Fun Stuff.

Not really. This past week and a half has sort of flown by in a weird blur. A blur of snow, Mardi Gras, friends and then sickness. Terrible, terrible sickness. But I'll get to that part.
Backing up just a bit, last Thursday (not a few days ago Thursday but the one before that) a good friend came in town for the weekend from New Jersey to visit friends and partake in the Mardi Gras festivities. I picked her up from the airport around 4:30 while it was snowing - not blizarding, but a good steady snow. And it kept snowing. And snowing. We went to dinner in Kirkwood (see previous post regarding sadness in this cute community) and it seriously took us 40 minutes to get home with the snow. We saw four snow plows - but none of them actually had the plow down. Go figure. So when there is snow in St. Louis (more then a "dusting") there is sleding. And since I still have this crazy fascination with snow, I dragged my friend (who grew up with the white stuff) to the local large hill for some sledding action with fellow Florida transplants. A blast. A fun blast, but a blast nonetheless - at least it's a great workout.
Friday was to be a normal everyday sort of day, but there was SNOW! Lots of it! I seriously got out a ruler and walked around the yard measuring the snow and we got between 8 and 12 inches. While that is nothing for Wisconsin, that is a lot for us. A friend called as we were getting better for work and told us they saw that Boeing was closed. Our first response was "Bull S***! Boeing NEVER closes!" We searched the internet and TV and couldn't find any indication they were indeed closed - for the last ditch effort we called the hotline - and sure enough they were closed!!! Since when it snows I usually get a ride to work with Cody and my car wasn't going anywhere with all that snow, I decided to work from home (many of us, knowing we were going to get snow, brought work home just in case). It was such a cool day getting to hang out with Cody (my friend had plans with other friends).
Friday night we went with some other friends over to the "East Side" (East St. Louis - east of the River) to a bar to watch Bon Jovi and Guns and Roses tribute bands. While it sounds dorky - it was AWESOME!! We had such a good time hanging out with friends, listening to old music and just hanging out.
Saturday was, of course, Mardi Gras. We got up way too early (after being out way too late) and dragged our happy butts down to the parade. The parade was lots of fun - good floats and all - then we met up with friends afterwards for general drinking/party fun.
Sunday my friend and I, along with some fellow girls, had a fun "girls night" of bonding and Cheesecake Factory. :)
And Sunday is when it all started. The general body aches. The fever that I couldn't get to break. The cough. The dead tired grossness. It was so bad I couldn't sleep more then 30 minutes out of every few hours because my skin hurt so bad with the fever and the cough and sore throat were bad enough to make me cry. But, like a trooper, I went to work on Monday because they do not like people to call in sick - they automatically think you're lying I think. Too bad I didn't get anything done because I was just trying to survive. Lifting my head hurt. Standing took all my energy. Monday night was more of the same. I didn't even want to sleep in the same bed as Cody because he just couldn't sleep with me coughing and tossing and turning. Fever would just not go away. Tuesday more of the same. Tried to work, basically just sat there trying not to die. Unfortunately Cody came home from school early with the same thing - fever, body aches, insane sore throat and cough. I hurt so bad I called my mom crying, trying to find something to make my skin stop hurting. That night neither of us slept more then 3 hours because of the discomfort. So first thing Wednesday morning, we were at Urgent Care the minute they opened. One Q-tip up our nose (each - two Q-tips total, not one Q-tip for the both of us) and it came back bright and clear "influenza." Apparently what we all call the "flu" is just a bad cold. Real "influenza" is like the black death - or mono - whatever you want to call it. It's bad - very very very bad. So he gave us some lovely anti-flu meds, told us not to go near anyone for five days and sleep. I thought to myself, "Are you kidding, Buddy? We've been TRYING to sleep - it hurts too much!" But we took his medicine and his advice, went to Wal-greens for the meds and 12 bottles of juice and were on our way home. The next few days are a big blur. Mostly just sleep and taking medicine. We literally were sleeping 15-20 hours per day. If you've ever had mono then you know how this feels. We've both had mono and this brought back horrible flashbacks. It seriously took all my energy to walk up the stairs and then back down - and then I would sleep for two hours. It was insane. We had to miss all the fun we had planned for the weekend because for five days you're insanely contagious and I would have died if we gave this to one of our friends (I wouldn't even wish this on enemies). So we have been camped out - just the two of us in our sick bay of a house for days now. We've actually been up for 8 hours already today so that's a good sign. It's bad to work tomorrow - we'll have to see how that goes. The biggest problem now is just the energy - there is none. We tried to take a short walk and I was so exhausted I thought I was going to throw up. So much for working out this week. Anyway, that's our biggest news.
Should have gotten a flu shot. Many moons ago, in law school, I did my civic duty and got my flu shot. Then they stuck a band-aid on my arm and I swear to you it left a discoloured band-aid mark on my skin for 6 months - so for half the year it looked like I had a band-aid on my skin from where the skin was "bleached." I have no idea why that happened, but I've associated it with the flu shot ever since. So I haven't been gettting them. Plus I figured I had the flu before and it was just a big cold - WRONG - I swear I've never had the flu like this. Next year I will be dragging myself and Cody (kicking and screaming if need be) to the doctor for a flu shot - never again.