One day last week, I was thinking to myself, “Wow, we haven’t needed to go to the doctor’s office in such a long time!”

I don’t know about you but every time I think something like that, whether I knock on wood or not, that “something” ends up happening, usually within a day or two. I think it’s part Mother’s Intuition and part Murphy’s Law. Anyway, the next day, Ali was complaining about a sore in her throat that had been there for more than a week.

So, I sighed and called the doctor. Took Ali in the next morning. While we were there, they swabbed her for Strep Throat, just to be safe. There’s a strain of strep going around that isn’t causing a fever. So, since nobody suspects Strep, they don’t go to the doc and don’t get treated, thus spreading it around. Sure enough, Ali’s test came back positive. Since I was sitting there coughing and sniffling myself, they swabbed me, too. Positive as well! Ack!

We were about to head out of town. Richard and Zach were just as sick as I was and we were concerned about Mason and Max (Ali had Scarlet Fever when she was little so I don’t mess around with Strep). Frank had been sick the week before but appeared to be feeling better. Zach’s girlfriend and Ali’s boyfriend were also sick. By the time it was all done, we had five separate prescriptions for antibiotics. The only ones who were okay were Max and Mason.

We ended up getting out of town three hours late but at least we were armed and loaded with medicine. We wore gloves and kept to ourselves for 24 hours so we wouldn’t spread the germs around anymore than we unknowingly already had.

Anyway, Richard was really suffering on Friday but perked up on Saturday. I went downhill all weekend and was feeling pretty cruddy on Sunday night. I tried and tried to go to sleep that night but we were in the middle of a blizzard and the wind was really howling outside. Trying to sleep while the house is shaking, the windows are rattling, and the wind is wailing, all while running a fever and coughing, was quite a feat for me. I was drifting in and out of sleep at one point when my body lifted off the bed and started floating toward the bathroom. I woke up with a start, mopped my forehead, was relieved to find I was once again back on the bed, and once again considered just turning on the TV and just staying up all night instead of fightning for just a few hours of sleep. I guess I kind of dozed off again because I was doing some heavy-duty lucid dreaming. I once again came off the bed and was floating, horizontal, toward the bedroom door. I woke with a start again. This was starting to get creepy! Then, the wind blew the house so hard that it bent backwards, toward the river, and was starting to fall over. I knew it was falling over because my body lifted slightly off the bed and started sliding off. I could physically feel the bed covers rubbing against my legs as I was sliding down. I woke up with a start again, still half-dazed, and wondering if the house really was falling over. I sat up and shook it off, waking Richard in the process. I realized I hadn’t really moved any in the bed so the house was not being blown over and into the river.

I swear I wasn’t on any medicine at all except Amoxicillin. Not even Tylenol! Weird, huh?

I was afraid to try to go back to sleep after that. It was almost 4:00 a.m. and I was about to give up. However, I did go back to sleep and woke up at 6:00 a.m. to the sounds of one car after another squealing their tires on the road while trying to get traction because there was so much ice. I kept trying to get back to sleep but the tires kept squealing and grinding. That went on all day long. Needless to say, on Monday I was a zombie…but my fever went away and I stopped coughing so I just might live! 😉

I can’t remember ever levitating repeatedly in my dreams like that before, though I have dreamed I can fly many times in my life. If the house hadn’t been falling down, it might have actually been kinda fun!

This week’s Maxism:

Almost every morning, the UPS guy delivers print galleys to us for Booklocker.com authors.

One day last week, Percy started barking and we heard a knock on the door. Max yelled upstairs, “The P.U.S. guy is here!”

and

One of Max and Mason’s favorite shows is Blues Clues. If you have a little one, you’ll understand this Maxism: “How come at Joe’s House on Blues Clues he has a talking clock, a talking mailbox, a talking salt shaker, a talking pepper shaker, a talking Paprika, and a talking sidetable drawer….but his dog can’t talk?”

Hugs!

Angela

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