Marste arranged for us to go to Disney World the first week of January, 2010. She had this fantasy of having one last family vacation before one of her sisters "did something stupid, like get married" was her way of putting it. The one serious boyfriend DID NOT get invited! Ha!
Steve and I didn't know WHAT she was thinking. We had a much clearer view of the dynamics in family vacations, having been adults when we took our children to visit their far-flung relatives! Ha!
Marste, being a serious "Disneyphile," wanted to go to Disney World, which she'd been to, but none of the rest of us had ever seen. I laughed out loud. Steve teaches English at a community college, and he writes textbooks. He did this so I could homeschool our children, and we wouldn't go broke trying to live in So. California! It worked; he earned his income and my income, as well, and we're still here! I can't say we're "none the worse for wear," but we're here! Our bank account, however, doesn't give us carte blanche for five round-trip plane tickets, a week of hotel rooms, and a week of feeding us all--including the sweets that Steve and a couple of the kids seem to think goes with any "family outing"! So, Marste took charge of the arranging of things.
Marste had figured out that a "villa" with 2 bedrooms was cheaper than two hotel rooms, AND it had a furnished kitchen, with cupboards and everything! She figured we could eat at least some of our meals in the villa, thereby saving a LOT of money on food. I figured that having a kitchen meant that we'd have better food than inexpensive restaurant food, and getting through this week without completely messing up our systems was of interest to me! Ha! (We ended up eating breakfasts and most dinners there, and it worked great!)
So, we flew out there on a red-eye that got in Sunday morning, we rented a car, and we went to the hotel on the off-chance that we could at least leave our bags there and go to WalMart for groceries. Checking in, shopping, and filling the cupboards filled up the rest of the 40, or so, hours we'd all been awake by Sunday night, and we went to bed with visions of Sleeping Beauty's castle filling our heads. I guess.
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, we went to Disney World. We saw the "lands," we went on roller coasters--the only rides any of us were interested in!--and we ate very expensive lunches! By Wednesday, though--note the omission in my list of days! Ha!--we'd had it. We were all tired because of sleep deprivation and because of being on top of each other in this villa. We all needed a break from each other, and Wednesday was it.
Marste's rosy vision had paled in comparison with reality. I actually felt sorry for her! Ha!
Saturday, we all staggered home, slept some, and we got up Sunday to deal with kids needing to get to their own homes, Steve needing to prepare for work the following day, and my needing to get a handle on laundry and groceries, not to mention figuring out a schedule that included petting the dogs--I'd hired a live-in pet sitter, who was fabulous!!--and getting back to doing the homework for classes I'd been taking. Sunday night, all was back to "normal," more or less. My throat was scratchy and I was coughing occasionally, but my throat gets scratchy when I'm tired--and boy, was I tired--and I cough occasionally...oh, yeah, NEVER. Still, I chalked it up to being tired. Period.
And Monday, I woke with a horrible headache, congestion that wiped out seeing (I could see shadow and light), hearing, speaking, tasting, and smelling. I could do nothing but lie there. I didn't want to do anything but lie there!! I blew my nose and coughed. I had a fever--this was hindsight information--so I wasn't thinking at all. I didn't take any herbs or aspirin until Wednesday, when Marste, who'd called me to make sure I wasn't dead, said, "Well, you ARE taking silver, aren't you??!!" It hadn't occurred to me! Ha!
To put this into perspective, I'll just say that I would throw illness-appropriate herbs at my children when they were sick. I'd restrict them to a couch, a bathroom, and put the tv remote into a plastic bag. There was NO WAY I wanted to deal with three sick kids! It worked, by the way. BUT I now have the reputation of being the weird lady on the hill (a small hill, but hey!) the neighbors go to with health issues when they, or their kids, get sick. Marste gleefully pointed this out recently! And I know this stuff because of multiple drug allergies in my mom, myself, and Jenna, to list us in order of generation. It's handy information, let me tell you!
Anyway, I staggered downstairs to find silver and found myrrh gum capsules, instead. Good enough. And at that point, I at least stopped getting worse. I stayed the same for two weeks, recuperated enough the third week to watch all the do-it-yourself networks on very loud volume, and by the fourth week, I could go downstairs and sit on the couch and watch stuff, as opposed to stay upstairs and sit on the bed and watch stuff! Little distinction, but enough to matter to me!
This last week was the fifth week, and I've been trying to play catch-up. The problem is that I'm still not well! AND I have no stamina. I went to Costco yesterday, and I had to sit down on the edge of a refrigerator case. An employee actually asked me if I needed a wheel chair! Ha! I didn't, but I sat there for several minutes, letting my heart figure out that I really hadn't just run five miles, so it could stop pounding. Brother!!!
At each flu point in my life, the reason for getting it has been the same: too much mental and physical activity, too much stress, and not enough sleep. The lesson: QUIT IT!, to put it succinctly. At 16, I didn't want to quit it. At 36, it was a good theory, but I had a 3-year-old, an 8-year-old, and a 12-year old, and I was homeschooling. (It's a good thing they weren't in school; I couldn't have driven them to and from!) I didn't see how I could change anything.
At 56, the situation is different. I run and gun for different reasons, but the stress level is the same. This bout with flu has been interesting; it's lasted so long, that I am no longer plugged in to people or situations that I thought needed my attention five weeks ago. So, I can now choose what I want in my life. BUT I've spent 56 years "running and gunning," and not doing so makes me feel lazy--even though I'm now following guidance (FINALLY), and learning to meditate and reading about healers and healing. Since I still have no stamina, I can't run and gun, but breaking lifelong patterns is challenging, at best! This week, I planned one thing every day (like, return a package of batteries to a local store, and other things equally unimportant), but it's Thursday, and I've already overdone things! Amazing!
I'm intending to learn this lesson, though. Otherwise, since each flu bout gets longer and much worse, I figure that by 76, I'll become an "elderly statistic!" Ha!
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