Sick Day

I almost made it to February without getting sick this winter.  Last night I came down with something – swollen glands, sore throat, and my whole body feels like it has been in a car accident.  I took tylenol this morning and it helped quite a bit. 

 For the past several years I have been sick for about half the winter each year.  I usually would get one or two bad colds/viruses, and one or two not so bad.  And maybe one of them would linger for a few weeks before I really kicked it.  Staying healthy this winter has not been just luck.  I have done a lot differently and I am sure it has made a difference.  Everyone around me has been sick repeatedly.  At work everyone is complaining about lingering colds, and at home Danielle, Joseph, and Natalin have all had several different bouts.  It is remarkable that I didn’t get any of them until now.

My new regime includes:

• Exercise.  This fall I went almost five days a week.  I just stopped two weeks ago when I got busy with details of my departure at work.
• Less stress. 
• Multi-vitamin and/or Vitamin C every morning.
• Even less sugar.  I don’t like sweets and I avoid it anyway, but I have become stricter about it recently.  Especially in drinks – if high fructose corn syrup is the main ingredient I won’t drink it.  Sugar is not good for your immune system.  Since I gave up caffeine too, there aren’t a whole lot of options for beverages for me.  I drink lots of Pellegrino.
• Even less meat.  We eat pretty healthy and don’t eat lots of meat, but I have been a bit stricter about it this year.  I probably eat meat several times a week – maybe a little more, but when there is a good meat-free option in front of me I take it.  I continue to not touch dairy products.
• Staying warm.  My office was freezing for the last four years in Rosslyn.  This year I had a more effective heater, and I was less self-conscious about keeping my jacket on if I was cold.  I would be chilled to the bone in years past by the end of the day.  Exercising has helped because mid-day I would go work out and take a hot shower afterwards.  Now that we have Joseph we keep the house warmer at home too.

Two years ago when I got shingles I was worried because it usually only hits the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.  When I am not eating well, sleeping well, and exercising I lose weight and wither away.  I was down to 143 lbs after I had shingles and very anxious about my health.  Although my exercising consists mostly of back stretches and cardio, I have gained weight since getting back to the gym.  This sounds backwards since most people lose weight when they work out.  But this is how it is for me.  I was up to 163 lbs a few weeks ago, the most I’ve weighed in years.  I got the highest possible rating on the physical I had to take for my life insurance application, and haven’t felt this good in ages – at least until yesterday when this cold hit me.

NASM and NMAI

Today we took Joseph to the Air and Space Museum, and then to the Museum of the American Indian.  At Air and Space we saw – among many others – planes that the Wright Brothers flew, the plane that Amelia Earhart flew across the Atlantic for the first time, and the Spirit of St Louis.  There was an exhibit on the space race with many early rockets and missiles from both the US and USSR.  I hadn’t been there in 5 or 10 years and I really enjoyed it.  Joseph loves airplanes and will point them out when they are just tiny specks in the sky.  He was not as overwhelmed today by the museum as we thought he might be.  He is still getting over a bug and seemed a little mellow, but was smiling and pointing out some airplanes as we passed them.

I went into The Museum of the American Indian with very low expectations, and it was even worse than I thought it would be.  The in-your-face message that Indians are just like us was patronizing.  They missed a major opportunity to teach more about their history and culture in interesting ways.  There was one exhibit on women’s dresses that was interesting, and the Ghost Dance dresses which were heavily painted and very colorful really stood out.  There was a prominent sign about how the Ghost Dances represent a tragic and difficult time for Indians, but the museum displayed the Ghost Dance dresses anyway – despite the cultural sensitivity – because of their importance.  These dresses were tucked in a corner that I almost missed, and it seemed crazy that the lengths they went to to shelter the public from the Ghost Dance.  The museum website, I noticed this evening, has pictures of every dress in the exhibit but intentionally omits the Ghost Dance dresses because they are too sensitive.  The lack of credit they give the visitor is insulting.

The dress exhibit had a small room for kids with many interactive displays and Joseph really perked up there.  There were many displays for him to feel fabrics and beads and push puzzle pieces around with different patterns.  We decided on the spot to have lunch there, and though the food was ok it was a ripoff.  Lesson for the day:  don’t go to the Museum of the American Indian, and don’t eat lunch at the museum cafeterias if you are on a budget.

This evening Danielle is at a party watching the Miss America pageant.  Joseph was very cute tonight during dinner and bath and bedtime.  He didn’t feel feverish to me and I think he is close to being back to normal.

Robbie Robertson wrote a song about the Ghost Dance on his Music for the Native Americans soundtrack and it has been in my head this evening:

You don’t stand a chance
against my prayers
You don’t stand a chance
against my love
They outlawed the Ghost Dance
but we shall live again

Prelude to the adventure

Today was my last day at work.  I went in for less than two hours.  I turned in my badge and keys, had lunch with the guys, and came back home.

I wish I was coming home to a better domestic scene but Joseph is still sick with whatever he came down with last night.  He had a fever of 100.1 after lunch and Natalin reported that he was cranky and went down for an early nap.

We still have three weeks of Natalin’s services, so I’m not sure that the change in lifestyle is going to be too drastic at first.  I have some lunches planned, some job leads to continue to follow up on, and I think I will try taking the GMAT’s in case I decide to apply for an International MBA program – since we have talked about trying to spend time in Europe during Danielle’s maternity leave and sabbatical.  I’m not seriously looking at any job leads and haven’t applied for any positions, but continue to respond when opportunities find me.

One day about a week ago I had to come home early because Danielle and Natalin were both sick.  It happened to be the same day that I finalized the arrangements to leave my job three weeks earlier than planned.  It was snowing and I took Joseph to a playground to play in the snow – one of his first experiences with it.  It was kind of a heavy snow and he got a little wet, but he seemed to be having fun running through it.  Knowing that I was on the verge of being out of that job, and being outside with him having fun on a workday, was a great prelude to this adventure.  That’s when I started thinking about keeping a blog.

This past weekend we took him to the Museum of Natural History, where he saw elephants, lions, dinosaurs, giraffes, and a lot of other animals that he knows.  He was well-behaved and seemed to be soaking in much of what we pointed out.  It was great to think that we’ll soon be doing activities like that regularly.