LadyGypsy.net – the blog of Kimberly Dowd of New Jersey

Just when I felt like NaNoWriMo has sucked out all my will to write, a gorgeously germy and infectious Friday Five comes along. This week we’re talking about Illness.

1) When you’re sick in bed, do you prefer to be left alone or to be taken care of?
I like having my tea and water and toast brought to me, but other than that I’m fine reading and dozing off all day.

2) How difficult or cooperative are you as a patient?
I’d like to think I’m very cooperative. I do tend to resist medicines though, unless it’s my sweet beloved Nyquil.

3) It’s just a really bad cold so all you can do is ride it out. What are your strategies?
Socks, quilts, books, Nyquil and lots of naps.

4) How ill do you have to feel in order to shut it down for the day?
I used to be one of those who toughed it out no matter what. You know what I’ve learned? That doesn’t matter AT ALL. Because people who have perfect attendance get laid off too. So for me to call out of work, my malady needs to be one of the below:

a) Stomach-based. I sit a LONG distance and many rows of cubicles from the ladies’ room and if I’m unable to keep my food inside me, I can’t chance it. When I sat in our old online area, I was more likely to come in if I was queasy because we were right next to the ladies room. Literally, my sick days increased when they moved me out onto the sales floor.
b) Fever. When I have a fever I’m either sweating through my clothes or my teeth are audibly chattering. Not very cubicle-friendly.
c) Blinding headache. If the monitor hurts me when I look at it, I’m not going to be productive anyway.

5) Waves of nausea are washing over you and through you. Do you fight them off, or do you just throw up to get it over with?
I’ll get it over with. That doesn’t involve any active measures on my part. I find that if I’m that bad, sitting on the floor staring at the toilet is enough to get the ball rolling, so to speak.

Feel better, Scrivener!

(gah, that calendar picture looks gray. Great scanning job, Kim)

This week’s Friday Five finds me off today so in lieu of the calendar, let’s have glimpse at breakfast. Oatmeal in a bowl and coffee in a cup is a decadent treat anymore, since I usually have my oatmeal in a container and my coffee in a thermos.

This week’s theme is Holy Moly!

1. What gives you the heebie-jeebies?
Being approached from behind. Because of my bum ear, I don’t hear people walking close to me, especially in the office. Then when they start talking, I shoot through the ceiling. I startle so easily. I hate it. It’s not something you want to be when you work in an open plan office, that’s certain.

2. When were you most recently in double trouble?
Now, actually. It’s nonbloggable, so I’m moving on.

3. What puts you in the mood for some hanky-panky?
A sharp dressed man. Suit/suspenders/fedora/kilt, but not all at once, obviously. Also, Dave Matthews Band “Crush” or Wagner’s “Flight of the Valkyries.” Again, not both at once. But that’d be a neat mashup. Someone go do that for me.

4. What easy-breezy task is still a pain in the neck to accomplish?
Walking the dogs. It’s simple, in theory. The larger, nuttier dog is on a regular leash. The smaller, pokier dog is on a long retractable leash so he can be poky while we walk ahead. I carry my iPhone for tunes and a roll of bags for waste disposal.

In the summer it’s not so bad. But now it’s squirrel season and my dogs love to chase squirrels. I fully accept the responsibility for this bad habit I helped instill in them. But it’s taken my peaceful stroll and turned it into a cavalcade of NO.

5. What area in your life seems especially rife with mumbo-jumbo?
My job! (But I bet yours does too.) Lots of paperwork and arcane ways of doing things. Want to sell a new product? Fill out eighteen sheets of paper and wait forever ’til it gets into the system. They work in inches, not pixels so anything online has to be converted to inches for ordering/billing purposes. “How many pixels in an inch?” “Depends on your resolution. If you’re at 72 dpi then…” (other person passes out)

***
Wanna know how I spent last night? Copiously weeping at YouTube videos of Les Mis songs. I never saw the musical (I know, right?) but I read the book.

SPOILER ALERT (highlight that with your mouse): Almost everyone dies.

I’m glad I never went to see it. I’d be an absolute mess.

Today I think I’m going to live large and go to Old Navy. Tonight, more felt meat! Yay Friday!

It’s time again for the Friday five, and this week’s theme is: Every Sha-La-La-La.

NB: I can’t stand the Carpenters. Their songs are just devoid of joy. They make me want to sleep ’til I fall into a coma. Their Christmas songs are dirges. Moving on../

1. Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?

It has to be the large container of french fries I lug around. Those seagulls are really aggressive! I’ve heard that playing Carpenters music will actually stop most birds mid-flight, causing them to fall to the ground with a resounding thud. Other birds will voluntarily fly into buildings and plate glass windows, trying to end the pain.

2. What always gets you down?

That unrequited love exists. And Carpenters songs.

3. If you had to live yesterday once more (literally yesterday, as in Thursday the 14th), which part might be worth writing a pretty pop song about?

Watching the last of the Chilean miners coming out of the tiny shaft. But then the Carpenters would take my happy pretty pop song and ruin it to the point that the miners would want to go back underneath and I would just cut myself to make the pain stop.

Crap. I cheated and pre-wrote this when the questions came out last night so I wouldn’t be late for work today. Let me re-answer for yesterday.

Plotzing through puddles of a cleansing, soaking rain on my way home from work. But then the Carpenters would take my happy pretty pop song and ruin it to the point where I would drown myself in a puddle just to make the pain stop.

4. Where’s the coolest place you’ve been where you could look “down on creation?”

I rode the Insanity ride atop the Stratosphere when I was in Las Vegas all those years ago for my 9th (and final, as it turned out) anniversary. On top of the world one day, in the depths 3 months later.

Only the Carpenters are more painful than that was.

5. What’s something in your life that has only just begun?

My 2010 baking season! Breads and cookies ahead! Even the Carpenters can’t suck the joy out of eating food.

Oh, wait. My bad.

***
Mood: Rotten. But it’s Friday, which means tonight I’ll have some Bailey’s & Coffee, wrap myself up in a quilt, and leave the stress of the week behind me.

I know what will cheer me up…

Ugh. Erk.