I prefer not to be the sauté

Wow.  I'm glad I'm not, like, REALLY sick.  Being just a little sick is annoying enough.

I just spent the whole day feeling a wee bit chilly, until suddenly I was sweating and I had to take most of my clothing off.  Hello, fever!  It's been a while. Don't get comfortable.

So now I need to stop drinking hot drinks (of which I have so far consumed ~80 oz) and switch to cold drinks.  Until I get cold again.

I tell you what, though, those -Quil products work very well.  I have Dayquil, and then I feel fuzzy but otherwise reasonably well for a couple of hours.  I can definitely tell when it wears off, because I turn into a miserable, whiny brat immediately.  And what's worse is I finally cleaned us out of Christmas chocolate, so now I'm a whiny brat in chocolate withdrawal.  (PS please don't get me more chocolate.  There's no point in delaying the inevitable.)

I hope to drive to work tomorrow for at least a little while.  I don't know if I'm contagious, but as long as I'm not spewing fluids the coworkers should be safe.  So as long as I have access to Dayquil, it's all good.

Last night I tried to go to sleep but I was SO HOT.  Probably feverish.  It was like nine bajillion degrees below comfortable out, and I was there on the bed with the fan blowing on my bare skin.  I felt like I was being sauteed.  Finally I decided I didn't care if it had been enough hours since my last dose of Nyquil, I was having more.  And voila!  Sleep.

Despite my current health impaired state, I have Springer Fever pretty bad.  I need to get together with DeLee to plan out our backpacking trips for this year.  A weekend in the woods is a good vaccination against Springer Fever.  You have to repeat the procedure every month or so, but it works.

I need Hikers Anonymous

Is there a twelve step program for hiking?

I looked up the symptoms of addiction here:


"There are many different addictions, but similar symptoms span them all.
Some of the common symptoms of addiction are:

• Tolerance - the need to engage in the addictive behavior more and more to get the desired effect
• Withdrawal happens when the person does not take the substance or engage in the activity, and they experience unpleasant symptoms, which are often the opposite of the effects of the addictive behavior
• Difficulty cutting down or controlling the addictive behavior
• Social, occupational or recreational activities becoming more focused around the addiction, and important social and occupational roles being jeopardized
• The person becoming preoccupied with the addiction, spending a lot of time on planning, engaging in, and recovering from the addictive behavior"

Tolerance:  check.  Weekend hikes don't really do it for me anymore.  

Withdrawal:  check.  I get all cranky and achy.

Difficulty cutting down: check.  Holy moly, was it difficult when I got off the trail last year.  And I scheme for as much time out there as I can.

Activities more focused around the addiction: check. I've jeopardized my job by taking off to hike.  I tend to try to get other people to hike with me rather than go do "regular" social stuff.  I don't really give a hoot about most non-hiking stuff.

Preoccupation:  checkcheckcheckcheckcheck.  Hello, have you met my blog?

I can't even really tell you why I do it.  I just like to hike long distances.  I don't like it more than I like my my husband, my friends, my dog, my cats, or my horse.  (I do like it more than I like my job.)  And yet very often I take off hiking, and who suffers?  My husband, my friends, my dog, my cats, and my horse.  You would think that I would at least be able to say WHY it's so important to me.  I really can't, though.  It just is.  It's something I need to do.  I think if I could hike long distance and take all my loved ones with me, I would.  But horses aren't even allowed on most of the AT, and I don't see my dog being a long distance hiker, and I only have one friend who will occasionally let me drag her out on the trail.  My addiction just isn't compatible with the rest of my life.

I've cut way back at least.  Last year I took six months off to hike, and this year it's only five weeks.  So that has to count for something.