Not doing the FOOD & FITNESS thing today…I’m sick, haven’t eaten much, and have not worked out.  So there’s THAT brief summary! 

LIFE

Dear Lord, my life is never dull.  Not that I’m complaining too much – but sometimes…dull would be nice.  Not often, but one or two days a year.  That’s really all I’m asking for.

It has been an interesting couple of days.  I knew I was feeling a little off on Sunday, but I figured it was either my new multi-vitamin making me dizzy (it’s happened before), or my swim was a little too hard and I didn’t properly re-fuel after.  By Monday evening though, I knew something else was cooking.  I felt more or less okay, just stuffy.  I did my neti pot thing and hoped I nipped that.

Oh boy, it’s amazing what can happen overnight when one sleeps.  I woke up yesterday morning felling like someone filled my head with cotton.  Heavy, wet, and dark green cotton.  It’s funny how you just know when something has progressed past your ability to fix it.  I knew that I had a sinus infection.  Quite probably an ear infection too, considering how much my right ear hurt.  My head was throbbing, my throat was sore, and I was more than a little pissed off about it.

This happens to me like clockwork once a year – usually when the weather changes.  And each year I am forced to wait the prescribed 7-10 days to be sure it isn’t a viral thing (doctors appropriately are reluctant to prescribe antibiotics), and then once that time has passed and I’m now sicker than crap, I get the antibiotics and feel better 3-5 days later.  So each year I get a royally bad sinus and ear infection that lasts about 2 weeks.  With my trip starting tonight, there was absolutely no way I was going to do that.

So I called my Dr office and found she couldn’t get me in.  I went into Urgent Care prepared to explain my long history of sinus infections and battle the doctor for antibiotics.  Protest with a sit-in in the exam room if necessary.  But no need!  The doctor was great.  She looked in my ear and nose, knew right away it was an infection, and prescribed me a 3-day antibiotic that I took as soon as I could, about an hour later.  Woo hoo…here’s hoping I’m ALL better before the conference starts on Friday.

On a side note, I was downtown when the earth started to move under my feet.  Literally!  VA had an earthquake centered about 38 miles outside of Richmond.  We certainly felt it here in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, and in much further reaches of the country.  I read that the earth’s crust in this coast is pretty smooth (all things considering), so the waves can travel happily over hundreds of miles, explaining why all along the eastern seaboard it was felt.  The worse part was the cell service being offline for about a half hour afterwards.  We all recovered just fine and are now talking about the great quake of 2011.

While the possible violence of mother nature is absolutely nothing to joke about, we are gearing up for another blow that will possibly hit us in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Hurricane Irene is plowing her way through the Bahamas today and is on track to hit the Carolinas on Saturday, and my area of Hampton Roads on Sunday.  We’re normally pretty secure as we’re a bit protected by being more inland than our North Carolina neighbors.  What we typically experience are the outer bands of major storms, lots of rain and some flooding, but nothing like a direct hit.  It’s said that we get hit maybe 1 in every 10 years.

The last hurricane to hit Hampton Roads was Hurricane Isabel in Sept. 2003.  That hit us as a Category 1, and caused $1.85 billion in damages.  People were without power, gas, and running water for days, not to mention the flooding of tunnels.  It happened 3 1/2 months before my family moved to the area, and I was hoping to never have to live through it.  It’s now 8 years later, and Irene is predicted to be a Cat 3 when/if it hits.  We’re doing the best we can to prepare, and I can say I’m honestly worried.  I’ll be honest too, that I’m not thrilled with the coincidence that both of these deadly ladies have names beginning with “I”.

Well enough of the doomsday talk!  Let’s just hope Irene decides to take a severe right turn soon, and putter out over the ocean without harming anyone.

I was supposed to get my nails done last evening.  I was downtown for work and ready to head to the spa when I really started not feeling well.  Thank goodness I work for a hospital, right?  103 fever.  Just lovely.  So, I called the spa to cancel (sorry for everyone that has to see me this weekend with chipped fingernails!  The toes still look good though).

I was freezing the entire drive home.  I rolled up the windows, no AC, and darned near turned the heat on.  I stumbled into the front door and I don’t really remember the drive home, and was on a mission to warm up.  Right after I went upstairs to put on fleece jammies and a sweatshirt, I grabbed my pillow and went outside into the warm VA sun to lie in my yard on a lawn chair in an effort to warm up.  Once my Tylenol kicked in, so did my common sense.  I imagine I made a heck of a sight for any neighbors who happened to look in my yard.  It’s nearly 90 degrees, and here I am in a hoodie and sweat pants curled up on a lawn chair with my dog’s head on my lap.

Most of the rest of the evening was spent in bed watching a TON of TV.  And on several conference calls dealing with a system crisis at work.  I kept the Tylenol and motrin onboard to keep any fevers down, so at least I’d be coherent to my co-workers.  I managed to sleep well both the last two nights.  I think my body knows it needs the rest.

Today has been a lot of work, scrambling to get our production issues under control as well as prepping for any IT system issues as a result of Irene.  And I stopped at the grocery to buy them out of bottled water….just in case!

I also finally finished (ish) packing this morning.  My suitcase is ready, and most of my carry on!  The trip is going to be a bit crazy – I’m not scheduled to land until midnight in Seattle – which is 3am my time.  Which means by the time I get my luggage, my car, and get to my hotel, I’ll have been up nearly 24 hours.  While being sick.  Should be an adventure!

my suitcase. with plenty of extra room to bring back fun things!

my awesome carry on bag!

key carry on items. My Kindle, my iPad, and my magazine. Magazine required for when I can't use electronics during take off and landing!

I will spend tomorrow and part of Friday in Seattle before heading down to the conference that afternoon!  There are a ton of amazing things scheduled, from cooking demos, round table discussions, podcasting workshop (I’m going to that one!  Watch out…may end up with a blog, a vlog, and a podcast by the time I leave!), and even a dressy fundraiser.  Little black dress and heels are packed!  I plan to do a lot of blogging while I’m gone as well as frequent Twitter updates during the con.  If you’re on Twitter, follow the trend #VidaVeganCon to catch everyone’s highlights!