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 no 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
16 Responses
Argh. No wonder you were feeling so crummy. I suspect with the loss of smell/taste, you definitely had COVID. It comes with so many nasty side-issues (my problems were hearing related, but thankfully we got on top of that with prednisone so the loss wasn’t permanent; we have a friend who had similar issues and now has a permanent hearing aid 🙁 )
I hope the headaches are in your rearview mirror very quickly; it can be a very all-consuming pain and must be hard to work while battling the discomfort.
WHAT, that’s horrible! At least I can pretty confidently say none of my issues are permanent. And, luckily today is my day off. I’m hopeful that I’ll be feeling much better when I go to work tomorrow.
Ugh I’m sorry you’re still not feeling 100%, but at least the pink eye is gone! But having to deal with headaches for multiple days while having to work is no fun.
My demerit is it’s been SO HOT here! Obviously I know it’s summer, but the heat snuck up really fast, and we have another extreme heat warning starting tomorrow, and it’s gonna be in the 110s again. This heat really sucks for trying to plan out my long run, as even the mountains are gonna be pretty warm. But the gold star that goes along with the heat is the A/C has been broken all week at work so I’ve gotten to work from home, and I have Thursday and Friday off for Juneteenth, so it’s felt like a very short week, which I can’t complain about!
Omg- 110s. I remember that kind of heat from being in Texas. Here, it’s “only” in the 90s but very humid, and I can’t take it. I ran on the treadmill today! Well- at least you could work from home, and enjoy your days off!
I’m getting closer to tossing our stash of COVID tests for this very reason – if someone gets sick then they’re sick. It doesn’t seem like there is any point in finding out whether it’s COVID or just a really nasty cold.
Anyway, let’s get that headache GONE and your sense of taste back!
Not following the news is my #1 mental health tip. I don’t need to watch the Trump and Elon show.
Yes, the way I see it is, if I’m contagious I’m staying home. Obviously I couldn’t go to work with pink eye- it didn’t matter if the accompanying illness was a cold or Covid. I guess the difference would be if you wanted to take Paxlovid- but I think you have to do that right in the beginning. I’m not sure I see myself running to get a test every time I feel a cold coming on.
I’ll give a gold star to Gone with the Wind. I wound up finishing it in a marathon reading session Sunday afternoon into night. As much as I can’t love Scarlett , I have to admire her. And the visual descriptions in the book are amazing.
Demerit- not getting to the pool or gym. I’m very tired right now for now good reason.
Glad you’re feeling better, at least in some ways!
OH YOU FINISHED IT! Yes, that book really lends itself to marathon reading sessions. I agree- I admire Scarlett. I also wanted her to make some different decisions, and that was frustrating. But the writing was incredible. I loved it.
Oh Jenny — what a frustrating, yucky couple of weeks. I hope your taste and smell return quickly, that sounds especially disheartening.
I love that passage you quoted about where you are is where you are. Such a good reminder to be present.
The Susan Ryeland books are my preferred series, too, of the Horowitz mysteries. I think because Hawthorne is such a jerk??? I don’t know. I’m not going to skip ANY of them, no matter what. I am constantly in awe of Horowitz and how he can churn out so much fiction and that each Susan Ryeland book has a whole book-within-a-book situation happening. He is amazing.
Yes, I agree! These are especially good with the book-within-a-book. I guess I like that format, and I also like Susan’s character, while I agree that Hawthorne is a jerk. Like you, I’ll read every single one though.
Ugh–so Covid! Poor you. Gold star for not giving it to anyone else, surely?! I hope your sense of smell and taste return soon–you were just making peace with your diet too. It can’t be fun eating new food if you can’t even taste it.
My demerits are the medical tests I’ve ignored for too long…
So far no one else in my family has gotten it! We have a record of never giving Covid to each other (we’ve all had it but not at the same time) so it looks like we’ve continued the streak.
Yes to the medical tests! I’m doing it too- we’ll be happy when they’re done.
Were you just out and about in this world with COVID? No mask? Egads. Being sick in the modern world is a gamble, isn’t it?
I hope you start feeling better soon. I only had COVID once and it was nothing like a cold, so I hope it remains not terrible!
The thing I feel bad about is, last Monday (ten days ago) I went to work. I couldn’t figure out why my eye was so irritated (I’ve never had pink eye before, I thought it was just my contact.) So I was probably contagious that day. On Tuesday when I realized I was sick, I stayed home. By Saturday I felt better, so I drove my daughter to Tampa, but canceled all the plans I had for that day (to meet with a friend, and attend the protest, ha, that’s a laugh) and just kept to myself. Finally went back to work this Monday, when the pinkeye was all gone. I figured I’m not contagious anymore. So, I did my best of staying away from people. Oddly no one in my family got sick!
I think I had the same thing BUT I took a covid test just for kicks and it was neg! (it was a very old test though so who knows!). i also still kind of have a headache! Whatever it is, it def sounds like the same bug! (It went through our entire house and Annabel has it now – but improving)
and so glad you like gentle even with my random highlighting!!!!