On the Home Front

Which is where it looks like I'll be staying today. I had signed up to do a "lunch coverage" shift at work from 11am-5pm, but one of the benefits/drawbacks of being a PRN nurse is that they can call you and tell you not to come if they don't need you. In this case, I'm looking at it as a benefit because I woke up this morning seriously debating calling in sick anyway. As you may recall, I had just gotten over a bad cold before I went to Iowa, and the combination of air travel and interrupted schedule and nonstop talking (really!) had worn me down into an unwitting Tallulah Bankhead (though Matt informed the that the husky voice was just perfect for those "I miss you and I'm thinking about you" calls). In such a state of lowered immunity I went to work yesterday and instead of laboring patients, took care of someone who had coughed so hard she broke a rib and somebody else with a severe enough upper-respiratory infection to warrant hospitalization. Not even frequent and paranoid handwashing is a match for that kind of exposure. Thus it was this morning that I found myself with an extremely raw throat and a body that felt like someone had tried to tear it apart in the night. I dragged myself out of bed and with massive doses of tea and honey had actually gotten myself feeling a little better, but when they called me and told me to stay home, I wasn't exactly going to argue with them. If more people stayed home when they felt like this, fewer people would end up feeling like this!

So. I've spent most of the morning handling bills and paperwork that amassed in my absence, as well as begging on bended knee the people who wrote my letter of rec for Georgetown to write one for Shenandoah University as well. The more I hear about that program, the more I like it; the more I travel in natural birth circles, the more I hear about their director--and the more inspiring she seems to me. If I haven't mentioned it before, SU's program is partially correspondence, and I'm hoping that would allow me to work my way through school and hopefully not incur any more debt. It would also mean driving out through the mountains once a week instead of playing the buses, trains, and automobiles game that it would take me to get out to Georgetown. Every. Day. We'll see.

And of course, a day spent at home wouldn't be complete without whipping up something good to eat. There are a few of the more esoteric ingredients (butternut squash, saffron, pancetta) on the menu this month that I was unable to procure at Aldi, and so I'm thinking about running out to get them so that I can possibly tackle one of the more time-consuming items (risotto or curry?) since I have the time to do it. And Netflix informs me that Eve's Bayou and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone should be here in time for us to watch them tonight. Sounds like just what the doctor ordered.