Footprints on the Moon

Razor Burn. Ouch!

I had every intention of spending some time on the internet today looking for some kind of natural acne treatment because nothing I’ve tried so far really helps and I’m tired of looking like a teenager going through puberty… but something else has my complete attention. Like an alternative to shaving! I got real crazy and shaved my legs yesterday… so they are nice and smooth and touchable. That’s not really the problem, though I do completely abhor shaving my legs and do it as infrequently as I can manage to get away with…

The problem is the patch of razor burn that I gave myself. On my outer thigh… right where the seam of my pants keeps rubbing. And have I mentioned that I find it nearly impossible to sit still for any decent length of time? Yeah, ow. It’s a very small little spot, but it sure is irritating!

How long does it take?

I had every intention of posting last night, I even had one basically drafted in my head, but I never got it written down. The best laid plans… instead of blogging, I ended up going to one of the local walk-in clinics so that I could pee in a cup. For how long it usually takes to get into one of those places, I was in and out in fairly good time. Then it was off to the pharmacy to fill my prescriptions to take care of this urinary tract infection. I tried to go to Meijer first, but their pharmacy closed at 7, and it was already 8. I always thought they were open until 9, but either I’m crazy (don’t answer that) or their hours changed.

So it was back to WalMart. I dropped off my prescriptions, the lady told me it would take about 20 minutes, but they’d get them done as quickly possible, they close at 9, so please make sure I’m back there by 8:45. Sure. No problem. I had a baby shower gift to purchase for Saturday, so I walked back there, checked the time (8:14pm) and commenced picking out a gift. I wandered around the store for awhile, gave them about half an hour, and went back to the pharmacy at 8:35. Not ready. So I sit down in the pharmacy area to wait– they can’t forget about me, if I’m staring right at them, right?

Ten more minutes go by… they call my name. I go up there, and NOW they choose to tell me that my insurance wouldn’t go through, it kept asking for my SSN, so the antibiotic was going to be $4, but the other one was $36 or something like that. Uh, try again. I don’t pay money out of my paycheck every week to pay full price for prescriptions. If it’s asking you for my SSN, here’s a novel idea– ask me for it so you can put it in! Oh wait, or you could actually ask for my insurance card since it’s been more than a year since last filled a prescription here (gee, I wonder why?) and wouldn’t you know it? My insurance company issued new cards last year! Finally, she ran everything again, got it through my insurance and got the price down to $10.

So after a full 45 minutes, they are about 2 minutes away from closing, with a long line of people waiting for their medicine. Efficiency is not their forte. So when they finally get me up there to check me out, keep in mind that I have an armful of baby things to purchase. The girl asks me, “Would you like to pay for this back here?” So I ask, “Can I pay for all of this back here?” She sighs, looks at the clock and says, “It would be easier if you didn’t.” Okay fine, whatever. But don’t ask me then! They also kept claiming that their computers were going to automatically shut down at 9pm on the nose. Hmmm… maybe, but I’m a little skeptical on that one. I’m more inclined to believe that they merely wanted to go home on time.

Trying to Stay Healthy

Okay, so I’m not quite back to 100% yet, but I’m headed that way and I’d like it to continue in that direction. All around me though, people who haven’t come down with the plague (the nasty cold) yet are starting to get the sniffles. Because other people are getting sick all around me, the very first thing I do when I get to work is use my disinfecting wipes and wipe down every surface of my desk. Repeat as needed! Follow with a dose of Immunity Complex.

Other than that, I’m just hoping that noone shares with me again. I can (mostly) breathe for the first time in a week and a half, my head is clearing up, and the cough is slowly but surely getting less insistent. Just in time for the next round of snow!

Decongestant Head

I’m slowly but surely starting to feel better, and it couldn’t come soon enough. I finally have gotten to the point where I don’t need multiple doses of decongestants just to be able to breathe enough to make it through the day. I’ll take decongestants if I need to, but sometimes I feel like I sacrifice a little mental clarity to get some nasal clarity. For example, I was asked to make a post about prohormones, and I swear I’ve stared at that keyword all week and the most I can come up with is prohormones = body building. Somehow, I don’t think that’s quite enough for a blog post!

I’ve got a cough that’s driving me crazy (short trip), and a bit of a runny nose, but for the most part I can breathe and I don’t need the assistance of too many OTC drugs to make that happen. Really though, I’m just so ready to stop being so worn out. I can’t remember the last time a cold sapped my energy like this. I’ve been in bed early every night this week… I’m very excited that tomorrow is Saturday. I have no plans so I can stay in bed just as long as I want to.

And since that is the case, I think I’m going to start that immediately! Goodnight!

Sniffle, Cough, Sneeze

Gasp, shock! I didn’t participate in Self Portrait Sunday yesterday! Shockingly enough, I was actually presentable looking for a couple of hours for my interview, church and the like. I didn’t think to get a picture in that couple hour window, however, and by the time I thought about it, I was too snot-encrusted and miserable to even consider sharing a picture of myself in such a state!

I did end up going to one of the urgent care facilities yesterday… I can’t afford to miss time at work, but I don’t want to get everyone sick either. So it was off to find out whether or not I was contagious and to get some good drugs. After an hour of waiting, and the doctor spending a grand total of 30 seconds with me, she declared that I have “just a cold”, I’m not drinking enough water because my pee isn’t clear (uh, I have to be practically water-toxic to have clear pee, just saying), oh and to stop taking decongestants. Ha! I’m miserable, and you want me to stop taking medications that make living tolerable? You better have some better options for me than that! In the end, I’m not sure that I buy that it’s only a cold. I’ve had lots of colds, and I’ve NEVER had my ears hurt like this for a COLD.

The “interview” went alright. Was less of an interview and more of a “sign this paper and I’ll call you in a couple days” sort of thing. I’ll be headed into the warehouse at 3am tomorrow morning though, so we’ll see what I think. You get a couple weeks to be a temporary contract person before you decide that yes, you can hack 7day a week deliveries and never call off sick. I don’t expect it to be easy, but we’ll see how it goes. If I don’t have a life, that’s fine. I don’t need a life right now, I need to pay my bills. My real concern is whether being up that much earlier would make it difficult for me to get through my regular work day. I’m typically the type of person that needs a full 8 hours of sleep, so this should be interesting!

Tell Me It’s Not Strep

This morning was a lovely waste of time. I rescheduled my interview with the lady from the newspaper because of CPR training this morning. I had to be at work at 7am for a 4+hour mandatory training session. I was back home by 20 after 8. Not that I’m complaining about getting out so quickly, but there was a bit of “I got out of bed so early on a Saturday for that?” We’ve all been previously certified, so we just reviewed the basics, took the tests, and took off. And I get paid for the full four hours.

It was definitely good it ended early. I’ve spent the rest of the day lounging around like a bum and using about 3837 boxes of kleenex. I started sniffling a little bit on Thursday, some sinus stuff, and by last night I was full out miserable! Today, it’s escalated even more with a very sore throat that’s making my right ear SO PAINFUL. I ran over to my mom’s so she could take a peek at my throat (cause it’s kind of hard to look at your own throat, and the cats’ official medical opinion is “feed me”), and she thinks it looks like strep. Boo!

Of course I have my interview tomorrow morning, which I’ve already rescheduled once. Is it automatically a bad interview if you give your new boss an illness? From there, I believe I shall be headed to one of the outpatient urgent-care places that is open on the weekends. And now I think I shall be headed towards bed where I will beg God for relief.

TGIF

Meaning Thank God It’s Friday. I really should amend that to TGFS, which of course stands for Thank God for StumbleUpon, without which I would have been bored to tears today.
I know you’re all very upset that I didn’t post yesterday on the state of my nose… I just didn’t feel like it, and since NaBloPoMo was completed some days past, I didn’t force myself to put something up. Since you are very concerned about my well-being though, I’ll let you know that I am feeling much better. I still have a bit of a stuffy nose and other symptoms, but nothing as bad as a couple days ago. Let me tell you though, if you can buy some of Alka-Seltzer’s Immunity Complex, do it! It’s a bit pricey if you have to pay full price for it, but it definitely works. It’s supposed to be similar to Air-Borne, in preventing colds, but all the people I’ve talked to have said it’s helped them feel better with the colds/illnesses they’ve already contracted. It doesn’t taste too bad either, if you make sure it’s dissolved COMPLETELY (I can’t stress this enough) before you drink it, and make sure you use cold water. Tastes kind of like Tang and that’s saying a lot because I’ve never been able to stomach any other kind of Alka-Seltzer.
As for me and my kleenexes, tonight we’re going to a catalog party with a couple of friends which I’ve been looking forward to all week. Just need to survive the next 20 minutes first!

Just Call Me Rudolph

I’d love to tell you that I feel much better than I did last night, but that’s simply not the case. I feel worse… I’ve gone through an entire box of Kleenexes by myself! My poor little nose is just raw– hence the title! I called my mom tonight and she said she could really hear it in my voice. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Hopefully I’m wrong. For now, I’ve taken a night time cold medicine. If it won’t make me feel better, at least it will knock me out! Can’t miss Kitchen Nightmares though, so I’ll set the VCR before I go.

Pass the Kleenex

Somebody already passed me the germs, now I need someone to pass me some Kleenex. I stuffed up badly just before bed last night, and it’s just gotten worse as tonight has gone on. I’m getting ready to go to bed in just a minute, but I know I’m not going to sleep well with my sinuses in the state they are. I’ll be up frequently to blow my nose, or just to try and breathe. Or make sure my nose isn’t bleeding. It does that alot in the winter when it gets dry… I don’t think I could live in the desert! I’m thinking it’s about time to bust out the humidifier. It helps my nose, but it makes my apartment into a sauna.

The Biggest Loser

I’m in another one of my “I just don’t want to blog right now” phases. I was sitting over on the couch, watching the Biggest Loser and crocheting when I realized that I hadn’t blogged yet today. It was so tempting to just let it go, but I’m sooo close to the end of NaBloPoMo that I don’t want to give it up just yet.
Are any of you still watching the Biggest Loser? It’s one of the only shows that I make sure I catch every week. I’m not sure who I’m rooting for though. Other than Bob, but he obviously doesn’t count. I would like to see Bea go home, not because I don’t like him, but because I cannot stand the red team trainer and he’s the only one left keeping her there.
Watching the Biggest Loser every week is always motivating. It makes me stop and go… hey, I can do that. I SHOULD do that! But if you check Jenn Loses Weight you can see that I’m just not doing it. I need to though. I HAVE to. It’s coming.