It’s Good to Be Alive!

Image by Paraiala Marcel at stock.xchng.

I’ve been sick since Thursday. That’s right. Five stinkin’ days. Not a good way to prepare for vacation… Or to start vacation, for that matter. As such, I decided this morning that I was done with being sick. I would not let illness cannibalize my highly anticipated time off. No more lying on the couch all day watching movies (really gets old after about one and a half days).

I started by taking a good, long shower and then eating a nourishing oatmeal breakfast. Then I proceeded to process the home office inbox. Yikes, lots of bills piled up. There were also appointments to make, direct mail lists to get removed from, and papers to file. I got done with “work” around mid-morning and dragged my tween out of bed. Time to go shopping!

Now, I’m not a big fan of shopping just to shop. In fact, I think it’s just plain dumb. However, this was purposeful Christmas gift shopping. We’re going to see my in-laws for Thanksgiving, so there was not much time to spare. First stop: Plowshare Gifts, the only Ten Thousand Villages store in Wisconsin. Found some good jewlery (and fair trade chocolate) there. Next, we went to Target. I bought myself two pairs of bamboo socks. Sweet! I had been struggling to make it in the sock department between laundry days. I got some other secret stuff too.

I asked Rebecka where she wanted to go for lunch and she voted for The Cheesecake Factory. After reading “The End of Overeating,” I haven’t necessarily been in the mood for said dining establishment or any chain restaurant, for that matter, but I complied. Anything for my little princess!! It wasn’t bad. They have added “Small Plates” to their menu that are just the right size. The Wild Mushroom Pizette (not sure how wild… but anyway) is pretty tasty.

The day continued with orthodontist and hair appointments. Whew! I didn’t even have time to feel sick. Sure, I broke into crazy fits of coughing everytime I laughed and felt a little warmer than usual, but I was out and about and it felt great! What a difference from the previous day. I firmly believe that you can shorten the duration of illness with a good doze of positive thinking. In fact, positive thinking can help you in just about every difficult situation in life. Now why did it take me five days to figure that out…?