hack hack cough...augh...

I woke up this morning and thought I might be dying.

Alright, alright, that's a bit over dramatic. But I did (and do) feel awful, what with the swollen feeling in the very bottom of my throat and pressure in my chest, the scratchy throat (above the swollen feeling part) and the painfully dry cough reaching all the way from the bottom of my lungs.

Yeah, yuck, right?

So I called the substitute to see if she could work for me today and naturally she was already going in for someone else. Because why would we get sick at different times? That would make things too easy. Then I called the other girl that works in the daycare on the days I don't and was able to leave a pathetic sounding, "Wanted to see if you could go in today..." kind of voice mail. Now, since I couldn't get someone to go in for me I felt in would be irresponsible to just not show up, so I put myself together and headed off to the school hoping they would send me home.

They did and I am so grateful. I stayed for a little bit while they got everything straightened out and felt like a very bad caregiver indeed. Poor kids, I wasn't exactly being very nurturing but they only had to put up with me for about an hour and then one of the teachers came in and took over for me. Oh, the relief!

Now I am trying to continually remind myself why I am at home today: I need rest to get over this yuckiness. I keep thinking of all these little things I could get done with my "day off." However, the sensible, body-knows-what-it-needs side is doing a really good job of telling the busy, so-much-to-do-so-little-time side to keep its butt in this recliner and get better. I think it's doing such a good job because it's had plenty of practice. My body always reacts with the upper respiratory junk when I don't let it rest properly or get all stressed out. It happened so often in college I thought I might have TB. Ok, not really...but I did stop bothering to go to the doctor because I had the "diagnosis" and treatment memorized.

Blog quality will go up soon, promise.

letter of intent

A few weeks ago I was in the kitchen with my dad and he started saying something about cheese. I don't remember what he was saying exactly, but I responded with something like, "Yeah, but I can't have it because of the dairy."

"You don't eat dairy?"

"Seriously? Remember...I stopped because we found out I was allergic and it was causing most of my skin problems...it was a few months ago..."

"Oh."

As you can see, he's not all that observant. So since I have decided to eat completely vegan and have quit allowing high fructose corn syrup into my diet, I figured I would need to be absolutely sure he was aware of it. He likes to bring home "treats" sometimes for us and if he doesn't know my limitations I'll end up hurting feelings and wasting his money if he brings home something I can't/won't eat/drink. The note above is what I left next to his grocery list this morning (I buy my own groceries, this was just the most practical place for the note). It's really just a statement that says I'm a vegan (in diet, if not in other areas) and that he and my mother shouldn't try to feed me things that have any animal products or HFCS in them.

Reading Skinny Bitch pushed me over the edge into veganism a bit. I had already been thinking about it a lot and the book gave me a lot of the information I was looking for. If you haven't read it, it's not my favourite, but it's a quick enough read that has good information and I would recommend you check it out. As the holder of a B.A. in English, I wasn't always impressed with the actual writing (sometimes you can just be trying too hard to be witty). The best thing about the book is that it is practical and a very good starting point if you are looking into vegetarianism or veganism. My favourite part was all the reading recommendations and healthy food lists in the back! So, as someone already considering the lifestyle I got what I needed from it and places to go to become as knowledgeable as possible. And there are enough genuinely funny sections that make it well worth its $13.95 price tag (I think I paid less on amazon.com).

I've been feeling healthier and healthier with the changes I've been making, I can't wait to discover what the top of the mountain feels like!