Sick and Tired

This weekend was beautiful in the Portland area. Highs in the 50's and sunny.

All over Facebook and blogland my friends were talking about their outdoor activities. They were all soakin' up that wonderful vitamin D that us pasty Northwesterners so often lack. I heard stories about running in the park, playing at the beach, snowboarding on the sunny mountain, riding bikes through beautiful scenic Oregon and riding just down the street for gelato. (Because you know, in Oregon 50 degrees means it's warm enough for gelato!)

You wanna know what I did all weekend? I know you're dying to know...

Well I did some running of my own... I ran a FEVER!!

That's right folks, I spent my entire beautiful, sunny, Portland weekend laid up on the couch sicker than I'd been in years. In fact, I can't remember the last time I was that sick. (You know you're really sick when you have no desire to check your Facebook!) My lovely son gave everyone strep throat. I've had lots of nasty things in my lifetime and this has to be in the top 5. (Also on the list: Pneumonia, and any sort of puking)

You never really appreciate how well your body works until it doesn't work anymore. I can tell you that swallowing is a very important bodily function. I bet you don't know how many times you swallow during the course of the day. Well I do, because everytime I swallow I get this lovely stab of pain in the back of my reddened, swollen throat.

We stocked up on applesauce, soup, pudding, ice cream, popsicles and Jell-O. (Which is great for my diet. *rolls eyes*) As well as all sorts of medications, in both over-the-counter and perscription varieties.

We're on the mend. I think this will be our last day holed up in this house. (You can imagine the mess... UGH!) And now that we're getting better, it's supposed to snow this week. GEEZ!

Running It Off

Today was the day from hell. And I don't mean it was your normal bad day. I've had "Alexander" days before but this day was like an "Alexander" day to the tenth power. Not only did a million little things go wrong, but several HUGE things went really, REALLY wrong.

I spent the majority of my day going between being completely angry at everything to utterly overwhelmed with tears. (You should see the beauty that is my puffy, splotchy face right now.)

In the old days when I had a badish day I'd eat some ice cream or some french fries covered in cheese and topped with bacon. (Mmmm...) Then I'd hole myself up with my flute for hours of practice. Working out the kinks of whatever piece I was working on seemed to soothe my soul.

Unfortunately I'm not supposed to eat french fries right now. And since I seem to be too busy to take my flute out of it's case recently, that wasn't really an option either. So what are we left with?

Tonight's team workout.

Eric and I went to the gym an hour before our workout as usual. I was bound and determined to run that treadmill into the ground tonight. I didn't want to take my frustration out on my family any more than I already had so I figured the best thing to do was take it out on an inanimate object.

I ran so hard I was pouring sweat like I haven't done in a long time. My feet were hurting and my legs were crying out for mercy, but I ran right through it. It felt really good too!

Then came our team workout. I pushed myself really hard, even though I was so tired and hungry from my crazy running. It was worth it.

After a two hour long, really hard workout I feel much better about life. I still have to get up tomorrow and deal with all these issues, but I'm hoping I will sleep well tonight.

And the icing on my crap-flavored cake day is that I lost 3 pounds this week! That puts me up to 8 total since starting 3 weeks ago. If you'll recall, I lost 8 pounds total during our last round of BL. I'm on a ROLL baby!!!