This week has been rough, as if I needed to loose even more weight since the fun we had here with the visiting rotovirus.. I returned from Brazil with a bacterial bug from hell. Ive been in bed fighting it with severe stomach cramps and the works, the low grade fever went away, but the rest is horrible. I found that I was super sensitive to the touch and felt as if someone had driven a spike into my lower back and my limbs were tingly. What crazy Brazilian bacteria did I pick up? (Better this then bed bugs from Miami I gotta tell ya.) We tried to be careful, I didn’t drink the water or drink anything with ice cubes in it. but it coulda’ been anything. It could have been worse, I could have gotten yellow fever. There is an outbreak there but I didn’t get the vaccine because , well, its a scary vaccine with risks vs. a chance in hell of getting it and that I had no plans of making it into the Amazon on this trip. I was paranoid that I got it, but I didn’t have the tell-tale sign of a fuzzy ring on my tongue (Yikes!). I have been downing Cipro like crazy (as prescribed mind you), and I am not a big fan of antibiotics. Anyone want to send me a giant tub of yogurt in sympathy?
Its was a really good idea of my husband to bring me flowers yesterday because he said to me later in the day “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way but…” which automatically makes me skeptical. “…but I had this dream about you last night where you had this horrible virus and it made you a vampire but you had the claws of wolverine and you ran like him (note he plays the Marvel Comics game on x-box) and the city was deserted (like in the war game he plays on x-box) and I sent the family away and stayed behind because I was worried that you would die without anyone to feed off of, and i walked through Greenwood Cemetery and you were living on top of a house there in a big nest and you saw me and the dream ended with an arial view of you eating my chest (oh ok, this looks exactly like the movie I Am Legend), and I woke up thinking that I did the right thing” What do you possibly say to that? “Aw, thanks sweetheart, that was so kind of you to sacrifice yourself to me so I could continue my vampire/werewolf life” or “Don’t take it the wrong way? Naw, I don’t mind you thinking of me in such a beautiful light”. I was stumped. I think I said “oh, thats just great love, how romantic.” All that violent media is a bad influence.
So Tom got my bacterial bug from Brazil too (probably a cause for his crazy dreams). I don’t know how, but ill keep my guess to myself here. We both had the stomach virus a few days apart from each other recently too which brought to light the amazing difference between how a woman and a man behave when they are sick. I am not one to draw out these comparisons too often, but this has to be said that every man I have ever had any friendship or relationship with does not handle getting sick very well. They are big babies. My sister in-law sent us this link and it was well timed.
So I finally got a new cell phone. My old one was chewed and slobbered on so many times that a few of the numbers stopped working. I loved that thing, it lit up in goofy colors on the sides when it rang. And the choices for ringtones were the cheezyest. I wonder if those will be collectible someday…the muzak versions of songs in ringtone lengths. If gold Puma sneakers and leg-warmers could come back, its possible. I went to the cell phone store of my carrier, the one I am in it for life with because of the damn 2 year renewal contract thing they get me on every time my phone breaks. Ill have to will my contract to someone one day like an old macaw. So I broke down and bought the Blackberry Pearl. I don’t know what came over me, I really have no need for e-mail on the go now that I am not working. But I figured the internet access might be helpful so what the hay. I am surprised because I hated the Blackberry I got when I worked last. Probably because it squeezed out the 30 seconds of time I claimed for myself a day and replaced it with the “I am accessible pretty much all the time now so don’t pretend like you can’t be” kind of feeling, um er …guilt. I also hit morning sickness at this time in my pregnancy too. And like my aversions to coffee and doing the dishes at that time, I couldn’t stand to look at it…and now i have had to wean myself back into it and have changed the ring and the font hoping it helps. Why did I do this to myself? I didn’t need any help in the OCD department. But as an instrument for better stress management (if even if it creates some of that stress in which to manage), I like it ok so far. And of course my 12 year old figured it all out in two minutes, leaving me looking like an old timer scratching my head, talking loudly saying “now how does this damn thing work again?”. Its pretty cute as far as a piece of technology goes, except it has a tiny blinking light that is so bright I could navigate a 747 safely into its gate at JFK during a blizzard with it no problem. I gave the babies my old phone to play with, no baby slobber allowed on this one.
We brought Jack & Marlowe to the park today, the sun was finally out. This was the first time they were there and able to walk. They fall a lot but it was so cool to watch them with this new freedom. The playground has little plastic ride-on and push toys around and Jack pushed a plastic yellow shopping cart all over, so proud of himself. Marlowe isn’t walking as well, but has a lot of gumption to try and got up again and again. She had fun and was covered in genuine black NYC playground dirt by the time we left. I look forward to this summer, I am so glad that they are walking now. Soon though it will be all about climbing, and that will be tougher.
Ruby turned 12 this week! I can hardly believe it. I am writing a longer post about just her (and one about Jack too), but I wanted to mention that she is amazing. I sent her flowers (she was at her father’s house), I think I will do that from now on every year. She is having her big sleepover party this weekend (her father hosts it this year), but she will drop by on Sunday for a few hours when we have a small family thing for her over here. I am amazed at how big she is. We had dinner together tonight at a small local Italian joint. She ordered the spaghetti sans the meatballs. She is still holding out as a vegetarian despite the cravings and having only one veggie house (she lives 50/50 between 2 houses) and no friends who are. She told me that she wants to join the Peace Corps …in my head I flashed ahead to 10 years from now having a similar conversation, one where she really could act out this desire. I thought it was a great idea. My goals are of a similar humanitarian leaning so I could understand the drive. We talked about AIDS in Africa and about women’s health in underprivileged countries and societies. I could see her working for UNICEF, an organization that does amazing, amazing things (take some time to look at their site, they have an amazing link showing health and education statistics for children per country). But I could also see her running the dolphin show at Sea World so go figure…we will have to wait and see. She also told me at dinner that she has a great relationship with her reflection. I don’t think that was the right word but close. I think she meant with her inner self. There is a big mirror in the chorus room at her school and when the teacher asks the class if they can handle a particular type of song next year, she will say yes, and nod to herself in the mirror as if they share a private joke. She is not going to be in the chorus program next year and this is a way she enables herself to lie and feel ok with it, as she promised some people she wouldn’t tell anyone about it yet as to not create any drama for the teacher who is accepting her into a different program. We do all kinds of things to create balance I suppose and if it is to find lightheartedness in a white lie than that seems ok with me. Ruby is somehow built with this amazing sense of right and wrong and understands the rules of the world in a way that is beyond her years. I hope she never looses her child-like side of her though.
Speaking of AIDS in Africa and humanitarianism, take a look at Annie Lennox’s video for “Sing”. I love this woman. Her song “Why” is probably the most beautiful sad song I have ever heard, and I cry every time I hear it. It puts me back in a coffee shop in Berlin in 1994, looking at my coffee needing to make a decision about my path. The crack down my middle never to be glued water tight again, and the song represented to me all that I had held inside for a long long time. Annie has dedicated her time and efforts to drawing attention to AIDS affecting women in Africa. The statistics shown in the video are enough to make you run out into the street shouting.
Id post it here, but they don’t allow sharing off of YouTube in order to generate some iTunes sales. You can watch it here though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K2Q59eT2Us
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