Sick Lady Lunch

I have been in bed for so long that I am tired of my own house. I did what I always do, which is deny that I am getting sick by going to work and "powering through" and then I get the second wave of little germ warriors who win the battle and knock me down.

I'd love to hear your family secrets for curing the common cold. I took it upon myself to make matzo ball soup (aka Jewish penicillin) and grilled cheese on rye for lunch yesterday. Soups help, but really, this is just a wait-and-see situation.

I had such a good dinner planned tonight. I wanted to make a light chicken stir fry with steamed rice. Something very healthy and home made. But I had been asleep for so long and M. is kind of afraid of my germs, so he ordered Thai food instead. I am a bit relieved. Cooking would probably drain my energy.

M. has what I would call "intermediate level" germophobia. He isn't the kind of person who washes their hands a thousand times or has to have their own silverware on them at all times, but he does think the world is crawling with germs and that he has a big target on him. He finds thrift store items and vintage furniture disgusting because of the possibility of stranger germs from the 1960s. He's not so grossed out by vintage decor, but couches, serving ware, clothing...these things make him uncomfortable. Sometimes he has good reason to be totally squicked out.

Once we were at the grocery store and he had the cart (he drives the cart, I take care of the list) and kept asking me if I smelled something weird. He then opened his eyes wide and said, "It smells like piss!" To which I said, "Uh oh, it totally does. Maybe a baby had an accident on the baby seat or something." That was my hopeful scenario. The other one would be adult pee, which somehow could not be spoken out loud. He took his hands off the cart handle and stood there, freaked (with good reason- he touched PEE- stranger pee!) I ran immediately to the front and got those sanitary wipes for his hands and the cart. Needless to say that trip to the grocery store was cut short. To this day the first thing he does is grab those wipes and sanitize the cart.

So, just FYI, sanitze your grocery cart.

You know who I have a big problem with lately? The Free Credit Report.com guy:




The pirate restaurant song was funny, but I think this has to stop. Each song gets progressively worse and his sneer makes me unhappy. Is this a Gen-X caricature or what? Are 20 year olds like this again? Slackers with heather gray worn out shirts? Seriously, maybe it's time to quit your band or put them on the back burner while you work off your debt, dude.

Because I'm all hopped up on flu drugs, I'm being very random. Well, more than usual. Sorry about that.

In Sickness & In Health

Our apartment is totally cheerless this morning. I am sick with a horrible cold and M. not only has a migraine but a bum knee. The only happy camper here is Radley (Stevie could never be said to be a happy camper). I got through the work day yesterday, thanks to my trusty friend Dayquil, but as soon as I got home, the lights shut off upstairs. I ate the tasty soup that M. brought home for me and immediately went to bed at around 6pm. I slept for 12 hours, took the dog down in a delirious state and then slept a few more hours. M. has always been good at taking care of me when I'm sick. I hope he doesn't catch what I have.

The last good thing I remember was my meal on Saturday night. Brande and I went to Tsunami Sushi, which really is my hands down favorite sushi spot. And I love that place across the street from the No Name Sushi restaurant in San Francisco (whose name I'm obviously forgetting), which has an amazing motorized sushi bar so that you can grab what you want if it looks good. But really, when it comes to good rolls, great ingredients, and tasty experimental stuff, Tsunami wins. Their Crunch Roll can turn non-sushi eaters into sushi fans. If you have someone on the fence about trying sushi, bring them to Tsunami and they will believe they like sushi and start trying rolls left and right. I tried to get a pic of the delicious rolls we ate, but forgot about it until the last one was on the table. Oops.
There is one caveat. Or two. Well, for one thing it's in Huntington Beach. Right on the border of Huntington and Sunset Beach, which makes it barely Orange County, but that's all you need for a brodeo, you guys. The patrons can be lame HB dudes and OC wives/girlfriends. Once, Brande and I sat open-mouthed and horrified as a teppan table full of tween girls and a couple toddlers in bejewelled "Juicy" tank tops sang and danced to Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" in full view of their sloshed parents. Another time I remember having to hear a loud woman talk about how Iranian immigrants aren't American because they don't speak American and shouldn't be allowed to run for mayor. So there's that. But, on the other hand, the wait staff is full of cuties (both male and female), and there is a full bar. I wonder if one of those bros that was hanging out too close to our table gave me my cold? It's entirely possible.

It sucks to be sick when there's a beautiful day like this outside. But I am stuck inside today, hoping to get better for another work day tomorrow. It's days like this I wish I did some online teaching....

Sarah Haskins Rules

There are some things that make me happy. Today, mostly, it has been my dear friend:
But mostly, smart funny feminist humor makes me happy. I know that for many, "feminist humor" seems like an oxymoron. And that while it is true that feminists have made analyzing humor our business (with good reason), we have this stern, matronly reputation. Which makes me heart Sarah Haskins and her installments in the Current.tv series Target Women. Here's a few awesome ones:

Chick Flicks



Number Two



Disney Princesses


Have I mentioned how amazing Current TV is? It's better than real TV will ever be.

Cats & Dogs

I hate getting sick on the weekends. Last night I could tell that my sore throat was probably not the result of too much wasabi with my sushi dinner, but being me, I tried to convince myself anyway. Cut to me at 5 am fumbling for Nyquil on the floor in front of my bathroom cabinet. I slept like a rock for 6 hours. M. let me know this morning that the Nyquil I had taken expired in 2006. This is something that would not have mattered to me at 5am, even if I knew. Since my job is talking, and talking for hours straight sometimes, I am going to take a vow of silence today in the hopes that by 8am tomorrow morning, I am ready to go. Ugh. No more sick days for me, so I gotta suck it up.

The latest dilemma around here is a rambunctious pup named Radley (see manipulative cute mug above). He is a year old and is starting to do an adolescent reversal. He knows he's not supposed to go in the house and he knows that he shouldn't nip the cat's ears when they play, but he's doing it anyway. He is also starting to bark whenever anyone gets let in the security gate at the front of the complex. Or if someone walks down the hall. I'm trying to get all "pack leader" on him, but it is very frustrating to have to be a disciplinarian all the time. He totally knew this stuff not more than a month ago. What happened? I am shaking a can full of pennies at him, clapping when I see him about to go in the house, then running downstairs to take him around the block. He's spending a few days at my mom's for Thanksgiving while M. and I head off to Philadelphia. I am hoping he starts showing some improvement by then.

Cool things he can do? He knows his toys by name and can retrieve them when you ask. He can "high five." He can get up on his hind legs like a bichon friese and beg for a biscuit. He knows the basics (sit, stay, lay down, relax, get down). He is super sweet to little kids. He is social with dogs and people. He looks like this when he gets tired:

Hard to remain vigilant in the face of such cuteness, but vigilant I must be. So yeah, in case you were wondering, we're probably not having kids for a while.

Writers Write

Sorry for not posting yesterday. I was under the weather, with a sore throat and achy muscles. I'm on the mend today, but I had to cancel classes yesterday, which always makes me unhappy. It just means more work. Reorganizing lectures and syllabi schedules. Blah. I got a chance to do some at-home work like reading.

I have been trying to post each day, and if I can't I attempt to post twice. It's part of my new mantra that will help get the dissertation done: "writers write." I made an agreement with myself to write each day and to really think about writing. I had hoped it would make me more articulate and communicative as a writer. So my intention was to strengthen the practical aspect of my work, and I've come to realize it has also strengthened the theoretical aspect as well. You see, much of the academic work I read is boring as hell. Now, that doesn't mean that the ideas in the work are boring or that the topic is boring, just that the writing is so unnecessarily difficult. Many of my students get disengaged from the academic articles I assign because the first paragraph is so wordy it's like the author wants to prove he or she passed the GRE. I want my writing to be accessible and still be able to discuss complicated topics. I think it would make academic work much more useful in the real world. It might also make it more difficult for readers to misinterpret your work, which is always a bonus when the media gets a hold of something academic and decides to "report." So writing in an interesting and engaging way is, for me, both a theory and a practice. I hope I'm getting better. A fellow blogger recommended this book on writing, and I ordered it from Amazon. It should be here by Friday. Anybody ever heard of it/read it? I'd love to hear reviews.

Now, on to more pressing business, True Blood gets better every week. I heart this show. Each week the characters grow more complicated and interesting. This Sunday was the best episode yet, in my opinion. If for nothing else than the scene where Lafayette verbally and physically puts three homophobes/vampirephobes in their place when they send back food because it "has AIDS on it." That scene will be my strength this election season, when commercials about "protecting the family" from homosexuality are running rampant.

You know what show has gotten better? The Big Bang Theory. I used to watch it because it was on before How I Met Your Mother and because it had David from Roseanne (who BTW is in an on-again-off-again relationship on the show with the gal who played Darlene!). I love nerds and nerd humor, so I thought I'd tune in. It was OK. I was annoyed by the Sheldon character right off the bat. And Leonard was super whiny. Like, way more whiny than David, which is saying something. But something happened. I grew to love the characters after they fleshed them out a bit. Sheldon is a crack up! I love his interactions with Penny. Last night's episode with the World of Warcraft storyline was comedy gold.

If you want to find Sheldon's T-shirts, Howard's belt buckles, or Leonard's hoodies, click here.

Sick in the Summer

I saw Hellboy II: The Golden Army! I liked it. The villain wasn't as villainy as I wanted (I actually thought he had a point), but the Liz character was so much better than in the last movie. Much more in control of her power and less depressed. I think in the first movie she was voluntarily in an insane asylum. If that's not proof you aren't really insane, I don't know what is.

Speaking of insane women in film, I watched The Craft last night. I haven't been feeling well and I was at the doctor's yesterday- I have a sore throat- and the doc said to get rest, so I basically hung on the couch sleeping. In the evening, M. and I were trying to find something to watch during the summer re-run desert, and we couldn't agree on anything. There weren't even good options to argue over. Finally, he decided to just hang out online while I watched an HBO on Demand movie and lay on the couch. What better than The Craft? I forgot how great that movie is. At first, the witches get back at racists, misogynists, and gain self-esteem. Then they go too far, but I like that there is one witch that understands how out of balance the others are, so that it's not like "lady witches need to learn their lesson and love Jesus."Very pagan-friendly. I am thinking that if I feel better this afternoon, I may take a walk over to the magic shop on 4th & Freeman around the corner from us. I have been talking about going there forever. Get all witchy or get my tarot read. Something to distract me from how lame it is to be sick in the summer.

I do watch films about regular old non-fantastical folks as well. I got Factotum on Netflix and watched it yesterday. God, how depressing. I mean, it should be depressing, right? I rented it out of a desire to keep up on all things Bukowski. Turns out, alcoholism does not necessarily make for a good story on film. It could be really slow at times. There were some funny parts, and Matt Dillon was surprisingly not Matt Dillon for most of it, but I gotta say, not a summer blockbuster. You gotta be in the right mood.
Maybe I should have had cocktails while watching?