I know, I know...

I have abandoned my blog!
I have abandoned my blog!
I have abandoned my blog!

Enough.

So I've been ill. Well, it's really my own damn fault. I felt something coming on last week and fought tooth and nail to stave it off... until Saturday.

(Let me point out that what I felt coming on was almost certainly a product of the previous weekend's Halloween festivities, which included bobbing for apples; that didn't sound like such a horrible petri dish of bacteria when we were kids, did it?)

Anyhow, Saturday was my birthday party. 'Round about 4pm the day of the party, my voice began to get lower and lower. I ignored this fact and enjoyed my celebration.

The next morning, I awoke with no voice.

Now I grant that I am prone to hyperbole, but FOR REAL, I had no voice. Which made my 9a.m. singing/dancing rehearsal very interesting. And quiet. But alas, since I am... how do you say... ME, I was not able to simply accept that I had no voice and not push it. NO. I TOTALLY screwed myself by forcing what little voice I had all day long. But I was very thankful that it was just my voice and I wasn't sick.

The next morning, Monday, I awoke to the beginnings of a cold. Awesome.
The NEXT morning, Tuesday, I awoke feeling worse, went to work, and came home half an hour later.
The subsequent Wednesday and Thursday mornings were similar, in that I awoke feeling like ass, cleared my respiratory of grossness, took some DayQuil, and marched myself to work.

Now it's Thursday night. Things have been all-or-nothing today. I'm either feeling fine, not sick at all... or my lungs are trying to escape through my mouth.

I had a fun little incident at The UPS Store just now. I had a full-on coughing fit while trying to send a package, which ended in me nearly choking on my Ricola, being offered a bottle of water by the sweet guys at the counter, and repeatedly assuring them that I do not have the swine flu. Seriously. Really embarrassing.

THEN I went to Coffee Bean to get my free winter 12oz. beverage (YAAAAY FREE STUFF!), trying to hold it together there, and succeeded. The girl at the counter was totally teasing me about how clearly excited I was to be getting a free drink. I'm such a dork. But it was very exciting. I had been waiting for it all day. The Winter Dream Tea Latte? SOOOOO worth it.

THEN a girl came around while I was waiting for my drink handing out little waffle bites and started talking to me about my earrings. This distracted me so much that I crammed the bite of waffle into my mouth -- forgetting about the half-a-coughdrop still therein -- and proceeded to crunch up the tasty morsel of waffle along with my remaining Ricola.

*sigh*

The waffle was still pretty tasty, despite the subtle honey-lemon-echinacea undertones.

And THAT, my friends, is the mark of a good waffle.