Christmas Redux (Long)
Dec. 27th, 2004 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
judecorpFor the first time in my life, I was sick throughout an entire Christmas. Ugh. That sucked a lot. Things didn't really go as planned, but I had a good time anyway. When I wasn't fighting a four-day fever that wouldn't go down, that is.
On Friday, I felt a little better than I did on Thursday, so I decided to stick to my original plan and run around getting last minute gifts for Jennifer. I went to CVS and Old Navy, and waited in long lines, and then raced home and wrapped gifts. Then I cleaned the kitchen so I could make a bazillion chocolate chip cookies. Then my brother and his wife came over, and Shani came over and brought us presents from Carrie and William! (Thanks, guys!) Then Rick, Gretchen, and I went out to dinner - I wasn't hungry but I thought it would be a good idea to eat. I ate maybe four bites. Then we came home, Jennifer came home from work, and we all headed to Wiley and Jenn's for their Christmas Eve party. I was a big party pooper because as the evening wore on, I realized how very wrong I was to a) think I was better and b) overdo it. Jennifer and I left the party incredibly early and I was a big party pooper. My fever spiked again and I had crazy chills, and went to bed at like 10:30pm on Christmas Eve. Go me.
I woke up Saturday morning at 7:15 or so completely unable to sleep. I watched an entire run of A Christmas Story before my Jennifer woke up, and then we opened presents. We made out like bandits and a good time was had by all. I cleaned up some of the Christmas trash because we needed to head out by 12:30 to get to my uncle's house. But after the adrenaline of present-opening wore off, I was tired again. I had a hard time getting up and ready to go, so we left about 40 minutes late. Jen was a saint and did most of the car loading (third floor apartment, ouch!) but I was still out of breath and exhausted. We got to my uncle's for dinner and I spent most of the time coughing and sneezing and infecting my whole family. I also tried to eat some food - mostly squash and mashed potatoes. We exchanged gifts with my family and people seemed to like their gifts, so that's good.
We left my uncle's to head down to New Jersey to see Jen's family. We made great time and got there around 8:30pm. Her family wasn't even home yet, so we busted into her brother's house to wait for them. In the car on the way to NJ I started feeling totally disgustingly sick again, /again/ with the fever, and I hid under a blanket until her family came home. Then I said hello to them and went upstairs, where I was hit with the chills again. UGH. Also at that point I started to get /really/ congested. Great.
We went to sleep and despite being on a full-sized (hard) bed in a strange house, I got a decent amount of sleep. I still felt really sick and was generally a grump during the food preparation and the grilling by Jen's mom to see if I was "taking medicine correctly" and whatnot. Eventually the niece and nephews came over and I started to feel a little better, so I rough-housed with some kids and started having a pretty good time. I felt kind of out of place until her other brother and sister-in-law came with the kids, because kids keep me busy and I don't feel so awkward. So I chased kids around until we ate dinner, which was late. So we left late, around 6:30pm. It was supposed to be a 4 hour drive.
Except we had no idea that it was snowing in New England (no snow in north Jersey!) or that there had been a Snow Emergency all day Sunday in Boston. So we never got to go any faster than 35mph, we saw a car jump the median and go into the other lanes of traffic on the Merritt Parkway, we hit white-out conditions on the Mass Pike, and it took EIGHT GRUELING HOURS to get home. We got home at about 2:30am, shoved the car in a snowbank on our street, and grabbed everything we could. We dumped everything in the kitchen and tried to go to bed.
I couldn't sleep. I was so keyed up from forcing myself to stay awake so Jennifer could drive with company. I got about two hours of sleep and then my alarm went off for work, an hour later than usual (because I had kept the morning light due to travelling). I cancelled my 11am appointment, and Jen and I went outside to clean off the car. The landlords are out of town, so we had to shovel the steps and the walk first, and then got the car out. I took a shower and got to work around 11am. I cancelled my 1:00 appointment, and my 2:00 assessment got cancelled by another worker. So I stayed in the office until 4:00 completing paperwork that has been sitting in my office for a month. I just don't usually have time to do it.
I left work at 4:00 so that I could come home and shovel out a parking space for the car. It took FORTY MINUTES to do it by myself, all the while hacking up a lung from my illness. 40 minutes! For one little parking space! There was so much snow built up from the one pass the plow must have made during the day on Sunday. I shovelled out most of the space, moved my car into it so no one would take it, and then shovelled the rest. Then I shovelled a space to open the car door. And (sorry Wiley) YOU BET I will be putting a garbage can in the spot so no one can take it. There in one other car on my part of the street and the rest is literally a million snow banks. (Besides, my coworker told me that Mayor Menino himself has said that it is okay to mark off parking spaces ONLY during snow, and that once you shovel a space, you "own" it until the snow goes away. So there.)
After shovelling out a nice space for the car, I came upstairs and am now tackling the three giant piles of laundry that we didn't get to start over the weekend due to my illness and the eight-hour Gilligan driving tour. I am so exhausted, but there is so much to do. All of the gifts are just hanging out under the tree, the kitchen still has cookie remnants from the bake-a-thon, I haven't eaten dinner, and my mind is just spinning out of control.
On top of all of that, I managed to schedule an evening appointment tomorrow night. ON MY ANNIVERSARY. Because I am an idiot. Argh!
But I was graced with lots of fantastic presents this year, including the COOL SHOES, Cranium, another game, Adam Sandler movies, a reggaeton CD, some great books, the Neverwhere movie that was on BBC, and lots and lots more. I am so spoiled!
I am also so tired.
On Friday, I felt a little better than I did on Thursday, so I decided to stick to my original plan and run around getting last minute gifts for Jennifer. I went to CVS and Old Navy, and waited in long lines, and then raced home and wrapped gifts. Then I cleaned the kitchen so I could make a bazillion chocolate chip cookies. Then my brother and his wife came over, and Shani came over and brought us presents from Carrie and William! (Thanks, guys!) Then Rick, Gretchen, and I went out to dinner - I wasn't hungry but I thought it would be a good idea to eat. I ate maybe four bites. Then we came home, Jennifer came home from work, and we all headed to Wiley and Jenn's for their Christmas Eve party. I was a big party pooper because as the evening wore on, I realized how very wrong I was to a) think I was better and b) overdo it. Jennifer and I left the party incredibly early and I was a big party pooper. My fever spiked again and I had crazy chills, and went to bed at like 10:30pm on Christmas Eve. Go me.
I woke up Saturday morning at 7:15 or so completely unable to sleep. I watched an entire run of A Christmas Story before my Jennifer woke up, and then we opened presents. We made out like bandits and a good time was had by all. I cleaned up some of the Christmas trash because we needed to head out by 12:30 to get to my uncle's house. But after the adrenaline of present-opening wore off, I was tired again. I had a hard time getting up and ready to go, so we left about 40 minutes late. Jen was a saint and did most of the car loading (third floor apartment, ouch!) but I was still out of breath and exhausted. We got to my uncle's for dinner and I spent most of the time coughing and sneezing and infecting my whole family. I also tried to eat some food - mostly squash and mashed potatoes. We exchanged gifts with my family and people seemed to like their gifts, so that's good.
We left my uncle's to head down to New Jersey to see Jen's family. We made great time and got there around 8:30pm. Her family wasn't even home yet, so we busted into her brother's house to wait for them. In the car on the way to NJ I started feeling totally disgustingly sick again, /again/ with the fever, and I hid under a blanket until her family came home. Then I said hello to them and went upstairs, where I was hit with the chills again. UGH. Also at that point I started to get /really/ congested. Great.
We went to sleep and despite being on a full-sized (hard) bed in a strange house, I got a decent amount of sleep. I still felt really sick and was generally a grump during the food preparation and the grilling by Jen's mom to see if I was "taking medicine correctly" and whatnot. Eventually the niece and nephews came over and I started to feel a little better, so I rough-housed with some kids and started having a pretty good time. I felt kind of out of place until her other brother and sister-in-law came with the kids, because kids keep me busy and I don't feel so awkward. So I chased kids around until we ate dinner, which was late. So we left late, around 6:30pm. It was supposed to be a 4 hour drive.
Except we had no idea that it was snowing in New England (no snow in north Jersey!) or that there had been a Snow Emergency all day Sunday in Boston. So we never got to go any faster than 35mph, we saw a car jump the median and go into the other lanes of traffic on the Merritt Parkway, we hit white-out conditions on the Mass Pike, and it took EIGHT GRUELING HOURS to get home. We got home at about 2:30am, shoved the car in a snowbank on our street, and grabbed everything we could. We dumped everything in the kitchen and tried to go to bed.
I couldn't sleep. I was so keyed up from forcing myself to stay awake so Jennifer could drive with company. I got about two hours of sleep and then my alarm went off for work, an hour later than usual (because I had kept the morning light due to travelling). I cancelled my 11am appointment, and Jen and I went outside to clean off the car. The landlords are out of town, so we had to shovel the steps and the walk first, and then got the car out. I took a shower and got to work around 11am. I cancelled my 1:00 appointment, and my 2:00 assessment got cancelled by another worker. So I stayed in the office until 4:00 completing paperwork that has been sitting in my office for a month. I just don't usually have time to do it.
I left work at 4:00 so that I could come home and shovel out a parking space for the car. It took FORTY MINUTES to do it by myself, all the while hacking up a lung from my illness. 40 minutes! For one little parking space! There was so much snow built up from the one pass the plow must have made during the day on Sunday. I shovelled out most of the space, moved my car into it so no one would take it, and then shovelled the rest. Then I shovelled a space to open the car door. And (sorry Wiley) YOU BET I will be putting a garbage can in the spot so no one can take it. There in one other car on my part of the street and the rest is literally a million snow banks. (Besides, my coworker told me that Mayor Menino himself has said that it is okay to mark off parking spaces ONLY during snow, and that once you shovel a space, you "own" it until the snow goes away. So there.)
After shovelling out a nice space for the car, I came upstairs and am now tackling the three giant piles of laundry that we didn't get to start over the weekend due to my illness and the eight-hour Gilligan driving tour. I am so exhausted, but there is so much to do. All of the gifts are just hanging out under the tree, the kitchen still has cookie remnants from the bake-a-thon, I haven't eaten dinner, and my mind is just spinning out of control.
On top of all of that, I managed to schedule an evening appointment tomorrow night. ON MY ANNIVERSARY. Because I am an idiot. Argh!
But I was graced with lots of fantastic presents this year, including the COOL SHOES, Cranium, another game, Adam Sandler movies, a reggaeton CD, some great books, the Neverwhere movie that was on BBC, and lots and lots more. I am so spoiled!
I am also so tired.
