Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

Just a quick note to explain why I've been (mostly) incommunicado this week.

As it turned out, my sudden weariness (to the point of not being terribly safe behind the wheel of my car) on Sunday afternoon may have been related to something other than simple shortage of sleep in the past. I should have known that when I feel able to sleep (or at least 'rest my eyes' for extended periods of time) in broad daylight, I'm invariably coming down with something.

I had an early breakfast Monday, before spending a surprisingly short time at the Buick dealership (they said they'd fixed the shifting problem in the automatic transmission by putting the latest software updates into the computer controlling it) and then doing the grocery shopping I'd been too exhausted to do on Sunday. I ended up snacking for lunch (chips and grapes -- and okay, maybe I didn't wash the grapes thoroughly enough, or something), and then going to work at the publishing house until evening.

By the time I got home around 8 PM, I felt like going directly to bed . . . where I proceeded to toss and turn all night long, feeling overly chilled (though I only had the A.C. set at 75 degrees) and aching in every muscle and joint in my body. I also had that queasy feeling that comes when you don't think you're in imminent danger of throwing up, but you almost wish you could, because then maybe you'd feel better. When I got up once or twice in the night, my head was spinning and I couldn't walk a straight line or get across the room without bouncing off handy pieces of furniture.

I was better in the morning, though still achy and I gagged at the taste of my cereal, so I ended up just having coffee and orange juice for breakfast, before going right back to work. I was home again by 6 PM, and was able to eat a couple of ham sandwiches for supper (first solid food all day).

By Wednesday morning, however, I had had a good night's sleep (for a change) and felt well enough to wash some dishes and make muffins from the blueberries that had been patiently waiting in the fridge for a week and a half.

Now, I'm feeling pretty much back to normal, except that I still don't get too excited about preparing and consuming solid food -- it still feels like a bit too much trouble to cook much, with my tummy remaining unusually temperamental. However, at least I can cook when I know that I really need to, like using up the blueberries yesterday (after all, even on sale they weren't cheap!) or cooking scrambled eggs with broccoli, onion, and tomato for breakfast this morning (since it was the first solid food I'd had since yesterday morning's muffins, and I would once again, as ever day this week, be putting in a long day of work at the publisher).

So, is there some sort of "12-hours-of-feeling-lousy-followed-by-12-hours-of-feeling-horrid-and-then-you're-pretty-much-over-it" flu going around that I didn't know about? And what ARE the symptoms of West Nile Virus (which they've recently discovered in a mosquito in this county), anyway? Or did I just accidentally ingest a bit of pesticide with my grapes and have to work it out of my system?

At this rate, though, I might actually be able to shed a few pounds before my interest in food returns full force. That's looking on the bright side!