Sick Day Sundries

* It would appear that I have laryngitis. Some fun facts about laryngitis, from Doctor Internet:
- It's an inflammation of the voice box, or larynx.
- It can be caused by a cold or by allergies.
- It can last up to TWO WEEKS without being considered serious.
- The only real treatment for it is to not speak and to drink plenty of fluids.

The second part is not a problem. Anyone who has ever even met me for 5 minutes knows that the first one is NOT EASY. Now, for the past week, I have not felt well. I've been coughing and sneezing and been heavily congested, but I couldn't rightly tell if it was a cold or allergies. (Sometimes it's not obvious.) Friday was particularly bad - work turned on the heat for the first time and the air was thick with dust, a substance I happen to be heavily allergic to. I had a massive allergy-bordering-on-asthma attack, driving me out to Duane Reade for Robitussin and Claritin to help curtail the symptoms. (and they worked, for a bit). But I felt pretty raw, and so did my throat, although I figured that was from what happened and I thought nothing of it. Saturday I woke up with half of a strained voice and a very sore throat. But I went about my already-planned Saturday anyway, thanks to the help of tylenol, Halls, and hot tea. By Saturday evening, I was silenced. Yesterday was even worse. And today. Since a big part of my job involves the phone, I stayed home. But since I'm not dead-in-bed sick, I feel a tiny bit silly. I don't know if I'm contagious or not. But I don't have a fever or any strep symptoms, so yay for that. Don't know what I am going to do (or should do) about tomorrow. I feel run down, and basically fine until I try to speak. Then my throat turns into a pit of ash, rocks and fire, and my voice box says, "No, fuck you.." ::hands::

* Saturday was Day Two of the Dress Hunt. This time, I was joined by quasisonic and blergeatkitty. We went to the showroom of a fancy designer who was having a sample sale. I tried on a handful of dresses there in my "size", and was sorely tempted by one. I think I was actually tempted, but I couldn't really tell - the whole experience was rife with the kind of invisible pressure that I'd feared and conquered in my first two dress visits. The fact that the designers were right there and pinning me and telling me that it would take "just a few tweaks" to get the dress right, and how good it looked on me, and what a good sale they were having for only that weekend. Gah. Then I discovered that to make the sale dress wearable I'd have to pay for some outrageously priced alterations, and my most excellent wedding party got me out of there with the deftness of some kind of bridal black ops team. As we brunched at the nearby Malibu Diner, next to one of the worst-behaved toddlers I have ever been subjected to, someone brought up the fact that we'd walked by a David's Bridal on the way and maybe we should check them out. quasisonic pointed out that they couldn't be worse than the mini-episode of Say Yes to the Dress that we'd just lived through and Blerg joked that she'd heard that I'd "LOVE David's Bridal." HA! So off we went. And it was a great idea.

When we got to David's, the woman at the front desk said they were booked up, but I was welcome to put my name on a waiting list and walk around. Which we did, and had a lot of fun doing. After about 15-20 minutes maximum, my name got called. I got paired with a consultant named Caitlin that I liked immediately. She introduced herself, and I showed her some of the dresses I liked. She asked my street size, explained that their bridal sizing "runs small," but told me to not worry about the tag, that it's about fit and proportion and finding the dress that makes me look the best. I appreciated the pep talk, honestly. Even if she was trained to say it, it came off as really genuine. I tried on a few dresses that blergeatkitty and quasisonic were pretty crazy about, as well as one that they seem to think might be 'the one.' (I'm not as sure, but it's definitely shot up to the top 5). Most importantly, we had an absolute blast. AND they let us take pictures, but those are not getting posted for a few reasons. It was still nice to be able to look at them the next day and review.

I plan to make another trip back to RK to try on more stuff, but the field is certainly narrowing. And we made some headway on the bridesmaids, too, which was exciting.

* I also finished my Halloween costume, and I'm pretty psyched about it and how it's going to look. :)

*Jill Sobule's song to trampy Halloween costumes Thanks to reppep for the link!

* Still no voice. And still stir crazy. Blah.

Sick Day Sundries

* It would appear that I have laryngitis. Some fun facts about laryngitis, from Doctor Internet:
- It's an inflammation of the voice box, or larynx.
- It can be caused by a cold or by allergies.
- It can last up to TWO WEEKS without being considered serious.
- The only real treatment for it is to not speak and to drink plenty of fluids.

The second part is not a problem. Anyone who has ever even met me for 5 minutes knows that the first one is NOT EASY. Now, for the past week, I have not felt well. I've been coughing and sneezing and been heavily congested, but I couldn't rightly tell if it was a cold or allergies. (Sometimes it's not obvious.) Friday was particularly bad - work turned on the heat for the first time and the air was thick with dust, a substance I happen to be heavily allergic to. I had a massive allergy-bordering-on-asthma attack, driving me out to Duane Reade for Robitussin and Claritin to help curtail the symptoms. (and they worked, for a bit). But I felt pretty raw, and so did my throat, although I figured that was from what happened and I thought nothing of it. Saturday I woke up with half of a strained voice and a very sore throat. But I went about my already-planned Saturday anyway, thanks to the help of tylenol, Halls, and hot tea. By Saturday evening, I was silenced. Yesterday was even worse. And today. Since a big part of my job involves the phone, I stayed home. But since I'm not dead-in-bed sick, I feel a tiny bit silly. I don't know if I'm contagious or not. But I don't have a fever or any strep symptoms, so yay for that. Don't know what I am going to do (or should do) about tomorrow. I feel run down, and basically fine until I try to speak. Then my throat turns into a pit of ash, rocks and fire, and my voice box says, "No, fuck you.." ::hands::

* Saturday was Day Two of the Dress Hunt. This time, I was joined by quasisonic and blergeatkitty. We went to the showroom of a fancy designer who was having a sample sale. I tried on a handful of dresses there in my "size", and was sorely tempted by one. I think I was actually tempted, but I couldn't really tell - the whole experience was rife with the kind of invisible pressure that I'd feared and conquered in my first two dress visits. The fact that the designers were right there and pinning me and telling me that it would take "just a few tweaks" to get the dress right, and how good it looked on me, and what a good sale they were having for only that weekend. Gah. Then I discovered that to make the sale dress wearable I'd have to pay for some outrageously priced alterations, and my most excellent wedding party got me out of there with the deftness of some kind of bridal black ops team. As we brunched at the nearby Malibu Diner, next to one of the worst-behaved toddlers I have ever been subjected to, someone brought up the fact that we'd walked by a David's Bridal on the way and maybe we should check them out. quasisonic pointed out that they couldn't be worse than the mini-episode of Say Yes to the Dress that we'd just lived through and Blerg joked that she'd heard that I'd "LOVE David's Bridal." HA! So off we went. And it was a great idea.

When we got to David's, the woman at the front desk said they were booked up, but I was welcome to put my name on a waiting list and walk around. Which we did, and had a lot of fun doing. After about 15-20 minutes maximum, my name got called. I got paired with a consultant named Caitlin that I liked immediately. She introduced herself, and I showed her some of the dresses I liked. She asked my street size, explained that their bridal sizing "runs small," but told me to not worry about the tag, that it's about fit and proportion and finding the dress that makes me look the best. I appreciated the pep talk, honestly. Even if she was trained to say it, it came off as really genuine. I tried on a few dresses that blergeatkitty and quasisonic were pretty crazy about, as well as one that they seem to think might be 'the one.' (I'm not as sure, but it's definitely shot up to the top 5). Most importantly, we had an absolute blast. AND they let us take pictures, but those are not getting posted for a few reasons. It was still nice to be able to look at them the next day and review.

I plan to make another trip back to RK to try on more stuff, but the field is certainly narrowing. And we made some headway on the bridesmaids, too, which was exciting.

* I also finished my Halloween costume, and I'm pretty psyched about it and how it's going to look. :)

*Jill Sobule's song to trampy Halloween costumes Thanks to reppep for the link!

* Still no voice. And still stir crazy. Blah.