I suddenly became one a few weeks ago. Well, in years past, I watched the playoff's but with half an ear on something more important. Like, work email, the chili perkin' on the stove, or maybe the melting of the polar ice caps.
But this year, it's different. For a unique Christmas gift, I bought Jack tickets to the Indianapolis Colts playoff's game last weekend. They played the Bengals and we had STELLAR seats. If Andrew Luck worked up a sweat and then tossed his hair our way, we would have gotten wet. The game was incredibly awesome and somewhat weird for us. It was our first Colts games in actual seats. We have grown somewhat accustomed to club level seats serving unlimited quantities of prime rib, brisket, nachos, and Miller Lite. You mean we have to buy our beer? For $9.50 each (before tip), we each nursed one beer the entire game.
In Chicago, Bears fanhood was a general expectation; even if you lived 10 feet inside the Indiana border in the Chicago metro area, you were a Bears fan. We never really knew who played for the Bears, nor did we care. But in Indy, Colts fanhood is a religion. Not only an expectation, it is a sheer obligation that if you live in Indianapolis, by golly, you're a Colts fan. And you will sacrifice every Sunday from August to January cheering your home team to victory. Our Colts playoff experience solidified our fanhood. We accept the Indy obligation and consider ourselves devout.
The Colts play tomorrrow at 4:40 p.m. You know where we'll be!
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Life has felt like a series of playoff's lately. Or maybe another case of "be careful what you wish for." After New Year's and a quiet January 2 at work (I got caught up again! Yay, me!), Jack and I celebrated one last hoorah in the holiday season. My brother Brady and his longtime girl (I need a nickname for her) recently decided they like sushi. So Jack and I had to take them out for a sushi feast. It was quite funny to watch my meat-and-potatoes brother choke down a huge piece of squid. Yeeeck. We had a terrific time at sushi, introducing them to the weirder side of sushi. Our personal favorite is raw scallops. Scallop nigiri is just wonderful. Try it if you ever see it on a menu.
After sushi, no one felt like going home yet, so we visited a brewery on the south side of Indy. And because there were few folks around us at the brewery, we broke out the euchre. It felt so 90's coffeehouse it wasn't funny. However, I had this random throught when we left the brewery, that I had somehow dodged the flu so far this season and that it probably wasn't wise to tempt the gods.
And tempt the gods I did. We went to the Colts playoff game on Sunday and then I crashed hard Sunday night. What was wrong with me? Why do I feel like I got hit by a truck filled with hot garbage juice? Come Monday, I was under the weather AND under a huge, thick duvet.
It was my rendition of the 2015 Flu. Lemmetellyou, it SUCKS. 102 fever and body aches and a head so clogged up that I actually put granules of kosher salt on my tongue. I could not taste them. I wanted to sob. At one point, I asked Siri from a fetal position under four blankets "What are some home remedies for the flu?" Siri suggested that I drink fluids and take medicine. Um, okay. Thanks for cracking the code!
So I did the next best thing. I sucked it up and went to work. I know, I know, that's how the flu is spread! But healthcare is one of few professions that never stops. You're in this strange predicament of keeping everything moving while not infecting everyone. I gutted through Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning before collapsing on my bed around noon on Wednesday. I....just....couldn't....do....it!
NOTHING made me feel better. TheraFlu inspired insane dreams where I ended up questioning reality. Seriously, in one dream, I dreamt that Jack had the stomach flu and kept vomiting in our master bathroom. I heard him retching and yelled, "Can you PLEASE go away and LET ME SLEEP? We have two other bathrooms, go barf somewhere else!" I woke myself up yelling. It was so real that, the next morning, I asked Jack if he was ill the night before. I felt like I had to apologize for yelling!
So anyway, I ended up calling my mom to ask for ANY home remedy that might decrease my discomfort. She told me to get a good steam in the shower, slather my chest in Vick's, and fix myself a hot toddy. Done, done, and DONE.
Our house smelled like a sick room but the Vick's was magical. After about 36 hours of Vick's, my sinuses threatened to let me breathe. I went back to work on Friday and even though my assistant followed me around the office with Lysol, I felt somewhat human again. It's not worth the gamble - stay away from large groups of people, do not drink from unsanitized bar glasses, and wash your hands as much as possible.
Flu 2015 is not fun. On the upshot, all I ate for several days was toast, broth, and OJ. So at least my jeans are loose in the waist. It's all in the little things, eh? I'll take it.
Here's to a Colts victory, returning tastebuds, and a healthy week!
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