19.02.08

Apparently, Bartlesville is the sickest community in Oklahoma right now. We have all sorts of flu strains floating around; Type A, Type B, flu’s so bad that they turn into pneumonia or bronchitis if left untreated. Last week my parents contracted a nasty stomach flu, otherwise known as the Norovirus. My mom actually got it twice, was sick one day, thought she’d recovered until she spent the next two days even sicker than she was before.

Since having Liam, I’ve been more worried when flu season comes around. It’s easy to catch stuff working a service desk at a public library. People come in sneezing, coughing, blowing their noses. Then they touch our books, use our computers, type on our keyboards. I have a bottle of Germ-X on my desk and have been particularly OCD about using it lately.

However, by last week I started to get the feeling I wasn’t going to be able to avoid the flu much longer. I had already been getting these random symptoms, that head fever headache feel but it would just never quite develop into anything. In the end, it happened so often that I put it down to allergies even though I’m not usually prone to allergies. But last week several staff members were out with the flu, and Wednesday night a teenager puked next to one of the public computers while I was at work. Then on Saturday, I played a volleyball tournament in Ochelata where someone’s kid puked in the gym. Here we were, in a contained building, with everyone sweating and passing around the same ball. At that point, I knew it was only a matter of time. Sure enough, early Monday morning, the Norovirus made it’s first appearance in my toilet bowl. I ran into the bedroom, woke Mike up to tell him that I was heading over to Mom and Dads for “quarantine”…and here is where I’ve been. I haven’t seen my baby in two days. I don’t think I’ve ever been away from him this long. I’m going nuts.

Thankfully, the worst of it is over although I do feel incredibly weak and woozy when standing. I’m also glad to report that Mike and Liam are still symptom free but just to be sure, I’m spending another night at my parents. By tomorrow, it will have been more than 48 hours since I’ve had contact with Liam. I miss him like crazy. I know I’ve already said that but I’m saying it again for emphasis.

Here’s a video of Liam rolling dice during Mike’s gaming session yesterday.

In case you didn’t know already, I love chocolate. If a nutritionist examined my chocolate intake they would probably conclude that I consume far more than I should. I love the stuff. However, I do tend to rely too much on store bought items and would really like to get into creating my own chocolate treats. This is a daring prospect for me considering cooking/baking really aren’t my forte. But, I figured with February being the chocolate treat month of the year, maybe I could start a new tradition and venture into new (potentially dangerous but lets think positive) territory. Once a month I’m going to bake a chocolate treat. Last week I found a great recipe for a Chocolate Earl Grey cake on Real Simple.com. It’s basically your traditional chocolate cake recipe with Early Grey tea mixed in. The sweet moist taste makes traditional icing unneccessary…just a little but of powdered sugar sprinkled on top makes it perfect. I fed it to our gaming group on Saturday night and I think it was a hit. Quite a few went back for seconds. Always a good sign.