Last week when I talked about having pink eye, Liz commented “Oh no – have you got Covid?” She said she recently had conjunctivitis with Covid. I looked it up, and yes, pink eye is a complication with the new strain of Covid. At that point I could tell I was getting better, so it didn’t seem worth it to get a Covid test. But Covid always seems to me like a cold with an extra edge of nastiness, so I think that’s what I had.
That brings me to my “demerits to the universe.” In addition to the pink eye, which was a nightmare, I also lost my sense of smell and taste. This is making me very sad! I’m even missing the taste of my green tea, believe it or not (now it just tastes like a cup of hot water). The second demerit, universe, is I’ve had a headache for the past three days. Obviously this is really unpleasant.
Since headaches aren’t contagious, I’m back at work. Last week I felt like crap but at least I was home, napping and reading. This week I feel like crap but I’m working. HMMM. But, as Gretchen Rubin says after demerits, “Take us up with a gold star!” Yes, I do have some.
The first gold star (to the universe)- my pink eye is ALL GONE and I can finally put in my contacts. Phew- I feel much more like myself, and I can wear sunglasses again! No more squinting into the sun.
Second gold star- a couple people commented that when they had pink eye, they couldn’t read. AAAACK! What a tragedy that would have been! I’m grateful I could read the whole time, and I’m especially happy that I finally got to start this book:
This is the third book in Horowitz’s Ellen Ryeland series, which I like even better than the Hawthorne books. I’m loving this one! I’m only about 100 pages in, but I’m in nu rush to get through it. I want this reading experience to last as long as possible.
The third gold star actually goes to SHU!. When she gave me the Summer Playbook, she also gave me a couple other books, including this:
I had forgotten about it, but this seemed like a good time to pull it out. And, as an added bonus, Sarah had marked passages from the book!
It’s super fun to go through and see what parts she liked. As a matter of fact, it was the perfect way to read this book. Everything in it is good, but a lot of it I’ve heard before. It was nice to go through and get the highlights.
I liked chapter six, “Break Up With Breaking News.” Ugh, following the news is so draining. Carver says “Much of our stress comes from mentally living out of our own business.” Omg, Elon musk and Trump had a big fight… wait. This is not my own business. Ignore.
I also liked “Where you are right now is where you are. You aren’t behind. You aren’t caught up. You are here. It’s really all you get.” I needed to hear that, because I’ve been starting to feel like this summer is slipping away from me. What happened to my summer of strength? What about all the speed work I was going to do??? Okay, okay. THERE WILL BE A TIME AFTER THIS.
Thank you to Sarah and the universe for my gold stars!
Do you have any demerits or gold stars for the universe?
Top photo by Arnaud Mariat on Unsplash
