Breathe

"I played the fool today.  I just dream of vanishing into the crowd.  Longing for home again.  Home, is a feeling I buried in you. I'm alright, I'm alright. It only hurts when I breathe." - Greenwheel (covered by Melissa Etheridge)


The week has gone by pretty fast considering it started with bronchitis and missing one and a half days of school.  I'm actually surprised at this fact.  I expected to be "down with the sickness" (plug for the System of a Down fans) for quite a while.  I suppose this time I knew what needed to be done to heal quicker.  I drank about an ocean's worth of water and Gatorade.

With the fluids, rest, and various medications, I was ready to take on the Spanish test on Tuesday afternoon. I did a little better than expected and brought home an 89%.  I figured that wasn't too bad considering I wasn't retaining much information at the time. Plus, I coughed my way through the majority of the exam.  Don't worry, I had my little bottles of hand-sanitizer which I used every time I coughed or blew my nose.  I wasn't looking to get anyone sick. I only wanted to take the test instead of getting a zero.  It definitely wore me out by the time I got back home.  The rest of the evening was spent trying to prepare for a math test on Thursday.

By Wednesday, I was starting to feel normal again.  I still had a hard time breathing and needed to use the inhaler I was prescribed a few times.  Other than that I had a pretty good day.  I was surprised that I missed being at school.  I had a full day on top of it but I genuinely enjoyed being there.  Kinda funny how that works.

On Thursday I took my math final for my first module.  For those that haven't experienced this type of math course...it's very odd.  You get all your notes and teachings from videos via the Internet.  From there you're able to do homework and take quizzes.  It's interesting but maybe not the best way from some people, like me, to learn math.  I've heard of a few others struggling with this type of course as well.  I'm doing my best and have four more modules to go before I can get into the prerequisite I need for Nursing.  So far, so good with a 91% on the first module test.

Thursday afternoon we went to Farmville to celebrate Sara's dad's birthday.  We settled on Ruby Tuesdays for dinner which was excellent, by the way.  I got the steak and lobster tail special, as did Sara's dad.  We chose wisely.  I can't believe that was one of the best lobsters I'd ever eaten.  Either I've never had good lobster or Ruby Tuesdays knows what they're doing.  After that it was back to her parent's house so Sara could say goodbye to the doggies.  She was to leave the next morning for Kansas to visit a friend and wanted to make sure the dogs didn't feel left out if she didn't stop by (isn't that cute?). When we got back to our place, Sara informed me that she still needed to do some laundry and pack.  I love getting this news at 10:30pm. *sarcasm* The good thing is that she took care of it and I got to go to bed. The bad news is that we had to be up at 4am to leave by 4:30am....to drive to Reagan National Airport...3 hours away.

Neither of us got very much sleep.  My excuse was coughing plus the fact that I was still taking the steroids the doctor had given me to ease my lungs.  Those darn things keep me so wired I can hardly blink. Sara was up doing laundry until about 12:30am and has also had some coughing issues.  4am came way too early but we managed to be out the door by around 4:45am.  After a quick stop for breakfast in Ashland, it was onward to see if it was possible to beat morning traffic into D.C.  Haha...so much for wishful thinking. The traffic started showing signs of slowing somewhere after Dumfries and really got slow after passing Springfield.  I was afraid my clutch would burn out after all the stop-and-go.  Luckily I got Sara to the airport in one piece...and on time.  The really fun part would be the drive back home.

As I made my way around the airport to try and get out, my GPS got confused.  No, really, it was all the GPS's fault.  Even after yelling at him he still wouldn't recalculate fast enough.  I thought about throwing him out the window but with my luck, someone would try to return it to me.  Anyway, I finally made it safely out of airport traffic and directly into more rush hour traffic.  I'm not a fan of traffic so I'm sure people passing me by at a snails pace got to see some wonderful animation from me (throwing hands in the air, screaming, rubbing forehead).  I hope I made their morning commute entertaining.  Once I could get my car up to fifth gear, it was smooth sailing.  This turned out to be a dangerous thing because I caught myself falling asleep a few times.  Yeah, I should have pulled over.  I should have stopped to rest my eyes but I am my father's daughter and seem to be too stubborn to apply common sense. I was only thinking of getting home and getting back in bed.  I did get home safely thanks to my now bald angels.

Home is a good place to be but I've noticed that it's not really home when the people you love aren't there with you.  As much as Sara makes me crazy, I do miss her when she's not here.  Usually it's the other way around for us.  She drives me to the airport so I can visit my family and turns around to come back to an empty home.  I guess I didn't really understand how she felt until I got to experience the journey to drop her off at the airport.

The song, "Breathe", mentioned above, has a couple meanings for this past week.  Of course there's the obvious, it hurt for me to breathe because of the bronchitis.  The other meaning is simply that my home is missing an important piece for the next few days and it won't feel like home until she's back.

"My window through which nothing hides and everything sees.  I'm counting the signs and cursing the miles in between. Home...is a feeling I buried in you." -Greenwheel (covered by Melissa Etheridge)