Category: Daily Life

For the past several weeks, I’ve felt as though I’m living in a twisted version of "American Gladiator" where I’m the contestant and the gladiators are people with horrible, contagious illnesses who are constantly popping up in my path to possibly infect me.

I managed to avoid my husband’s flu, so I’m hoping my immune system is in high gear. However, I spent yesterday traveling to a city that’s known to be in the throes of a flu outbreak with a travel companion who has the flu. Did I mention the cab driver who coughed and hacked (no pun intended) all the way from the airport to our destination? I feel doomed.

The good news is that I had a flu shot this year. Also, I’ve been washing my hands like Lady Macbeth. Of course, now my hands are so chapped that they’re probably more vulnerable to germs than they would have been otherwise.

I absolutely cannot afford to get sick right now. On Saturday alone I have a fundraiser luncheon (tickets still available at the door!), a hair appointment and an awards show to attend. It’ll be exhausting enough for someone who’s well, much less someone who has the plague that’s going around.

Besides sleep, good nutrition and adequate hydration, all I can do is keep my fingers crossed. I hope that’s enough.

Even though I almost never end up using them, I like to collect quotes and anecdotes that speak to me. For example, I really enjoyed this observation that Laurie posted yesterday:

My new barometer of the health of the economy is local restaurant chains. It used to be musicians, but they’re always broke even when we aren’t headed for a recession, so local businesses are a bit more reliable gauge.

On Saturday, my husband suggested that we have an early supper at our favorite pizza place. It’s where we go to get giant pizzas for special occasions and huge slices for everyday meals.

I’ll start by saying that there had been hints for a while that not all was well with this chain. Like the time I was surprised at my final bill when I went to pick up a pizza because they had significantly raised their prices without changing their website. On that occasion, the cashier gave me a discount and said that the employees were all rather sour about the whole thing.

Then there was the time we went to another location for dinner only to find the doors locked early because they’d "run out of pizza."

So I guess we shouldn’t have been too surprised when we placed our order on Saturday, sat down at a booth with our drinks, and chatted until it occurred to us that we’d been waiting for well over 30 minutes with no sign of food. A little eavesdropping indicated that we weren’t alone – in fact, the other patrons were getting downright mutinous.

There were three employees working and they were somehow incapable of placing toppings on pre-made pizza slices, putting them in the oven and getting them to the customers in a timely fashion. The guy behind me demanded his money back and left. He wasn’t the only one.

I spotted what looked like my pizza slice on the counter and claimed it before it got away. I asked about my husband’s slice and the guy said, "It should be in the oven."

That was just as bad as it sounded. While I ate my pizza, my husband made himself a fixture next to the pickup counter. The employees hinted at problems with getting paid and mentioned that people were walking off the job daily.

Finally, my husband ended up taking the slice of pizza left behind by the guy who had been sitting behind us. It wasn’t what he wanted, but it was better than going home hungry.

I hope this doesn’t mean that we’re about to lose our favorite pizza places, but it sure sounds that way. I guess I’d better start looking for someplace new, just in case.

It was very kind of all of you not to point out that yesterday wasn’t actually Wednesday. Although I must say that I’m mighty glad to have been one day closer to the weekend, even if the slip-up doesn’t bode well for my mental health

This is one of those mornings that makes me wish I still drank coffee. I am going to Coffee Morning in about an hour, and I’m looking forward to the expanded menu at the new place we’re trying. I just hope there’s decent parking nearby.

I can’t think of anything else to say. My brain isn’t working properly this morning at all. Have a lovely Friday, don’t work too hard, and enjoy the swiftly-approaching weekend.

I’ve been registered to vote ever since I turned 18, and I always make a point of voting in every primary and election. However, for some reason I’d never been to a Democratic caucus since I moved to Kansas about 15 years ago.

It may be because they don’t make the process particularly easy. There’s no notice from the county election board; you pretty much have to decide to go, look up your location on the Kansas Democratic Party’s website, and show up.

I did all that yesterday morning, so I was prepared to go home from work, eat dinner, and go to the caucus location (a medium-sized church) before the 7 o’clock cutoff. I’d been told by a past caucus attendee to expect "several hundred people" and a line to get in.

As soon as I got within a couple of blocks of the intersection, I could tell there was an enormous crowd. Cars were parked everywhere that you could possibly put a car, and I ended up going several blocks down a side street and hoping that nobody decided I was too close to a fire hydrant.

A line of people stretched around the outside the building, through the parking lot and up the street for blocks.

I was headed to the end of the line, but heard someone call my name. It was Andy, who kindly let me cut in line with him. He says I owe him $10.

It was about 34 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly misting, but nobody was complaining initially, even though it was obvious that no one expected the enormous crowd and outside wait. It took about an hour to get from the line on the sidewalk to the door of the church.

(Sorry about my outdoor photo. It was really dark out and I didn’t have a tripod.)

Eventually people got a little gripe-y about the fact that the organizers were completely unprepared for the crowd size. You can bet that there will be some sternly-worded letters to state legislators today in favor of a primary election next time around.

Eventually they split the crowd into two groups and we finally ended up in a glass hallway leading to a basement room.

It was nice to be indoors, but the wait was far from over.

We had to wait to sign in, and then we were told to go to the left corner of the room if we were Obama supporters, the right side if we were Clinton supporters, and there was a tiny corner for anyone who wanted to caucus for Edwards, although the crowd was clearly not in the mood to cast symbolic votes.

I heard on the news later that about 3,000 people attended the caucus at my location, rather than the approximately 500 they were expecting. That meant that the usual caucus process was derailed considerably. Rather than putting people in their corners, counting them and reapportioning voters whose candidates’ percentages were too low, we ended up standing in lines and signing pieces of notebook paper with our printed name, address, signature and the name of the candidate we supported. It might as well have been a regular primary election (albeit with a definite paper trail).

Once the final results were tallied, Obama got 73.3% of the vote in Kansas and Clinton received 25.3%. My guess is that my caucus location skewed even more heavily toward Obama. This was his line. Notice that it’s not just "young people," as the news media would have you believe.

And this was Clinton’s:

It was a heck of an experience, and I was exhausted when I returned home around 9 o’clock. It was great to see how energized the Democratic party has become and it’s a shame that there was such a contrast with the past several elections that it almost broke the caucus process.

Over the weekend, I spent two nights sleeping on our leather couch with cats piled all over me. Not surprisingly, I woke up each morning with a stiff neck, sore back and puffy hands.

My husband has recovered enough from his cold/flu to be back to staying up all night, so I’ve been sleeping in my real bed for the last two nights. Between that, a good yoga class yesterday at noon and a deep-tissue massage last night, I think I’ve finally gotten a decent sleep for the first time in days.

It’s easy to forget how much of an effect a bad night’s sleep can have on your day. I woke up on Saturday after my second night on the couch and managed to have the most fruitless day imaginable. Every time I left the house to do something, it ended up being a complete waste of time for one reason or another.

I got lost on my way to a volunteer effort, then discovered I’d forgotten my phone and ended up driving around for more than an hour before finally giving up and going home. Later, I went to take a big bag of glass jars and bottles to a recycling center that didn’t actually exist. After that, I gave up and just stayed put.

My husband doesn’t sleep anywhere near as much as I do, and I think that was a factor in his getting sick recently. He often sleeps between three and five hours per night. I can get by on seven hours, but I really prefer eight or more.

How much do you sleep?

My husband was supposed to go to lunch with me today, but when he called around 11 o’clock, I knew immediately that we weren’t going anywhere. He’d been starting to get a man cold the night before and it blossomed into a full-blown flu by late morning.

Since I was at loose ends for lunch, I got food, sugar-free cough drops and Sprite Zero and brought it home for him. He took one cough drop and didn’t eat or drink anything all day long.

I came home after work and made a big pot of potato soup. Finally he got up and ate some of the soup with crackers. He sat woozily on the couch with me as I watched "House" and "Psych," then retreated to the bedroom to go back to sleep.

Needless to say, our weekend plans are all being cancelled one by one. If things had gone according to plan, I’d be watching a band play right now. Instead I’m in my pajamas watching "Best Week Ever."

I’m sleeping on the couch tonight in the hope that it’ll help keep me from catching Germy Boy’s illness. Wish me luck.

I watched an episode of "Mythbusters" the other day in which they investigated the idea that turning a light on and off uses more energy than keeping it on. It turned out that turning on a light bulb only uses a few seconds’ worth of energy, so it’s always worthwhile to turn off a light when you leave the room.

You see where this is going, don’t you? Now I’ve suddenly turned into our household Light Patrol Officer. It’s only taken a few days for it to rub off on my husband, though. Now when I get up there’s usually only one light on in the living room rather than the heretofore customary three.

The only exception is our porch light, which I leave on all the time because it’s usually still dark when I leave the house and dark again when I get home. I’d get a light sensor for it (again), but the fixture is barely large enough to accommodate an outdoor CFL as it is.

My next training initiative for my husband involves the proper use of a chip clip. When he closes a bag of potato chips, he’ll fold it over and put the clip at a jaunty angle on one corner, leaving a large area through which air can get in. Even when I put it on the right way, he’ll open the bag and replace the clip his way. I wonder if I can get some subliminal message CDs to play while he sleeps?

Finally, I am seriously tired of the cold weather. I know it’s only January, but I’ve had enough already. Unfortunately, we have at least two more months of this to go before it warms up for spring. Did I mention that my gas bill for this month was $100 more than the one for December? Grrr.

Well, I’m starting to ramble and I think I just heard Velcro yakking in the kitchen, so I guess I’ll go clean up cat puke and get ready for work. You’re jealous of my life, aren’t you?

It’s been almost eight months since I gave up caffeine. That’s got to be a record for me, but I don’t see myself going back to it again this time.

It’s really freeing to not be addicted to anything. Caffeine was definitely an addiction for me – I can tell because when people find out I’ve stopped drinking it, they say stuff like, "Wow, and you drank a lot of coffee!"

We won’t even mention the amount of Red Bull I drank.

I know I’m saving a ton of money, too. No longer do I find myself drawn into coffee shops only to walk out $5 poorer. And Red Bull costs at least $2.00 a can, even in cases.

I’m also much happier with the beverages I do drink, particularly because the coffee at my office was terrible.

The most interesting thing about my caffeine cessation is that it turned out I didn’t need it the way it made me think I did. I was convinced that I couldn’t be happy, productive or energetic without a little caffeinated intervention. It turns out that I pop awake in the morning and go about my day just fine with water alone. Best of all, I no longer have that daily headache and energy dip around 2:30 p.m.

I still love the way coffee smells, but I don’t have any urge to drink some. Like an ex-boyfriend whose redeeming qualities were outweighed by his negative ones, caffeine and I just weren’t meant to be together. 

Band practice didn’t materialize yesterday because one of our guitarists had to work. We eventually got together just to chat a bit and decide how we were going to proceed with finding a bass player. (Our previous one didn’t work out.)

We have an audition set up for next Tuesday, so we’re hopeful that that’ll be that. I’m sure it won’t be so simple, but I like to be optimistic.

That’s really the only thing that’s happened since I last posted, unless you count making sloppy joes for dinner and sleeping. Sometimes my life really doesn’t warrant a blog post.