Time Stands Still

It's amazing that we're already a third of the way through December. Isn't it? Or is it just me?

I have been feeling like I've been on the edge of being sick for the last week or so. Strep throat and some generic upper respiratory virus are going around work. There were five call outs the last time I worked. My throat has been touch and go all week and I've been exhausted in an outsized kind of way, which usually means that my energy is being diverted to my immune system because I'm fighting off something.  And coffee tastes terrible right now. Coffee always tastes awful when I'm sick.

I worked an extra half shift this week on Sunday and then had class on Tuesday in the morning. I had to go to the class to make up a missed residency seminar. It was only moderately excruciating. I sat next to a man who I went through school with. I couldn't remember his name and his badge was turned over, so I had to ask. (It was Brad.)

Tuesday afternoon, we went and voted in the runoff election in our district. It was late, after 6:00 (the polls close at 7:00 and I had therapy from 5:00 to 6:00) but we went anyway. The polling place is at our old high school, in the cafeteria. While I was waiting for David to fill in his ballot, I stepped into the hall and took these pictures:

We had a class down this hall, near the end on the left. It was a SPED class for gifted students. We spent a lot of time in that classroom because we were always welcome there, even when we didn't have class, so we used to hang out in that room.

The school is two stories and this is one of the stairwells, obviously. I had at least one class, an English class, at the top of these stairs. I think I also had a chemistry class up there. I did not go upstairs this time.

I did step into the nearby girls' bathroom, which was 100% unfamiliar to me. I have zero recollection of this bathroom.

It was a strange moment, that. I mean, why would I remember a generic bathroom from high school. But then again, why wouldn't I remember a generic bathroom from high school?

Anyway.

Tonight we had dinner with my brother. It was supposed to be my mother and brother, but my mother got the date wrong, so it was just my brother. We went for Italian food. I had a chicken alfredo pizza, which was so rich that I only had two slices (a record low for me). Dave had manicotti and a salad. My brother had a chicken parm sub with pasta salad on the side. The food at this place is straightforward Italian, nothing too challenging, no squid ink pasta. It's very homestyle and they do lots of takeout and pizza delivery. While we were there, a firetruck pulled up and four firemen got out and all trooped in to pick up their pizza. (Why didn't they just send in one guy, I wonder. Maybe they get so used to working as a team--or so bored on their 48 hour shifts in the firehouse--that they all had to come in.)

I'm home now, back in my pajamas, doing laundry. My scrubs needed to go through the wash, as well as all the compression stockings that I wear at work. I tried working a half shift the other night without my compression stockings and that was a bad idea. I came home with swollen, puffy ankles. They really make a difference. So I got online and bought more.

And speaking of buying more: The Brain, since we've been working and earning money, has started a list of things it wants. One of them is something that I've wanted for the last twenty years but could never justify the cost of. What is it? Blundstone boots. Ever since I went to Australia and traveled around to all the crazy wild places there and saw the men and women in the outback wearing Blundstones, I've wanted a pair. But I never $200 worth of wanted a pair, you know? But now...they're the next things on my list. Maybe Santa will  bring me a pair of the black ones.