Hello everyone. Hope you had a good Festivus/Christmas/Kwaanza. I’m not feeling very merry these days: I’ve been out of commission since about Christmas. First it was dry throat, then burning eyes, then wham! fever, cold sweats, body aches, and then I could not get out of bed! Pretty much my entire weekend was shot sweating buckets in bed. Sure, I managed to finish that fourth and final book of the year (a good read) but damn, I was supposed to be raring to go come Monday. You know, finish the year out strong! Well today is Monday, and I was still a goddamn mess. Four days, in bed. Enough is enough.

I thought maybe I had strep, because my throat hurt like hell. I was drinking so much tea with honey and lemon, I was peeing on the hour! Then I was hot, then cold, then hot, then cold. Fucking A! So I got an appointment with the doctor this evening. No, not strep throat. I have the fucking swine flu!! Can you believe this shit? Goddamn H1N1 in my house, in MY body! I’m so sick of my body letting me down, and boy has it disappointed this year. Seriously. First, I had random skin allergies, then I got food poisoning right around my friend’s wedding in June, now swine-fucking flu. Meanwhile my doctor was this preggers lady, but she’s still seeing sick people like me! Why can’t I have that level of toughness? I’m sick of this bullshit. I mean, I exercise regularly, I don’t do drugs, I hardly drink, I don’t smoke… what more am I supposed to do to optimize? I’m pissed. So the doctor says going into the office is out of the question the rest of the week. I just hope my body permits me a few hours of normalcy per day so I can get SOME work done from home. We’ll see though. Can’t have high expectations anymore. How’s that for new year’s resolutions?

The weekend before Xmas (and before my illness), John, the pups and I drove south for a couple days. We went to Hearst Castle, met up with some friends in Pismo Beach, stayed night in Santa Maria, then checked out Solvang, Ballard (Lake Cachuma), and Santa Barbara. I enjoyed the road trip, but it was probably just a tad too long in the car for me…

I’ve been back about two weeks now… my re-assimilation is mostly complete. I was surprised to learn that despite my month-long habit of eating late dinners (past 9 p.m.) in Spain, I had only gained a few pounds or so. Guess all that walking to/from school helped me burn off that bread, cheese, and fried meat. Of course, since then has been a whole other story. Seriously, I just cannot control myself with Bubbey’s cooking. It’s like when my brother was in college, he participated in this week long Outward Bound-type of activity. His body felt so starved during the week that after he returned, his body just couldn’t stop eating. It was like stockpiling for the next bout of hunger. I kind of feel like that– I had gone so long without that coming back to homemade French bread, pretzels, fried rice, HK milk tea… I sort of went crazy. I think I’ve piled on about 5 lbs. I know, normally whatever, it all comes out in the wash, but my pants/jeans are getting tight and well, to be honest, the muffin top is extremely uncomfortable. Think I’ll go board skating a bit today. It really has been ages.

So I have finally started my fourth and final book for the year. I know, I can see my bookworm buddies rolling their eyes right now. You don’t have to tell me: I’m pathetic. But hey, give me some credit for trying to finish the year out strong. I have two weeks to cram this final read: Waiter Rant. I finally cracked the shit open this morning… I swear I am the world’s slowest reader (probably because I do it so often, right?). I think I read like two chapters in an hour. But I just finished my first mug of milk tea. Man, if I ever found a substance on which I could grow addicted (besides internet, of course), I think it would have to be milk tea. John has truly mastered it’s making, and since I normally consume very minimal amounts of caffeine, drinking this crack is like giving me superpowers. I get a whole new wave of energy– Powerpill Amplified! Fucking awesome. But I don’t like the concept of addiction, so I think I’ll have to cut it back. Seriously, I’m that much of a control freak. I have to know I can cut it off just. like. that. So I’ll have one wave of superpowers today but after that, back to Powerpill regular. Boo.

What else. Work has been insanely busy. While I was away, I still did some work and checked my email and shit (surprise, surprise), so actually, when I got back at the beginning of December, I was mostly caught up. But damn, December is full of project milestones and I’m just busy– budget planning, newsletter production next month, videos… I do love this job though. Seriously, everyday, I thank my lucky stars for this miracle. I continue to be amazed. And I look forward to Christmas week when the office will be closed, but I’m going to go in. It will be so quiet. I’m so happy thinking about all the shit I’ll get done. I know, I’m a workaholic. But don’t worry about me: John and I are staying in town, and I’ll still be off on Christmas eve and Christmas day. That’s plenty of time off for the holidays. Bleck!

In other news, we’re heading to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara next weekend with the pups. I sure hope this recent wet weather takes a break. I could use some sunshine, because the weather’s starting to influence my mood. 🙂

Oh by the way, the verdict on my new boots? Fucking awesome. Love them. Of course, since they are my priciest shoe/clothing purchase EVER, I’m wearing them 24/7 now– gotta lower the price per wear to something I can tolerate, you know? 🙂 Just kidding but boy, what a relief to finally have comfortable AND stylish shoes. Who the fuck knew this was possible? Like to this level of comfort, really. Plus they are waterproof and have awesome grip–I’m Wonder Woman in these suckers!

Speaking of clothes/shoes, remember Esprit from back in the day? Can’t believe they are still around. I randomly came across them through some Google Adsense link… a little young but not bad for ideas! See what I mean? My brain is practically on crack with this milk tea shit!

Another restless night in Spain… since I had to awake before the crack of dawn this morning, I went to bed early to ensure a full night’s rest. No such luck. The street outside my hostal was quiet compared to the cacophony of Saturday night, but I was simply too damn excited to sleep. It’s been 3.5 weeks– seemingly long and yet still kind of short. I should say, I was surprised that my taxi ride was freaking 40 euros for about 20 minutes. That’s the downside of Madrid– no decent mode of transportation to/from the airport, particularly outside the metro/airport bus operating times. I suppose it’s easy money to get the tourists. But just a minor annoyance.

Last night, I skipped dinner and grew so hungry dreaming of all my favorite foods– Thai, Indian, California, Chinese, pizza… I couldn’t decide whether right off the plane in SFO I would grab an In N Out burger or pizza. I gotta give props to all the doner/kebab shops– they provided welcome respite from salty, heavy tapas and bocadillos. I actually had a salad with a dressing other than oil and vinegar!

Hmm, interesting. I’m actually catching a British Airways flight (not Iberia) into London. Yay, that means free pillow, blanket, food, and drink. The Brits are living it up, I tell you. I was so focused on scoring my max legroom seats on the long haul, that I totally skipped over getting good seats on the 3-hr leg to LON. Duh. Oh well. Hopefully, I’ll just crash either way.