After my three day vacation from minor depression---nothing
like a good, no-rules political debate to make me feel alive---I’m
back to wondering why I’m bothering to get out of bed in the morning other than
I have to pee. I’ve only been out of the house a few times since before Christmas
but on one of those outings I’ve managed to pick up a bug. Not the flu bug but
something that is making my head stuffy and my throat fighting sinus draining.
A cold? Maybe but I’m not coughing. And I literally can’t sneeze or blow my
nose. I’ve tried. Whatever is up there doesn’t want to come out. Fumbling around
in the medicine cabinet I hauled out the Zyrtec. It’s an antihistamine for
allergies but I’m on day three of taking them and I’m not getting any better.
I’m not getting any worse either and to that I say amen, hallelujah and
whatever else I’m supposed to say to express that I’m grateful for small
blessings.
Yesterday it was noon before I got dressed and I only got
dressed then so I could go down to the mailbox. Going out to the mailbox in my
bathrobe is a line I won’t cross until I’m ready to sign myself into a funny farm aka nursing
home. In recent years I’ve tried to make
myself feel guilty about not getting dressed before 10 AM because I know social
workers use that fact to help them evaluate old people for depression. Ticks me
right off, if you really want to know the truth. Young people can wander around for hours in the sweats and t-shirts
they slept in and no one gives it another thought. Young people are “lounging” don’t
you know, but seniors are “slipping.”
I was expecting a medication in the mail that I didn’t want
sitting outside too long. What a saga it was getting that refill! My doctor has
been testing my thyroid and adjusting my dosages since last October and until
now I’ve had no trouble getting my online prescriptions filled. This time they
decided to cancel all four of my thyroid prescriptions with a message to call
my doctor because I had varying dosages in their files. Duh, I was only
ordering the latest one! I tried finding a phone number to call the online
pharmacy without success. Next I sent an online message to them to explain what
was going on and I got an automated reply that they’d response within 72 hours.
In 72 hours they sent me a phone number to call. I called and spent forty
minutes between being on hold several times and talking to a pharmacist who
eventually reinstated the prescription with the latest date and lowest dosage just
like I ordered in the first place, but I was required to stay on the phone while
she made notations and changes in her system.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading this past month including
the following books: 1) The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict and it was
interesting. It’s about Albert Einstein’s first wife and their 13 year marriage
before they divorced. She was also a gifted physicist and there has long been speculation
that she contributed to his ground breaking theories but he cut her out of getting
any credit. This book although fictionalized is based on that speculation and on
all known facts about their romance, marriage and children; 2) Theft by Finding
Diaries by Davie Sedaris. I only read a fourth of the way through this book
before I decided I couldn’t take another description of being high on illegal drugs;
3) Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson is another book I’m
struggling to finish. I really want to read it but it's making me feel like a
third grader trying to read post-graduate work; 4, 5, & 6) Spencer Quinn’s
dog detective series hooked me for a while and I read three back-to-back: The Tail
of Vengeance, A Cat Was Involved and The Dog who Knew too Much. They were fun distractions
that didn’t tax my brain and I've always liked books written from a dog’s point of view;
and 7) In Book Club we read My Mountain Story by Lori Lansens. This was an engrossing
book that all twelve of us loved for the many sub-plots and the complicated
characters. It’s about four people who got lost on a mountain but only three
came back. The New York Times calls it “a fast-paced, suspenseful adventure and
a gorgeous tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.” The book is all that
and more.
I started writing this blog in the morning, then I went to the
grocery store and came home to fix dinner. By the time I sat down to finish writing
it, my nose was running like the business end of a Water Pic and I’m getting
the big-time chills and have developed a wicked cough. I don’t want this! I don’t need this! But with any luck it will
just be a bad cold and I’ll live to fight another day. ©
