I have the flu. Don’t worry; I’m getting over it. I credit Tamiflu and the power of prayer of many friends and relatives.

The last few days have been a blur, though… You know what sucks? Being exhausted and unable to sleep.

Tuesday was my first day of fever. I thought it was a bad cold. I went to a counseling appointment. I drove home feeling more and more lousy. (By the way, when I hear the word lousy, I always think of that episode of I Love Lucy…) I don’t even remember the rest of the day. I *do* remember taking Nyquil and going to bed and tossing and turning all night, waking up seemingly every hour. Wednesday morning came around, and I was still feeling rotten.

My body temperature goes like this:

• Normal Morning: 97.8
• Normal Afternoon: 98.6
• Normal Evening: 99.0
• Tuesday morning: 99.3
• Tuesday afternoon: 100.6
• Tuesday evening: 101.3
• Wednesday morning: 99.3

My throat was burning and dry and all I wanted to do all day was drink as much water as I possibly could to make swallowing a tiny bit less painful. I drank about 80 oz of water, not counting the cups of hot tea… And, for some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to do a 30-minute workout in my livingroom. I told myself I should do it in the morning, before my fever went up. So I did.

• Wednesday afternoon: 101.3
• Wednesday evening: 100.6

I was pretty sure, by this point, that I would wake up Thursday morning feeling considerably better. I took a sleeping pill with my cough medicine and ibuprofen and went to bed, but, yet again, I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned, dozed off, woke up to pee, and I was freezing.

Tip: If you are cold for no reason, do not bundle up.

I do it every time. I get sick and feverish, I get so cold that I swear I’ve never been so cold before in my life. And what do I do? I huddle under more and more layers, trying to get warm, all the while increasing my body temperature. Somehow, in the middle of the night in my feverish delirium, I got the idea to wander to the livingroom and pull a few throw pillows off the couch. I took them back to my bed with me and stuffed them under the covers around my body.

• Thursday morning: 102.1

I woke up earlier than ever, with practically no voice and a throat that was on fire. This was no “bad cold,” I decided. I sprayed some chloraseptic on my throat, which, by the way, felt worse than I remember it feeling even after my tonsillectomy a year and a half ago, and I called the doctor’s office. I was informed that I could walk into Quick Care between 8-4, so I threw on a sweatshirt and jeans, bushed my hair into a ponytail, and left. I barely remembered to check the time before I left the house and was surprised to find that it was just before 8am (good timing).

I’ll skip over the part where I thought I was going to die standing in line at Quick Care. Seriously? No chairs?! And the part where I had to wait for two hours with no food or drink or medicine. They did a throat swab (I gagged) and tested for strep, and then they said that it “looks more like the flu.” So I left around 10 with a little bag full of happy pills (tamiflu, mucinex, tessalon, and 800mg pills of ibuprofen). Somehow I convinced myself to stop at the shoppette for some essentials before going home (chicken soup, ice cream, bread, and gatorade – none of which proved to be very useful). I was home by 10:30 taking my first dose of Tamiflu followed shortly by a nap.

• Thursday afternoon: 99.3

I thought I was doing better… I took another nap.

• Thursday evening: 102.1

Dangit! Quick, more ibuprofen!

• Thursday evening: 102.3
• Thursday evening: 102.9

This can’t be happening! I’m getting better! I have all this medicine! It hurts! Make it stop! I finally dosed myself with some Tylenol and began applying cold compresses and stripping away as many layers of clothing as possible…

• Thursday evening: 102.7
• Thursday evening: 102.3
• Thursday evening: 101.5
• Thursday evening: 100.3

For the first time, I got semi-decent sleep and woke up during the night at the exact times I needed to take more medicine. I slept under a thin blanket…

• Friday morning: 98.3
• Friday afternoon: 98.3
• Friday evening: 99.0

Me:

Wait, what was I writing about?

Oh, yeah.

I took two naps today. Because I’m sick, and I’m supposed to rest, and I don’t really know HOW to rest. I’m not good at judging my body’s needs for sleep. And really, my body doesn’t seem to be too good at judging its needs for sleep, either. Otherwise, why would I wake up early in the morning when I’m sick, after not having slept well? And why would I not sleep well in the first place? I pretty much have to decide when it’s time for sleep and then force myself to lay motionless long enough to pass out. So I decided 2 naps would be the right number, and my eyes were tired, so it seemed good. And now it’s midnight, and I should have been asleep at LEAST 2 hours ago so that I can finish getting better, but when I lay in bed my eyes don’t want to close and my brain doesn’t want to shut off, and I have a feeling I took too many naps. And that’s what I was trying to say all along.

Previous Fridays

I love my husband because…

1. You got me “just because” flowers, and they’re beautiful.

2. You give up sleep for me.

3. You have such a creative imagination.

4. You’re too smart for your own good.

5. Because you love me.

Tumbles: Learning by osmosis?

I’m having trouble managing my time. I actually sat down yesterday thinking I could create some kind of budget to account for all the minutes I have available to me in a day. But it didn’t work.

Why doesn’t budgeting time work like budgeting money? If I know I have so much money coming in every month, I can put each dollar in a category, even if one category is “extra” or “spending money.” But with my time-chart, no matter what, I never seem to have enough time. By my estimation, I need about 35-40 hours a day to live comfortably. But I can’t just go adding hours to the day, can I? I mean, maybe if I change my sleep schedule up. It would be pretty difficult, though.

I think it’s good to have ambitions and goals for using your time that you might not actually reach, but it’s hard to be content with not reaching your goals! The truth is there just aren’t enough hours in the day. So what should we do?

Remember to Be

Let me remind both you and me again of the Importance of Being. We need to savor life, not rush through it. Be happy about each thing you accomplish, and think about the benefits of having done that.

So far today, I’ve:

1. …made the bed. This is a new habit I’m trying to develop. It feels really good to walk into our bedroom throughout the day and see a neat bed. It is complete with the decorative pillows that came with our set of bedding (a wedding present from some lovely friends of ours – who I am reminded of when I look at the bedding, all neatly made). It also makes me feel like Hubby will be better able to see my effort to take care of the house, and it is nice to pull back the covers on a neat bed at night and slip between unwrinkled sheets.

2. …started another load of laundry. We aren’t going to run out of clean undergarments, tshirts, or uniforms today. And now that I’m doing a little bit of laundry every day (almost), it’s a lot more manageable to keep up with the chore.

3. …loaded the dishwasher. The sink is empty, available for washing things, filling glasses with water, or whatever else we need. No stinky, dirty dishes in our noses.

4. …wrote 750 words. I’m on a 13-day streak, and I feel pride in that accomplishment. My thoughts also feel more organized.

Don’t Budget Every Minute

Don’t be like me and try to account for 1440 minutes each day. Even if you could squeeze everything you want to do into those 24 hours in theory, you very likely wouldn’t be able to do it in actuality. It takes time to move from one task to the next. Things can happen that you didn’t include in your plan, such as phone calls or spontaneous conversations. You just can’t account for what might happen. You can’t plan it in. And unlike with finances, you can’t keep a separate emergency fund of a few extra hours in case something comes up. It doesn’t work that way.

We should enjoy a slower pace, in my opinion.

My advice is to alternate which tasks are important on which days. For instance, I would like to have time to write on my novel, draw, crochet, deep-clean my house, and hang out with my friends every day. But since I know I’d run out of time trying to do all of it on one day, I can choose to spend Monday’s free hours on writing, Tuesday’s free hours on art, etc. If you’re like me and trying to figure out how to fit it all in, that’s the only advice I have.

Any Advice is Welcome

Time Management has never been one of my strong points. I’d like for it to be, but usually I… well, fail. I fail.

When I was younger, my time was always eaten by the TV. Then it was eaten by AIM and MSN Messenger. Now it’s eaten by Facebook, reading blogs, and reading novels. Is that ok? I don’t know. Don’t I look back fondly on those times I spent hours and hours on AIM? At least it’s a good memory.

What about you? Do you have any advice for managing time? Techniques? Thoughts? Or do you just sympathize with me? Leave a comment and let me know!

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Tumbles: Whaa? Bedtime? You coulda just let me sleep here..