Sunday, March 25, 2007

“It's better to have loved and lost than to have to do forty pounds of laundry a week.” - Dr Laurence Peter

I have been flat out with a bit of a stomach bug complicated by one of the worst migraines I have had in months. Spent all of today either sleeping or wishing for death, when I wasn’t vomiting.

I’d arranged to have today off – a free Saturday! Unheard of! – so I could go catch Primo’s double-header hockey game (last games of the season) and then be available to run him to this afternoon science project class I signed him up for a few months ago, held at a local university (that just happens to my alma mater). H and I had symphony tix for tonight – Sibelius’ Fifth, which I was totally psyched for. Plus, I was looking forward to fitting in there somewhere a nice long romp up to the park with Punto il Cane (yes, the dog is staying).

Instead, the boys and H went to hockey and out to brunch, and H took Primo to his class, and then H went to the symphony and came home to walk Punto – all while I slept and tried to keep down some kind of headache medication.

I have had migraines almost all my life, and the typical pattern is that I have several big events to get through, lots of stress to cope with, and I power through whatever needs to be done and then when I finally have some downtime, my brain goes haywire and I wind up with a migraine – vomiting, chills, noise and light sensitivity, the works. Today my brain felt like it was bleeding.

H and I both agree that my brain hates me.

Now I am awake and wired (caffeine and migraine meds) and, even though I am feeling much better, am not quite up to reading or even watching TV – my concentration is shot, and the faint light from my laptop is just barely tolerable.

So I offer you these random musings:

Paula has redone her laundry room. It’s pretty and bright and so cute; she certainly has a knack.

My immediate thoughts, though: 1) As I said in the comments, don’t ever visit my laundry room, where I scoop detergent and pull dryer sheets straight from their boxes. 2) Where, oh, where do you sort your dirty clothes? Am I the only slacker that pulls the laundry out of the chute and then builds piles of dirty clothes, sorted by color, on the basement floor? And then hauls the clean stuff upstairs where it sits, precariously towering on the family room sofa, until I sort it, fold it, and put it away?

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I am really liking Blackbird’s new shower. Those lilttle teeny floor tiles are so charming.
My first thought was how much easier it would be to clean without all the nooks and crannies provided by shower doors (I do like the idea of a teak mat, though, but buy two, dear, so you don’t have to slide the one around. (You asked.))
My second thought was how lovely that bit of greenish wall looks next to the linen-colored tile; the combo is right out of House and Garden (however, Blackbird points out, they are painting the wall a different color. I think I am sad about that, although the present loveliness could just be a result of Bbird’s mad photo skillz).
Of course, my bathroom tile is about fifty years old AND Pepto-Bismol pink, so it could be that anything other than that would entice me.

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Segundo’s fourth birthday is fast approaching. I have all his presents:

a Marc-Andre Fleury Penguins t-shirt (he wanted Brooks Orpik (For that matter, so do I. Yum.) but we couldn’t find one)

a giant Thomas the Tank Engine coloring book and a Cars coloring book (Seg is very into coloring these days, and his fine motor skills are progressing wildly)

and because clearly we do not have nearly enough Thomas trains, Stepney and the museum cars, specifically asked for because of the Thomas-saurus book I brought home from the Famous Rebecca O’Connell’s book signing at Borders last week.

I had to buy something as I had a 10%-off coupon benefiting Primo’s school, and Rebecca sold out of her book Penina Levine is a Hard-Boiled Egg before we got there.
I bought Rebecca’s The Baby Goes Beep for Terzo, and a Matt Christopher hockey book for Primo. I do intend to go back and buy Penina Levine - you should too, even though it is solely Rebecca’s fault that I will be spending tomorrow afternoon at Chuck E Cheese.

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Seg asked for this beauty. There was a feature recently in the local paper about these dolls, and I caught him practically hyperventilating over the pretty blonde doll “with hair like mine, Mama!” Sixty-five bucks is a bit steep, and sadly I don’t think his grandparents will ante up for a doll, but I know I have this cutie around from when I was little, AND I think I still have all her clothes and I KNOW she still has all her hair, unlike poor Mimi, so I think I will unpack her and wash and iron her clothes and give her to him.

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For those of you who wondered: I skipped the mini-reunion of ex-boyfriends et al. I was going to anyway, but the migraine made the decision for me.
Although if Michael Madigan doesn't deserve to be vomited on, I don't know who does.

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Upcoming posts, a fluid list:
Librarians in fiction
Arctic fiction (inspired by The White Darkness)
More bus reading
My Scrabble post – Suse gave me P.
Recent book purchases, and a couple quickie reviews

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And last but not least: I am starving. Not a whole lot appeals though, right at the moment. But how can it be that I don’t have any frozen coconut cake in the house? Who does the goddamn grocery shopping around here?

16 comments:

Stomper Girl said...

Hope your migraine improves. I hear you on the Thomas the Tank Engine collection. Same here.

Anonymous said...

I hope you feel better soon.

Thanks for reminding me. I've got a kid whose birthday is approaching soon. I'd better buy some presents.

teachergirl said...

I've had migraines my whole life; well, since I became a "woman" and sometimes I do the same as you - lots of stressful situations to get through and then I get some down time and my whole brain goes haywire. I found a wonderful neurologist who also suffers from migraines and he has prescribed Topamax as a preventative. The stress of giving the state mandated 5th grade test usually does me in; the Saturday after I am a basket case.

I am so sorry you are miserable and I guess my post was to just wonder if you take anything to prevent. Hope today is better.

blackbird said...

Gosh.
I hope you feel better by now, as I'm reading this a day later...

the walls are barely WALLS in my loo.
That's greenboard you are seeing, we need plaster and paint, dear.
You'll like it when it's done.

Sarah Louise said...

Oh, feel better!! I was driving to work yesterday thinking how I'd love to see hockey--and you were in bed with a headache--ouch.

Those of us without laundry chutes and with house mates that do laundry not-on-their-night do one load at at time. I think for weeks all I've done is towels and underwear--I seem to not be home enough to do more than one load, but I'm running out of (clean) clothes!!

Mandy!! I have Mandy and Jenny (though they still live at my parents...but I bet I could ask them to bring the girls when they come next week...)

Feel better, luv.

SL

delta said...

OKAY... I've loved and lost AND have forty tons of laundry to do!!!

What's up with that?!?

And, yes, of course, I sort my laundry in piles by color on the laundry room floor. And then I systematically wash each pile and create clean semi-folded piles to cart away, where some day they will be officially folded and sorted and put away in people's drawers, closets, etc. OR.... people could just come and grab the clothes they WANT-NEED (apparently those words are interchangeable these days) right now and leave the rest in a mess because obviously the entire universe revolves around everyone else on this planet but me.

And who DOESN'T take their detergent directly out of the jug/box and their dryer sheets out of the box??????? Besides Martha Stewart, who probably has a special designer dispenser with a hand-crocheted cosy over it.

I am SO SORRY you had a terrible awful migraine. That sucks!!! I am with teachergirl, though, do you take any kind of preventative meds? For some reason, I have lots of friends who get migraines. So, while I don't get them, I hear about them a lot. One of my friends who gets migraines suggested that perhaps I was the one causing them in all of these cases. While we were standing in the pain section of Eckerd's one day, I mused, "Hmmm, I wonder why all of my straight friends get migraines..." I was trying to make a funny, since clearly I was unable to take away pain. Unable to find ANYTHING remotely helpful in the pain section, my friend looked at me: "Maybe it's because they all know YOU!"

Ouch.

Anyway, hope you are feeling better! I have to say that I think Chuck E. Cheese's might CAUSE migraines. Just THINKING about Chuck E. Cheese gives me a headache, and I don't even get migraines. Caveat emptor!

Paula said...

Migrains are the worst and the headachy-ness that lurks for days later is no picnic either. I hope it's passed by now.

The sorting comes from a cute little trolly thing on wheels I bought at Target' it slides right in under the stairs, so now there's no room for monsters to lurk under there:).

TLB said...

I not only pour detergent straight from the bottle, the top of my dryer is covered with little blue detergent drips.

Hoping you feel better soon.

Badger said...

Migraines suck. Having a migraine on your day off, when you had fun plans? Sucks times a hundred. I'm sorry. Hope the hangover (or am I the only one who gets those?) passes quickly.

No basements here; my laundry room is on the second floor of the house, with all the bedrooms, and is only large enough to fit the washer and dryer with a shelf above for soap and whatnot. I sort on my bedroom floor and fold on my bed, which is a king. And feel very lucky not to have to go up and down stairs with a laundry basket.

Kathy said...

I hope you are feeling better now. I haven't had migraines in years -- not sure why; I think it's somehow related to the fact that I haven't had seizures in years either -- but I remember how life-draining they were and how that migraine hangover, as Badger called it, was no picnic either.

Jess said...

My "laundry room" is an alcove off the kitchen with a high self esteem. I sort on my bedroom floor (when I bother to sort) because the laundry floor has already been claimed by the recycling. Pots, pans, microwave, pantry, ironing board, tupperware, toolbox, fondue set, and leftover paint also share the space. Thank God I only have to do laundry for myself.

I just read a Horn Book review of the audio version of The White Darkness and it has me dying to listen to it - the Titus bits are read by a man and it's apparently quite perfect.

Suse said...

Oh, feel better lovey.

David said...

I am sure Mr. Madigan, the ADA from Maine, missed you. Jan looks *exactly* the same. I had to leave early to go to dinner at Eleven with the missus and her mom. I had a French toast sandwich with pb&j filling and a banana milkshake for my desert. I love that place. Still, would have been nice to see you. Wnat to come to a Passover Seder?

lazy cow said...

My mum had migraines all her life (darkened room, no talking, vomiting, house visits from the doctor, injections, it was awful), only to stop when she went through menopause. Small consolation.
Hope you feel better very soon.
As the laundry is european-style behind a door in the kitchen, I sort wherever's cleanest - which should be on the kitchen bench, but rarely is.

tut-tut said...

Poor you! But you have company in the laundry; I have two huge piles of HOT and WARM. Never mind color sorting . . .

Anonymous said...

I'm way behind here, BUT, I do hope you are all better with the crappy migraine stuff. Your poor sore brain. As for laundry, ditto on the big dirty piles on the floor of the basement, which mutate into big clean piles on the couch upstairs.