Well...I hate this. Last week, I started up a little cold, but thought nothing much of it. Did all of the home remedies to soothe the symptoms, but there's really nothing you can do to "cure" them. If you treat a cold, it will last one week. If you don't treat a cold, it will last seven days. I slept as much as I could, drank a ton of tea with honey, took cold meds, yadda yadda yadda. It got better by Tuesday...my nose stopped running, the cough stopped for the most part, my eyes didn't feel like they were bulging out of my head anymore.
Wednesday morning? Woke up with a searing hot pain down my throat. Like, this must be what Stephenie Meyer was writing about for vampires when they wake up from the pain of being transformed, willing to kill to get rid of their throat pain from thirst. I added gargling with warm salt water, chloraseptic spray, and throat lozenges to the mix...to no relief at all. I called my doctor Thursday because there was no relief and was told to go to Immediate Care for a throat culture to check for strep throat (they don't do them in his office), so I did. Two throat cultures later, a negative on the quick result strep test, the doctor saying that he can't even see why it hurts so badly because it's not red and there's no post-nasal drip, a $35 copay, and I was sent on my merry way with a discharge sheet saying "keep doing what you're doing and if it still hurts in a week, call your doctor again." Gee...thanks.
Friday morning? Well...that implies that I actually slept Thursday into Friday night, which I didn't because I kept waking up almost every hour with my throat burning...but anyway. My voice was very hoarse. I head into work wide eyed and bushy tailed...my students are working on one of the four required NYS labs for the Regents exam (I hate those labs, but that's another journal entry for another day.) My co-teacher and I agreed that we would switch who taught which class...I would cover 1st and 11th periods, and she would teach 2nd and 4/5th periods. 1st was rough...hurt my throat a lot, but I managed and was happy when it was done so I could stop talking. When 11th started, I felt like I was going to die, tried pushing through, but had to ask for my co-teacher to jump in and finish the period for me. I don't like asking for help like that...I don't like to feel weak or that I can't do my job because of something...but I couldn't talk anymore. I was squeaking, literally.
Now...7:23am on a Saturday morning? My voice is totally gone. There is nothing left at all except for searing pain. I'm really hoping that it's just laryngitis, and that hopefully I have my voice back by Monday, because my co-teacher isn't going to be there in the morning and I'll have three of the classes on my own (we have a very morning-heavy schedule.) My mom is worried that it's vocal cord polyps, because my grandma had them right around my age and needed them removed, and her symptoms were similar to this. I'm a singer...and this is the season with my favorite songs to sing...I get very sensitive to any damage to my throat and/or voice. So to be honest...yeah, I'm a little scared whenever something like this happens. Plus, I hate not being able to talk. My mom is keeping her cell phone on her constantly in the house so that I can text whatever I want to say. Try having a full conversation like that...fun.
Okay, enough of my complaining. I need to get to my questions!
1. Are you dreaming of a white Christmas?
I'll admit, a green Christmas is weird to me. Strange, foreign, unwelcome. It might be that I'm so used to seeing every Christmas card with snow on the ground, or that I'm in Buffalo and well...snow is expected at this time of year...but yeah. It needs to be a white Christmas. My great-grandmother used to say that if it was a green Christmas, there would be a lot of deaths the upcoming year. Now, I've never tested out that theory or counted and compared or anything, but yeah. I'm not saying that there needs to be six feet of snow...just enough to cover the grass and rooftops for me to be happy.
2. Have you ever had a traumatic Christmas experience?
Well, it wasn't really traumatic for me other than that I got in a lot of trouble one Christmas morning. Remember Beta tapes...before VHS? We had a gigantic (seriously, the thing was huge!) Beta video recorder, and my dad always recorded my brothers and I opening our Christmas presents. Not that we can watch them anymore, because they're all still on Beta tape, and I wish I had this on video for evidence, because I'm sure I was provoked in some way. Don't prod the bull, right? Okay, I'm going off on a tangent, back we go! It was my brothers' first Christmas (yes, plural, they're twins) and I was a jealous (see...provoked!) older sister by four years. I pushed the Beta recorder (supposably on purpose, but where's the proof?!) on Andy as he crawled by. Apparently we're lucky that he wasn't crushed by it, because I think the recorder weighed as much as he did at the time, and I spent the majority of the rest of Christmas in my room, but well...that's the story.
3. When it comes to Christmas decorations, are you more of a Griswald or a Grinch?
In between? I know what I like, and I like simple but still festive. I only like white lights, not the colored ones. I'll go look at and admire the houses with a ton of decorations, but at the same time I'll think "gee, their electric bill must be ridiculous!"
4. When do you open gifts?
Christmas morning. We go to church for the later Christmas Eve service (candlelit and Silent Night's in German,) come home, go to bed, and then wake up bright and early in the morning for presents.
5. Do you think Christmas is still traditional? What traditions does your family have?
I think that families still keep up traditions and fuse them together as they come together...but at the same time, I feel that we're losing touch with the reason for the season. So much focus is on the presents and how much money you spend or don't have to spend, when really it should be us giving the presents to little baby Jesus. Our family traditions? Well I already talked about the candlelit service for church and last week I talked about the pickle in the tree. We always do an orange in the boot of the stocking for good health in the upcoming year. We watch "Little Women" and "Love Actually" on Christmas Eve before going to church (okay, so this is a more recent (past five years) addition to our traditions, but it's still tradition!) When we sit down for dinner on Christmas, after we say the prayer, we sing happy birthday to Jesus. I don't know what other traditions we have...when you do something your entire life, you think that's just normal, right?
6. Are you a gift giver or gift receiver?
I love giving gifts, primarily for the look on the receiver's face when they open it.
Okay...that's all for today...I need to take my little man to see Santa today at PetsMart! He's super excited and has been for weeks...this is his little tradition.
