I woke up this morning with my sore throat still in full effect. A worrisome fact, given that I’ve essentially had a sore throat now for a week. I definitely believe it started with allergies, and just being worn down in general from all the work that I was doing. I haven’t really blogged about it, because I’ve been actively trying not to dwell on the sicky feeling, but I’ve had the whole cold-shabang for a few days; aches, low fever, big time sleepiness…
BUT…you thought this was going to be an entry on woe is me, I’m sick, but nope! I’m actually feeling much better. The Ho insisted that I gurgle with salt water and take acetomitiphen (how in balls do you spell that? It’s tylenol), and she even got me some Throat Coat tea to have with dinner…and I feel better. I can still feel my throat is inflamed, but it is *genuinely* much better. I’m hopeful that I’ll at least wake up tomorrow feeling better as opposed to worse, as I have been for the past couple days as my throat just wouldn’t go away.
So, yeah. Things are looking up.
I actually did a little writing today. There was one section in particular towards the end, what I wrote last night, that I just didn’t feel was fleshed out enough. That whole last scene or two likely needs a rework, since those kinds of things tend to tumble out rather quickly when writing, and just come off too fast a quick in comparison to other parts of the story. But, I reformatted everything and added a cover page with my name on it, and the date of the draft. Made it feel that much more like I had actually finished something. It’s 427 pages in proper manuscript format. I wrote that in four months. Still hard to wrap my head around. It’s the first novel I’ve actually FINISHED. I’ve started several, most of them when I was a teenager…this is the first one I actually crossed the finish line and wrote THE END, or ‘to be continued…’ in this case.
We did a lot of stuff today, we basically spent the entire day with Liz’s mom. We went down to Nordstrom and I finally returned the pair of Tom’s slip-on shoes that I’d bought before the Maui trip because they’d started to come apart on the heel and they’re only 3+ months old. Nordstrom is dope like that, they just take them back.
Then we visited the Macy’s holiday store to look for any remaining discounted ornaments. Liz kinda has a tradition of visiting that store and finding awkward left-behind Christmas stuff, but this year there really wasn’t anything to be found. Then Liz went off with her mom just the two of them for a bit to pick me up something for Christmas.
We made a stop to Safeway after that to get some last-minute stuff, including a dark rum for Liz’s dad, who really wanted some to put into his Egg Nog. We opted to Kracken rum, which probably isn’t any good, but the bottle and label were just so cool, we had to. Plus, it was a dark spiced rum.
At home, we actually did a taste test with the four of us, and it was a riot. A taste test with the handle of Bacardi rum that they already had. Liz’s mom and I got the taste testing right, but we almost all agreed that the Kracken dark rum was, in fact, a little more tasty.
We had dinner, which was chicken pot pie (so good) and salad, and I had my throat coat Tea, and for dessert we did the egg nog. Then, Liz, her mom, and I sat down to watch The Theory of Everything, which was a passable biopic. The guy playing Hawking was genuinely amazing. I’ll bet he will be nom’d for Best Actor, and he might deserve it. The movie as a whole was certainly lacking in several places, but he was fantastic.
Then, we all held pups and talked for a while. It was really just a wonderful day as a family. Oh! And when we’d come home from Safeway, before Liz went to do some work and I took a quick 20 minute nap in the bedroom with the pups, we all went for a nice walk around the neighborhood to let the dogs do their business. It is SO FREAKING PRETTY here in the Bay. The air is just next level shit up here, so much oxygen. I really love it. LA air sucks, there’s no if-ands-or-butts.
Yeah, and finally, Liz made her new signature stove-top popcorn for all of us (who were also gathered around, seeing how it’s done). You know, where you actually make popcorn like everyone used to make popcorn: in a kettle using a stove burner. Then you add your salt and your butter and WHAM. Popcorn that’s so fresh tasting you can hardly believe it. It was delicious. And her parents were super impressed (as am I every time). It’s so freaking good!
Anyway, it was just a great day. And now I am exhausted and ready to sleep.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I’ll see you then!
PS- my dad posted a video of a dog at the pound today…which means he went out to the shelter all on his own and met a dog that’s looking for a home. THIS IS HUGE. It means he’s starting to get used to the idea…I like it 🙂
Tonight’s artwork is a cautionary piece of work on the dangers of saying hi to aliens when you’re sledding down a snow-covered mountainside. Courtesy of 70s SciFi Art. They rock!