I woke this Monday within five minutes of my self-prescribed rise time of 5:30am. I felt surprisingly well despite not falling sleep until well past 11:00pm. Of course that doesn't account for the two hour nap I took from 8:30-10:30pm on Mindy's sofa. Come to think of it, that's probably why I felt so good. Time to get going!
I pushed away the meltdown of a Monday by zipping through my exercise routine in a matter of minutes. Before the clock had a chance to reach 6:00am I had already returned from walking Ykraps and was sucking down the day's first cup of coffee. By the time I finished meditating (6:20am) the sun had already risen foretelling the promise of a sunny spring day. A look ahead at the week's forecast revealed improvement each day culminating in a Thursday near 70 with plenty of sunshine. That lifted my spirits! I happily went about the rest of my morning making my lunch, then my breakfast. I was in the shower by 7:l0am and ready to go by 7:30 sharp wearing the same pieces of cloth I wore the evening prior, save for a fresh pair of boxers. After a few minutes of guitar, I was out the door.
I talked with Mindy for the last mile or so of my trip to work. She was home on spring break, but seemingly getting little rest. She reported that Jacob woke ill and that she'd likely be taking him to the doctor instead of pre-school like she had originally planned. It sounded as though her 'first day' plans were already being bagged, but what's a mother to do?
I opened my office door at 7:59am and immediately began routine #2 - my work place morning rituals. My life's a conglomeration of rituals. How about yours? I suppose that when we seek to simplify chaos we often do so by ritualizing. The reasons are good. It takes the guess work, hence the stress, out of having so many little things to do. With rituals we can do them while on auto-pilot, and most definitely without expending much brain power. They are habits. I often don't remember even driving to work - I just do it. Have you ever found yourself locked out of the network after fat fingering your password? And have tried to force yourself to remember your username and password? You can't. Only when you revert to 'start over fresh' mode does it pour out of your fingers almost automatically. That's because it's housed in a different sector of your mind, and so are our rituals.
Where was I?
The morning was beginning to take shape, but things really weren't that busy yet. I chatted with my peers, grabbed a cup of coffee, and began going through the weekends email (about 100 or so). Just before 10:00am I got a bit of dizzy spell and tried to shake it off. I rose to my feet thinking that might help but it didn't. Instead, I felt a little worse. I had a 10:00am meeting scheduled with my boss, but suddenly I didn't feel energetic enough to make it his way. I sent him a quick Instant message informing him how I felt ill and that I would be stepping outside to get some fresh air. I sincerely hoped that would be the trick to snap me out of this sudden funk. It didn't. I retuned to my office where I closed my door, plopped my feet up on the desk, and closed my eyes. After almost an hour I thought that I felt better so I got up and opened my door to join the conscious. As I stood the dizziness retuned along with a turning stomach. I did not feel good at all, and nothing sounded good short of my own bed. After a quick note to my boss and a nod to my lead engineer, I left for home wondering how in the world I was going to drive 7 miles without losing it along the way. I felt like shit! I called Mindy as I jumped in my car to let her know I was going home ill. I didn't even have the energy to talk. I felt so damn nauseous.
Somehow I made it home nauseated and all. Once there, I made a beeline straight for my bed. I was feeling sick! Unfortunately, that sudden expense of energy only worsened the effect. I was certain that I was going to earl. In one heap I threw myself and a pillow to the floor only a few body crawls away from the toilet should I need to throw-up. There I laid and ultimately fell asleep for about an hour. Waking cold, I threw myself onto the bed but without any covers. I just didn't have the energy to cover-up. I woke again cold, but this time mustered the energy to cover myself with my comfortable bedding. There I slept like a rock until 2:15pm when I woke in huff worrying about the successful completion of my lunchtime run. I jumped to my feet to check my status. I felt OK- sorta. Without much thinking I dressed for a run and quickly hit the streets before I could talk myself out of it. There was absolutely NO way I was going to skip my run - No way! I didn't care if I threw up ten times. I was going to get my run in. The bright sunshine and mild temps were just about perfect for running. There was a cool breeze blowing stiffly from the east that did nothing but help keep me composed. Once the endorphins were flowing I felt pretty damn good. I also knew from experience that this apparent recovery would be short lived after returning and winding down. But at that moment, I didn't really care. What was important was that I kept my streak alive. You don't keep a nine year streak without running sick a few times - trust me!
I was well pleased with myself when I finished but needed some nutrition. I chomped on some nuts, sliced turkey, and Muenster cheese - a bit heavy for my still sensitive tummy, but good. I saw too, that I had a message from Mindy, so I decided to return her call to let her know that I was indeed alive. She indicated that she was just pulling into my subdivision after being at the doctor's with Jacob. She had a prescription for me written by her brother. Jacob, as it turned out, has strep and good money said that I probably had it too. And come to think of it, I did have my hand in his mouth yesterday trying to yank that loose front tooth of his. Mindy pulled up and brought the script to my door while her children remained stowed in their car seats. I was just beginning to feel woozy again as the endorphin high was subsiding. I could see Jacob was not in the mood for fooling around. Mindy reported that he had just gotten a shot in the ass for her wanting a quicker response to the meds. I went to the car to see the kids. I offered candy to cheer Jacob up but nothing worked. He was sick - like me! Bella however wasn't. To the contrary! She seems to have one heck of an immune system. You see, in Guatemala ...! :) I offered her some suckers and she accepted. I gave her the rest of the bag to take home.
Despite being sick, this was still a Mindy Monday so before she pulled away we firmed plans for her return sometime after 5pm. I went back inside where I took yet another rather lengthy nap. I woke sometime around 5:15pm and took Ykraps for his evening walk. I could see in his eyes that he didn't quite understand why I was home much of the afternoon but failed to take him out (dog logic!)
Mindy arrived shortly after 5:30pm ready for some peace and quiet. I wasn't in the best of spirits but at the same time it was good to have her here with me. After some brief conversation we shared a bag of popcorn. I was hungry but didn't feel up to cooking. After the Orville Redenbacher, I coaxed her into napping with me upstairs. We laid in bed for over two hours watching cooking shows of one kind or another. All of them were good, but none better than Emeril Lagasse's show. He's got one heck of a good thing going. Very cult like. Sick or not, he demonstrated some incredibly tempting recipes.
Mindy up and left around 9pm for wanting to get home to her own sick son, Jacob. After she left I had a bowl of cereal, did some reading, and went to bed - again!
I woke this Monday within five minutes of my self-prescribed rise time of 5:30am. I felt surprisingly well despite not falling sleep until well past 11:00pm. Of course that doesn't account for the two hour nap I took from 8:30-10:30pm on Mindy's sofa. Come to think of it, that's probably why I felt so good. Time to get going!
I pushed away the meltdown of a Monday by zipping through my exercise routine in a matter of minutes. Before the clock had a chance to reach 6:00am I had already returned from walking Ykraps and was sucking down the day's first cup of coffee. By the time I finished meditating (6:20am) the sun had already risen foretelling the promise of a sunny spring day. A look ahead at the week's forecast revealed improvement each day culminating in a Thursday near 70 with plenty of sunshine. That lifted my spirits! I happily went about the rest of my morning making my lunch, then my breakfast. I was in the shower by 7:l0am and ready to go by 7:30 sharp wearing the same pieces of cloth I wore the evening prior, save for a fresh pair of boxers. After a few minutes of guitar, I was out the door.
I talked with Mindy for the last mile or so of my trip to work. She was home on spring break, but seemingly getting little rest. She reported that Jacob woke ill and that she'd likely be taking him to the doctor instead of pre-school like she had originally planned. It sounded as though her 'first day' plans were already being bagged, but what's a mother to do?
I opened my office door at 7:59am and immediately began routine #2 - my work place morning rituals. My life's a conglomeration of rituals. How about yours? I suppose that when we seek to simplify chaos we often do so by ritualizing. The reasons are good. It takes the guess work, hence the stress, out of having so many little things to do. With rituals we can do them while on auto-pilot, and most definitely without expending much brain power. They are habits. I often don't remember even driving to work - I just do it. Have you ever found yourself locked out of the network after fat fingering your password? And have tried to force yourself to remember your username and password? You can't. Only when you revert to 'start over fresh' mode does it pour out of your fingers almost automatically. That's because it's housed in a different sector of your mind, and so are our rituals.
Where was I?
The morning was beginning to take shape, but things really weren't that busy yet. I chatted with my peers, grabbed a cup of coffee, and began going through the weekends email (about 100 or so). Just before 10:00am I got a bit of dizzy spell and tried to shake it off. I rose to my feet thinking that might help but it didn't. Instead, I felt a little worse. I had a 10:00am meeting scheduled with my boss, but suddenly I didn't feel energetic enough to make it his way. I sent him a quick Instant message informing him how I felt ill and that I would be stepping outside to get some fresh air. I sincerely hoped that would be the trick to snap me out of this sudden funk. It didn't. I retuned to my office where I closed my door, plopped my feet up on the desk, and closed my eyes. After almost an hour I thought that I felt better so I got up and opened my door to join the conscious. As I stood the dizziness retuned along with a turning stomach. I did not feel good at all, and nothing sounded good short of my own bed. After a quick note to my boss and a nod to my lead engineer, I left for home wondering how in the world I was going to drive 7 miles without losing it along the way. I felt like shit! I called Mindy as I jumped in my car to let her know I was going home ill. I didn't even have the energy to talk. I felt so damn nauseous.
Somehow I made it home nauseated and all. Once there, I made a beeline straight for my bed. I was feeling sick! Unfortunately, that sudden expense of energy only worsened the effect. I was certain that I was going to earl. In one heap I threw myself and a pillow to the floor only a few body crawls away from the toilet should I need to throw-up. There I laid and ultimately fell asleep for about an hour. Waking cold, I threw myself onto the bed but without any covers. I just didn't have the energy to cover-up. I woke again cold, but this time mustered the energy to cover myself with my comfortable bedding. There I slept like a rock until 2:15pm when I woke in huff worrying about the successful completion of my lunchtime run. I jumped to my feet to check my status. I felt OK- sorta. Without much thinking I dressed for a run and quickly hit the streets before I could talk myself out of it. There was absolutely NO way I was going to skip my run - No way! I didn't care if I threw up ten times. I was going to get my run in. The bright sunshine and mild temps were just about perfect for running. There was a cool breeze blowing stiffly from the east that did nothing but help keep me composed. Once the endorphins were flowing I felt pretty damn good. I also knew from experience that this apparent recovery would be short lived after returning and winding down. But at that moment, I didn't really care. What was important was that I kept my streak alive. You don't keep a nine year streak without running sick a few times - trust me!
I was well pleased with myself when I finished but needed some nutrition. I chomped on some nuts, sliced turkey, and Muenster cheese - a bit heavy for my still sensitive tummy, but good. I saw too, that I had a message from Mindy, so I decided to return her call to let her know that I was indeed alive. She indicated that she was just pulling into my subdivision after being at the doctor's with Jacob. She had a prescription for me written by her brother. Jacob, as it turned out, has strep and good money said that I probably had it too. And come to think of it, I did have my hand in his mouth yesterday trying to yank that loose front tooth of his. Mindy pulled up and brought the script to my door while her children remained stowed in their car seats. I was just beginning to feel woozy again as the endorphin high was subsiding. I could see Jacob was not in the mood for fooling around. Mindy reported that he had just gotten a shot in the ass for her wanting a quicker response to the meds. I went to the car to see the kids. I offered candy to cheer Jacob up but nothing worked. He was sick - like me! Bella however wasn't. To the contrary! She seems to have one heck of an immune system. You see, in Guatemala ...! :) I offered her some suckers and she accepted. I gave her the rest of the bag to take home.
Despite being sick, this was still a Mindy Monday so before she pulled away we firmed plans for her return sometime after 5pm. I went back inside where I took yet another rather lengthy nap. I woke sometime around 5:15pm and took Ykraps for his evening walk. I could see in his eyes that he didn't quite understand why I was home much of the afternoon but failed to take him out (dog logic!)
Mindy arrived shortly after 5:30pm ready for some peace and quiet. I wasn't in the best of spirits but at the same time it was good to have her here with me. After some brief conversation we shared a bag of popcorn. I was hungry but didn't feel up to cooking. After the Orville Redenbacher, I coaxed her into napping with me upstairs. We laid in bed for over two hours watching cooking shows of one kind or another. All of them were good, but none better than Emeril Lagasse's show. He's got one heck of a good thing going. Very cult like. Sick or not, he demonstrated some incredibly tempting recipes.
Mindy up and left around 9pm for wanting to get home to her own sick son, Jacob. After she left I had a bowl of cereal, did some reading, and went to bed - again!
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