I give...

It is now completely apparent that I have strep throat. Because I have all the time in the world to not go anywhere, I've decided to make a pros and cons list. In an attempt to stick to the positive, I will start with the downers and end on a high note:

Cons
I can't leave the house for fear of passing on the germs.
A doctor's visit is inevitable if I want antibiotics.
I will be contagious for 2-3 weeks if I don't get antibiotics.
My throat is almost as tight as one of those blood pressure cuffs.
All food sounds good, but I know I can't swallow any of it.

Pros
This is the second day off (1st day being yesterday's sick leave) after a 15-days-in-a-row run.
My apartment lets in enough sunlight that I don't feel like a recluse...yet.
If I grow the proverbial nards to hit up the doctor, I'll be contagion-free in 24-hours.
I've caught up on all my blog reading.
My fever broke this morning.
I can actually do a fair amount of work from home.
Yesterday morning I had this really trippy hallucination that the workers on our neighbor's roof were burlap-men from the movie 9 that I saw a preview for over the weekend, only they were all walking around on stilts behind the hedge for solely my entertainment.

Huh, I guess the good can always outweigh the bad.

I dreamt last night...

...that I missed a phone call, and somehow I woke up thinking this was the worst thing to happen since 9/11.

I would like to note that I am cognitively aware that nothing in one of my dreams could possibly be worse than a massacre.

When It Comes...

Something about the facts that 1) everyone brings something funky to the table and 2) I've used the term "serendipity" nonchalantly 5 times in the last 24 hours makes me think. Maybe the only good word isn't a word, so here it is:

potlucky

Validation Forgetting Not The Morning

I've been told governance should not be about feeling, but this morning this is the way Obama made me feel.

African Proverb

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Vacation

I love vacation, but there's this weird 'tweener funk I always wind up in when I have time off without a plan for how to spend it. It's been nice to do a little bit of nothing for a couple of days; however, I am now on the threshold of pure laziness. Good news: I am half-dressed today. That's as good as vacation evolution in my book--I'm moving up in the world!

Walking Jukebox

So, I already know that my human-jukebox effect goes into overdrive in certain scenarios. Namely the following:

1) Around my immediate family, especially my brother.
2) When I haven't been around people socially for an extended period of time.
3) Any setting where I am excessively tired--usually accompanied by slap-happy mode.

Here's the fun part. All three of these elements have been relatively constant over the holiday weekend, so there may be several folks out there that would be willing to physically clock me upside the head if I break into one more spontaneous rendition of, oh let's say for demonstration's sake, Handel's "All We Like Sheep."

On a fun note, the most recent song to be stuck like a broken record in my head is from Zooey Deschanel's new album, and it's simple and catchy, and I love it like a whiny puppy...in the rain...that cries like a tortured child at the most inhumane hours of the night when it's supposedly too cold for beast outside.

Okay, now I'm just ranting about the neighbors. Seriously, if you ever want to hear the most pathetic, heart-wrenching sound this side of the samurai screams in an Akira Kurosawa film, come over at 2 o'clock in the morning and listen to our next door neighbor's dog. It sounds like it needs rescuing, but there's clearly no one awake enough to be hurting the little guy.

Side note finished, here are the all-too perfect lyrics to my new jam:

Why do you let me stay here all by myself
Why don't you come and play here
I'm just sitting on the shelf

Why don't you sit right down and stay a while
We like the same things and I like your style
It's not a secret, why do you keep it
I'm just sitting on the shelf

I got to get your presence
Let's make it known
I think you're just so pleasant
I would like you for my own

Why don't you sit right down and make me smile
You make me feel like I am just a child
Why do you end it, just give me credit
I'm just sitting on the shelf

(followed by a lot of fabulous vocal doot doot doots)

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