22 October 2001

This is going to be a short entry, since I slept horribly last night. I was doing great before I went to bed, and then the second my butt hit the bed, it was like the Coughing Bed Demons attacked. Haha! No sleep for you! Adjust your inclination angle from 0 to 90 degrees! Try to turn on your side! Drink water! Don't drink water! Suck on cough drops! Don't suck on cough drops! It won't matter! You get to keep coughing! And you definitely don't get to sleep!

So. The power of cereal is reviving my soul, a bit. Restoring my body from "Everything Is Wrong" mode to "I'm Really Tired" mode. Some people can get no sleep and be fine. I'm not one of those people. (I suppose to make things fair I should note that those people are usually okay getting no sleep because they're having fun of some kind, not because they're cavorting with the Phlegm Monster.) But I can deal with this. I don't feel too bad. Problem is, I feel good enough to be a trifle cranky about still coughing. I wasn't well enough to be cranky, earlier in the week. I'm trying not to be cranky now.

David has asked me, more than once, "Is it normal for you to stay sick this long?" Sadly, the answer hasn't changed: yup. Or at least not abnormal. Fun, innit?

It's Doris Lessing's birthday today, and I'm going to try to get back into Briefing for a Descent Into Hell in honor of that. I was going to save The Telling for yesterday, but I couldn't wait that long. So yesterday I read The Curse of Chalion instead. The new Bujold fantasy. First things first: the main character is not Miles Vorkosigan wearing a funny hat. He does end up with a rather unusual physical ailment for much of the book, but he was definitely, definitely not Miles. I think this is good. Bujold has spent enough time writing about Miles that it would be understandable if she couldn't switch gears very well -- understandable, but fatal for her career outside the Vorkosigan books. Other than that -- it was a good read. Of course it was, it was Bujold. There was one major plot twist that was a bit too much for me, though. And I don't really understand why she used the terms "roya," "royina," etc. when they have a pretty clear one-to-one translation to "king," "queen," etc. I started the book thinking a Principara was some specific office with unusual duties, but it ended up looking a lot like a Duchess. A small point, but.

So. Well. I have long periods of not coughing, but I'm always aware of them as Not Coughing. Look! I'm Not Coughing! So I hope they get longer, and the awareness fades, and I get a nap (ha!). We're going to sign our new, cheaper lease this morning; after that, I'm just going to try to be well. Again. Still. Whatever.

Oh, one more thing: we finally got the last picture from Minnesota off the camera and on the webpage. The one of Cal and Bobbie. So go look.