where his civilizations, including our own

Oh yeah, well I think football is dumb! I played SimCity all day.

I feel a lot better. I'm going back to work tomorrow.

In other news, I'm a huge noob. My whole life until now, I thought Jimi Hendrix wrote All Along The Watchtower. :(

Oh god, the coughing. I know you're supposed to take expectorants to get rid of the mucous but I think I need to get a cough suppressant for tonight, or the lack of sleep will do me in.

So, I guess I was marching towards my physical limit, without knowing it until I was there. This morning I got up and got dressed and then realized there was absolutely no way I could even make it to the bus stop to go to work, let alone do any work when I was there. There were strong arguments in favor of going to work at least for a little while:

1) I had left some stuff unfinished thinking I could do it today
2) I was the only one opening, and Boss would already be on her way to other store, so she probably couldn't get there and open in time
3) If she had to turn around and open our store, she would have to cancel interviews she was going to do

The spirit was willing, but the flesh was just, no. If it had been a matter of life or death to get to that store I MIGHT have been able to do it, but anything less than that, it wasn't going to happen.

I called Boss and got her voice mail, so I called Other Store Manager, which was probably better anyway because he has something she generally lacks: The ability to perceive when a situation is serious. He said he would figure something out and I hung up, and then I stayed in bed asleep or half-asleep for the rest of the day.

Boss called at some point and informed me that she was taking me off the schedule for the rest of the week, because next week she has to go to some trade show so "what happened today can't happen next week". I suspect that it wouldn't have "happened" in the first place if she had, you know, had me stay home when I was sick, rather than pushing it until I physically couldn't do it anymore.

The antibiotics are doing wonders for my throat, but now I'm back in full blown cold symptoms again, really severe congestion and all that. I think I would have been okay if I'd been able to take time off work, but well... I can't.

At work I was being very quiet and substituting nods and gestures for when I might otherwise say something. Nobody noticed except one freakazoid customer who gave me this move after I rang her up:

her: "Can I say something to you?" <---- NEVER GOOD
me: "Yeah?"
her: "When you rang me up you didn't say thank you, as a person working in a store you should always do that." [instead I had nodded to her pleasantly]
me: [suppressing rage] "I have a bad sore throat and it hurts to talk, so I'm not talking when not needed. I'm sorry if that offended you."
her: "Oh, I didn't know you were sick."

So she somehow missed the incessant coughing and the fact that when I did speak, I sounded like I was being strangled with sandpaper. Very nice.

And you know really, even if I weren't sick? She's still the jerk in the situation for saying something clearly intended to belittle the poor schmuck at the cash register. Didn't say "thank you"? You need to mention this? Why? In what world would it *improve* the outlook of the person you say it to?

People who say things that can only conceivably cause negative responses... they epically fail.

I'm much better today already. It was still hard to fall asleep but I wasn't waking up all the time. Swallowing is much easier. My faith in medical science is restored! Well not really. But still.

florahart is a genius, as usual. It never even occurred to me there might be things like this that are actually open on Sundays!

So I went down there at about 1pm and they said there were enough people in line ahead of me that I should come back at 3pm. I did, and then waited another hour which wasn't all that bad. The place was in the very Spanish-speaking part of Oakland (when you call, the message starts in Spanish and then informs you that if you want English you should oprima el ocho), and was inside a Farmacia Remedios, which is the Spanishy drug store around here.

In the clinic area they were playing Tejano music that was, by my standards, quite loud. The one other white person in the place eventually complained to the receptionist and asked her to turn it down, which she did a little. Cultures. :P

At last they tested me for strep and it was positive, which made me very happy. Having experienced a medical problem that took over 6 months to even get a questionable diagnosis, the knowledge that I have a well known curable disease is gratifying. I have antibiotics now. And a piece of paper from a doctor that proves I'm sick.

As for tomorrow, Boss can't cover and neither can Other Store Manager, but Other Store Minion offered to come do it if I come in the morning to let her in and come back to close for her. That's the best they could do, so I agreed to it. Tuesday who knows.

I feel kinda okay otherwise, but my throat if anything is worse. The night was pretty hellish, I couldn't fall asleep and then when I did, kept waking up every half hour. I can't remember pain ever waking me before, let alone repeatedly. I thought about going to the emergency room, not because I feel it's life threatening, but because I don't want to wait until Monday. If I didn't already have significant unpaid medical bills, I probably would.

I don't want to go to work tomorrow... but taking a Monday off is extremely challenging, because Boss can't cover it (child care) so it would involve calling Other Store Manager and making him do it, in the midst of the transition to New Overlord. Not to mention I don't really want New Overlord's first impression to be that I'm flaky, so if I do this I BETTER really have strep throat or something equally impressive.

Well after making that post I went to work. I had a very nasty sore throat which started last night, really bad pain high up in the back of the throat while swallowing. But I felt okay otherwise so I figured it was just my cold's last hurrah.

Then while on my way to work I started to feel tired and achy... I got there and met New Overlord who seems nice and not evidently insane. Then he and Boss went to lunch and by the time they got back an hour later, I felt like I was going to fall down and had to go home.

I picked up some ice cream which is all I've been able to eat. It still hurts to swallow it but not nearly as bad as swallowing water, which is excruciating. Like I said I tried that vile throat spray stuff, which is an act of true desperation because it makes me retch.

So... tonsilitis maybe? It's certainly in that area, but looking in the mirror I don't see anything. I have access to a doctor but very probably not until Friday. Though I could probably get to the free clinic on Monday; they're pretty good for "here's some antibiotics" type stuff.

You only get sworn in as President once, it'd be nice if they could not screw it up. Almost as bad as Neil Armstrong blowing his lines.

Aside from that, it was my brother's birfday. He turned 21. This is a perplexing development, as I'm fairly sure he was a small baby yesterday.

And something quite good was accomplished by a person dear to my heart! (I almost wrote that something good "happened to" her, but that would be very inaccurate.) A painful chapter was closed and a new beginning embarked upon. Sorry this is about as detailed as a newspaper horoscope, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell people about it. :P

My sinuses didn't explode. A friend suggested I boil water and put a towel over my head and breathe the steam, which was sound advice. I can sort of breathe now, which is an improvement, though talking is touch and go.

I discovered there is a "low cost" optometry clinic somewhere, which I need because I don't have eyeball insurance and my glasses aren't glassing very well. To sign up for it you apparently have to call on a Thursday between 11:30 and 12:00. To be honest this is not very encouraging, but we'll see. I expect there's a long waiting list.

I'm pretty sure my sinuses are going to explode.

Think a soothing thought for _hannelore at around 9:30am eastern.