thursday, march 29, 2001
ear pop

as i have mentioned many times before, i DESPISE being sick. unfortunately that doesn't stop it from happening, especially when my beloved was sick first. after this, he sleeps on the couch and no kisses. i have spent half of my 10-day break under the weather already and, while i am starting to get on my feet now, i am expecting to walk into classes on monday with the remnants still making their presence felt. in the usual manner my body took his junk and turned it into new and more interesting junk. so i got his ear popping, clogging deafness and the congestion, but was also blessed with a nasty throat (which sounds like i gargle with rocks every morning at this point), a hacking cough (really, i didn't need that lung!), teary, goopy eyes, and a fever. when i have been awake i have been on the laptop (because sitting at the desktop is too much effort) working on my writing . . . or sitting and staring mindlessly at the t.v. because my brain is too fried to think. i have been desperately bored, with far too much to do in a week's time, and just haven't had the energy and motivation to do more than check mail. i truly do hate being sick. to add to today's misery, a storm moved in and now my head REALLY hates me. and i really am beginning to hate chicken soup.

the one thing i did get to do in the few days was spend money because most of what we wanted was online available. the entire tax return is gone, almost all the college money i just got, and all of his back pay in unemployment. but we managed 90% of what we intended to do and that is a good thing. i didn't pay out nearly as much to the credit cards as i hoped, but they are "caught up". part of that was utility bills. i think we put out a good $1000 in utilities (obviously some were months behind) as versus the $500 we had planned. i shudder to think what our electric bill is going to look like from now on. we already were suffering a tripled bill, now they are talking a 46% increase now and an additional increase in january? what a way to get out of regulation! and no more leeway on bill payments: it seems to be an all or nothing and NOW not a 3 month deferment as it has been in the past. personally, i think these bozos were just looking for an excuse to get out of pricing limits. so they whine they are poor and about to go bankrupt, throw in a few rolling blackouts and the next thing you know they get an outrageous price hike approved. this for a company that not too long ago paid back millions to investors. seems awful fishy to me, but then i am on the wrong end of things i suppose -- i have to pay the price hike.

anyway, we managed everything we intended to get done except the full amounts on the credit cards we had planned. and you know what? that's livable. we got caught up, my bill stack is much lower, we took care of a few extras we felt were necessary, even picked up a few luxuries. we really couldn't ask for much more at the moment. (well, i could do without being sick, but that's beside the point.) saxy and the kids are getting a new system, i have the laptop to help with reducing the time i spend on notes each weekend, and i have my books for next quarter and school supplies for 4 people all purchased (not an inexpensive thing, that last one!). the utilities are caught up, 3 cards got paid off and 2 others got caught up. i think we did good for not getting a car. at least, there will be a lot less pressure than there was before.

and i think we can live with that.