kind of crowd.

I did not successfully get to bed early like I wanted to (because I went to bed the past two nights very very late). This is all I have for today. Good night.

Mini Trip

Fox is having his annual epic board game party today. I'm heading out in a minute. See you tomorrow!

Distance

Happy birthday, Fox!

Rebut

I read "Dear Prudence" on Slate Magazine. I must admit that I have more respect for Margo Howard's advice (and still read her column on wowowow.com) than for Emily Yoffe's, but she makes 'prudent' points on occasion.

There was a letter in today's column from a female polyamorous individual in a relationship with a married couple who is facing judgments and intolerance from their teenage children. Prudie filled her reply with judgments, stereotypes, and all-around not helpful advice with which I cannot even remotely agree. I have to write something somewhere about it.

I will first start by saying that I am a completely heterosexual, monogamous female. This does not mean that I cannot love other females; I have, I do, and I will again, but they don't do anything for me on a sexual level. I will say again: this does not mean I cannot love them. I will also admit that I don't know how many other details may have been edited out of the original letter.

Prudie's first assumption, based on the text that was presented, is that polyamorous connotes homosexuality. That may not be the case. It is very possible that there are two women sharing one man in this case. People can do that and still be polyamorous. We don't know in this case.

Prudie also assumed that polyamorous people have frequent, eccentric sexual encounters and orgies. This is a stereotype, and certainly not the case if everyone in this triple relationship is heterosexual.

Merriam-Webster defines polyamorous as "the state or practice of having more than one open romantic relationship at a time." Take it for what it is, Prudie, and not for what you think it is, or what your personal prejudices make it out to be. You gave some very bad advice that was very likely not based on the truth of the matter.