Mom Beams

If you check out the side section of "Blogs I Read", you notice my daughter's. She just finished the NaNoWriMo, the contest where you are, during the month of November, challenged to write 50,000. I've thought of doing it, but that's as far as it's gotten. I am writing a rather long story and should get back to Chapter 7, but I tend to write only when the mood hits me.

So, I'm proud of her for completing that. If/when she posts the story she wrote, you can be sure there will be a link here.

No, I'm proud for a different reason.

Art has always been a part of our lives. I have a minor in art and some of my drawings hang in the house. Carole was taken to the Art Institute of Chicago, regularly, over the course of her life at home. All our rooms in the house are painted with color. White may be a color but, to me, it represents sterility when all rooms in a house are white or beige or ivory.

It comes as no surprise to me that she has taken up photography. She has an excellent eye and her photos can be quite stunning. She was out yesterday in a balmy start to December and some of the photos are here.

I did think that I wished I'd had my camera today as the city glimmered in the weak sunlight of a December morning. I had to do a download and there are days like this, where the panorama of Chicago is breath taking that I could live no place else. By the time I was finished and headed out of town, the skyline was partially obscured by low clouds in advance of an approaching storm. We are to get rain turning into snow tonight. I have to be out in it, which is not pleasant, but the main yuck isn't to come until around midnight. I will be safely in bed with a cat by then.

Anyway, I do hope you'll take a moment and look at her photos. Yes, mom is quite proud.

Beverage: Assam Tea

Deb

Forgive me, Martha.

I don't know if my stylist, Martha, reads my blog as much as others do. I'm asking her forgiveness now so, if she does read the blog, she'll know and won't "tsk, tsk" at me quite so much.

I just don't have the cash for a hair cut. I had hoped to get my bangs cut but I can't even pay for that right now. My bangs, however, were driving me nuts.

I took a scissors to them . It's just the part over my eyebrows and, as fast as my hair seems to grow, if I wait another 3 weeks, maybe I can get a complete hair cut.

I've been blowing my hair dry lately so I'm not walking out of the house with an ear infection AND a wet head. That seems, to me, to be not the smartest thing to do. So, this morning, the bands didn't look too bad.

Sometimes you do what you have to do. Maybe I should let it grow out so there's more to work with the next time I go in?

Beverage: Assam tea

Deb

Ewwwww

Day one of "Let's try to get better".

Item #1: Ear drops are terribly hard to put in yourself and make sure you get them in correctly. I have "curved" ear canals, too, I've been told.

Item #2: For some reason, this round of the infection has me dizzy. I'm hoping this is a "worse before it gets better" thing. I found myself unsure of my walking or standing several times this morning. It wasn't a falling down dizzy thing, just a momentary "Um..." As long as I'm sitting down and not moving fast, I'm okay.

Item #3: The Ceftin I'm taking tastes like chalk, or crushed limestone, or river sand or...well, you get the idea. Dissolves on impact with any part of my mouth and not even my morning Cheerios could get the taste out right away. Twice a day for 10 days. The label doesn't say I CAN'T have alcohol with this... >.>

Item #4: Way too soundly sleeping. Maybe that's not a bad thing but I may have to have a back-up plan. I slept through the radio coming on this morning. Probably something similar to #2 where I get worse until the meds really kick in.

Item #5: Cats know when you're not feeling well. Still, if she would just NOT purr when I'm trying to fall asleep or I need to find someone who can do a tune up because that is one seriously LOUD motor.

Beverage: Assam tea

Deb

Allergy to Penicillin Sucks

There is no way to sugar-coat that. Sorry.

My ear infection or whatever it is, is back. I saw the doctor in early November. My regular doctor wasn't available so I happened to luck out and get an appointment with his wife. There was lots of fluid in my ears so I was put on an antibiotic and given a new script for my allergy meds, patted on the head and sent on my way. I took the antibiotic the full 10 days, as I was supposed to, and I take the allergy meds every night as they make me sleepy. After 10 days, I felt very well.

The ear pain returned on Friday.

It's a dull ache all day that is mitigated with aspirin, but that only masks the symptoms. I need this gone. Hence, another visit to the doctor and this time, it was my regular one. The fluid is back but my sinuses are clear. It's just my right ear this time. I awoke over the weekend with a stabbing pain on the right back side of my head which chased a stabbing pain in my right ear. Then, it would settle down to this dull ache. My doctor doesn't know if the pain is related to the pressure on the ear drum from the fluid or the pressure of the swollen ear canal. No wax so it's not that.

I have ear drops now. Those weren't that expensive, but I'm allergic to penicillin and cannot take any of those derived drugs. This means I have to take the designer antibiotics which don't have the lovely $5 charge for the co-pay and almost no generics. $45.00 later, I have a 10-day supply. Just out of curiosity, I called around and my charge for the same amount would have been the same at the 3 other pharmacies I checked. It's the nature of my insurance, I guess.

This better work. If I'm not better in 10 days, I'm to call my doctor and I'll get a steroid to reduce the swelling in my ear. If, for whatever reason, that doesn't work, it's off to an ENT. I keep thinking, when I hear that, that I'm going to see one of those tree creatures from LOTR. I do have to admit that last night, as I was falling asleep with my ear throbbing, my mind wandered to Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, and that ear thingee Khan put in Chekov's ear. (And I saw that involuntary shudder you just did.)

Ah popular culture. Helps to define exactly how I'm feeling.

Beverage: Coke

Deb