Life 2.1

I have been reminded that a Friday passed and I didn’t post a Get Meaningful entry. Oops. Luckily my faithful readers (aka my mom) reminded me I’m past due.
So on that note:

• A Sunday movie from Blockbuster
• Popcorn to go with the aforementioned movie
• Massages because I haven’t had time to buy a new bed yet and my bed literally hurts me
• Football starting this Friday night! Watch ESPN and see the guys tear it up against Tulsa!

Not making the list this week (or ever) is the ridiculous thunder that occurs in the South. Holy hell Batman! I’m pretty sure this is what a skyscraper being demolished next door would sound like!

I saw this on nola.com today.

Apparently Steven Seagal is going to shoot/has shot a reality show here in Jefferson Parish (read: where I live) about his adventures as a sheriff.

Seriously???

I’m currently on my couch. This is a step up, from my bed, where I have been living for the past 3 days. Why would I live in my bed for 3 days? Oh, that’s easy. I have been fending off death. NBD*.

I have been bored out of my mind since Thursday, when I (and 20+ others who I see on a daily basis) fell ill.

On Wednesday night, I noticed my throat was kinda bugging me but I thought it was because I sleep with a fan on me and I was all dried out. I’m also convinced that my crappy apartment has some sort mold growing in the walls or something. Probably Chinese drywall. So Thursday I woke up and felt the same, I chalked it up to allergies and headed out to practice number one of our last two-a-day.

I made it through the practice, feeling slightly stiff, and I believe I happened to liken myself to a 86-year old woman at one point. Following getting my hair cut, which was cut way to short for my liking–ugh I headed back to work for practice number two. Prior to Practice #2, I headed down to the training room to see about getting something for my chest congestion. Upon entering the training room, there were lots of other people who must have felt like 86-year old women, because there was lots of temperature-taking and the filling out of paperwork. Upon hearing my symptoms, my temperature was also taken and registered as a stellar 101.0 degrees. Fail.

Fast-forward to when I went home early, feeling worse as the evening went on. My entire body ached. Joints that I didn’t know I had hurt. Looks like I shoulda paid attention to the email that circulated a few weeks ago about the cases of H1N1 (read: swine flu) that broke out in another part of campus.

Needless to say, Thursday night’s sleep wasn’t awesome. Friday afternoon I think my fever finally broke because I was sweating like I had just had the workout of my life. I was throwing off BTUs to the point where I got in my car and drove around with the air blowing on me for a while. Sure that my temperature must have been 109 or something, I was in awe when the thermometer beeped that it was only 98.2.

I did get a nice e-card from my office-mate. It was thoughtful.

How thoughtful

I began eating again on Friday, which was neat. I have consumed my weight in chicken noodle soup and am hoping to move onto heavier things shortly. I’m currently feeling exponentially better, although I don’t sound it. I still have a stuffy nose and a cough that would rival a chain smoker but I’m hanging in there.

So in conclusion, swine flu is NOT awesome.

Now I’m off to disinfect my entire house.

*No Big Deal

Please excuse the lameness of the following points but I’m not feelin’ super hot (that will be another post, trust me) so I make no promises.

• Kleenex
• My robe
• e-cards

That’s all I got.

Now that I live in The Boot, I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss hurricane season. That is, June 1-November 1, with the heart of the season ranging from about August 15-the end of September(ish). And I have been paying attention to Tropical Storm Claudette, which is set to hit the Florida panhandle pretty quick, making me think of my own personal plan, should one drift on over to The Boot.

And, since today falls within the aforementioned “heart of the season”, I’m learning about lots of different activity that goes on in the Gulf of Mexico. And I’m learning to decipher initials, and I will now impart my new knowledge on my California (and other non-Boot) readers.

T.W.- I don’t really pay attention to these initials because they stand for Tropical Wave, which isn’t reason to pack up the valuables. They happen all the time and there are tons happening each hurricane season and the winds usually only get up to 25 mph, if that. That’s not even fast enough to get a speeding ticket in a neighborhood.

T.D.- While I would normally associate these letters with a score in the game of American football, in the world of weather, it stands for Tropical Depression. It’s the next phase after a tropical wave. It’s still “disorganized” (another meteorologist term) but there is this thing called “closed circulation” which is when winds are no longer blowing in every which direction like they do with a tropical wave, but instead blowing counter-clockwise.

T.S.- A tropical depression becomes a Tropical Storm when lots of thunderstorms and the like move over the closed circulation and winds get be anywhere from 40ish mph to 79 mph.

Hurricane- This does not need any kind of initialing with it because when a tropical storm hits hurricane status, I’m tail lights.

But don’t worry. I have a plan in case this happens. First, I monitor this site. Technically because of my job, I’m considered “Mission Critical” (their name, not mine) which means I evacuate with my team currently in season (football) and that plan is to go to Jackson, Mississippi Shreveport, Louisiana. Personally-speaking, I will be putting all 18 of my scrapbooks in a black plastic garbage bag (it’s probably raining so I gotta waterproof them, duh!) then into my largest suitcase, grabbing the fire/water/bullet/100-pound anvil-proof briefcase that contains any important documents and my external hard drive and a bag of clothes (obvi) and putting it all in my trunk prior to the evacuation. In case you need to know.