Ah, let's see. This must be day 23 of being sick, if you count from the first day i started feeling I was coming down with something. Ridiculous, right?

Tomorrow I see the ear, nose and throat specialist. Just getting a "timely" appointment was a feat in itself. At first they said "no openings this week" with any of the 4 doctors. Then they found me a space. It's not the doctor my APRN wanted me to see and whom I've heard many good things about, but the one I am seeing did train at the Mayo Clinic.

Last night I watched This Is It, Michael Jackson's DVD. Aside from my feeling rather sad throughout the whole thing, knowing he never got to perform at the 50 sold-out London concerts he was preparing for, I was most fascinated by one of the "extra features" on the video, which featured an interview with the designer of Michael's over-the-top outfits. They all featured those built-up shoulders and tons of Svarovski crystals. The lengths they went to, not just with his attire but with every aspect of his performances, was really interesting.

I am hopeful to achieve one goal today: to bring a growing pile of trash to the landfill. I have been putting it off, day after day.

Tomorrow, since I have the doctor's appointment, I was also hopeful of doing grocery shopping afterwards, as my stockpile of food is getting rather low.

I am SO eager to get back to my normal routine, and I've been keeping a growing list of Things to Do for when I get better. If I could knock some of those off here and there, so much the better, but I don't want to start running around and then see a return of my cold symptoms, as that happened last weekend.

I have an Amazon delivery set for this Monday and have been wishing I had it sooner so I'd have something to read. Using free Amazon gift cards I earned through my assorted forum participation, I ordered a stainless steel brownie pan and two books, one of which will interest frugalites. It's called How Much is Enough? Money and the Good Life. The other was a best-seller, I believe, on Shackleton's Incredible Voyage; it's about the Antarctica explorer who got stranded on the ice, and survived. I always like reading survival-type stories. I read both of Jon Krakauer's books, On Thin Ice and Into the Wild.

So last weekend, after I had a kind of relapse, I emailed the woman I report to at the p/t proofing job and explained my situation in great detail. I told her I didn't want to jeopardize my job there due to excessive absences, but that my first priority has to be to get better. I asked for one more week off. She acknowledged the note, but i really don't know if my job will be waiting for me when/if I return to work on my next scheduled days, Wed/Thurs/Fri of next week.

If I don't, I'm rather up the creek as to income. I already gave up the driving job, and I don't regret that decision. But the loss of the proofing job leaves me with just my highly sporadic freelance income. I had a very good November, income-wise, but December could prove to be much worse. The weeks before Christmas are typically slow for many things, including getting new freelance assignments, job interviews and the like.

All the worry is counter-productive, since it all means nothing if I'm still not better. Doing what I can to get better! Still on the antibiotics. This a.m. was the last prednisone pill. Seeing ENT doc tomorrow. I'm dosing myself heavily with acidophiles, to make sure I don't get a secondary yeast infection from all the antibiotics. Also taking calcium and Vit. D. due to the prednisone. And also consuming 3 to 5 cloves of raw garlic daily, since it's an anti-bacterial agent. Along the same lines, I'm using cinnamon whenever possible and shying away from foods that contribute to yeast, like milk, cheese, bread and sugar. And just trying not to over-exert myself or tire myself out. At least until I'm sure the underlying infection has been vanquished.

I had been positively thrilled to have lost a good 6 lbs from being sick, but then i started taking the steroids, which really increase your appetite, and I knew I was eating rather heartily. So I've been afraid to step on the scale becus my fear is i gained back all the weight. Aargh.

The only other thing I feel up to doing here and there is continuing to edit The Author's second book. I have over 100 pages to go, and it's very slow going because her writing requires a LOT of edits. I also take my time with it because she still owes me $375 on it and she's always scraping for money. She mentioned dropping another partial payment in my mailbox the other day, but half the time when she says something like that, she doesn't. I could use the extra cash right now.