sniffling

Don't you hate having a cold? There is something about being oxygen deprived (cause you know the O2 isn't getting through all that gunk) and sleep deprived (because every time you moved the slightest bit you had to wait for your sinuses to equalize so that you could breathe in little, shallow breaths. Sleeping sitting up helps you breathe but doesn't help you SLEEP. And, all the tension about not getting any sleep just makes it worse.) and a little queasy from all the drainage (ew. nasty.) but still being expected to function--including not only teaching (which is actually the easy part) but also having scheduled and unscheduled parental conferences AND a formal evaluation from your brand-spanking-new principal)--that makes me feel rotten.

And it makes me miss all sorts of homely things. I miss...

General Hospital. Really, truly I do. I admit freely that I watch--and have since I had chicken pox in fifth grade. Aside from the time when Holly Scorpio left the show and I switched to Days, this is the longest I've been away from Port Charles. I like the escape and the connection to my friends-who-shall-remain-nameless who also watch. I just found out Nik and Emily got back together. Sigh. I was hoping for that, and yet...I with they'd waited until I was home.

TV in general. I've been watching a taped tv show and the commercials are all about shows I've never heard of--except CSI.

TJ Maxx. I love that store. I need some shoes and bits and bobs but I won't buy them here. They're too expensive and cheaply made.

Chili's and Mexican food and that good Chinese restaurant we'd drive 45 minutes to get to after we'd run our errands on Saturday. Panera and Chipotle and all the little shops that cluster around a mall.

pop culture! I'm in a time warp. I haven't had any new movies, books or music. I don't know what the catch-phrases are or what the latest jokes are about. (Feel free to burn me a copy of your favorite cd and send it. I'll listen to it!)

libraries and bookstores where you can browse. I admit to judging books by their covers. (Wow, lots of admissions today. Defenses must be lowered by rotten cold.) I like to pick a book up, flip through it, read the back and the jacket. I don't really like hardbacks--too hard to read in the tub--but all the books I'm waiting for will take another year before they're in paperback.

parks you can eat in and walk on the grass.

clean air and things to do outside.

living without having to read the culture all the time. Even when I see things I've observed before I'm busy filing it away as proof of a correct assumption. This isn't conscious. It's like when I go to a play and I spend the whole time re-saying the lines in my head to correct inflection or timing. I don't MEAN to. It just happens. (Thank you, Judi Dench, for being brilliant in Hay Fever last summer so I could just watch the play.)

a drug store that sells cold-eaze so I could nip this in the bud, stop whinging and feel better.

On the plus side, it's Victory Day tomorrow so we don't have school. Hooray! Pajama Day!

(I'm also thankful for the cold medicines Ann Marie brought me and the chicken boullion Rachael brought me. All are being put to good use tonight! ;> Cheers, you two.)