Apparently, my body is just not capable of killing these bacteria. I went back to the doctor yesterday to check in, and although she had to concede that I'm making progress, in Germany you don't normally work as long as you're taking antibiotics. So I'll be home on my duff for another week, folks. I lost count of the MASH episodes I watched yesterday. I mean, I'm still doing my adult ed classes despite being ordered to stay within my own 4 walls by the doc...because after all, I am feeling better and better. My boss is taking the fact that I've worked precisely 6 days this month like a champ. I am slowly adjusting to a life filled with sloth...but am longing for the gym and general freedom of movement with a passion and a vengeance.
The truly awesome part is that scarlet fever is something you can get over and over and over again. Having it once does not guarantee any sort of immunity whatsoever. Great. I'm just hoping that my body has learned something from this. What that should be, I'm not sure. Perhaps how to kill streptococci bacteria? This whole month of rest things isn't all bad, though. I did get to ease into my 5-nights-a-week of adult ed without the added burden of working mornings. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to handle it when the time comes--or at least, I'm rarin' to try.
If there were other news or related news, I'd share...but really, with all the nothing I've been doing, I pretty much have a whole lot of nothing to write about. Except that I bought some shoes on eBay and I get to go pick them up today. And I got a really cool winter jacket from stephan from this fabulous danish label called redrabbit. Oh those Danes with their chic ladies and their perfect English...
Happy almost-Weekend, y'all. My resolution is to go to yoga on Sunday. After a month of sitting on my ass, I've got to start somewhere.
Kuss.
P.S. I apologize for any grevious spelling errors that might appear in my recent posts. It drives me wacky that I'm apparently losing my touch with the English language and ont op of that, the spell check function this stupid program is on strike. If you figure out what it's demands are, please let me know.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Scarlet-bleeping-Fever
So yeah. I'm home on sick leave, again. Apparently I was misdiagnosed the first time by my semi-retired Doc who assumed I guess, that everyone my age has had scarlet fever, otherwise known as Schlarlach. Because it's a normal childhood disease here...or something. And once you've had it, you don't get it again. Am I mistaken, or do American children just not get scarlet fever. Do you know anyone who's ever had it? Parents and Grandparents don't count. My mother is the only person I know who's ever had scarlet freaking fever.
All that aside, I don't feel that bad. I'd been on two different antibiotics by the time the Doc found out what I really had, so at that point, I didn't even have a fever. I'm not really sure I ever did...anyway, the point is, I feel fine and really wretched about putting my boss in a bind. I worked Monday and was fine, then I get the test results from my doctor, who tells me I've been potentially contagious the whole time. Great. So I feel bad about having possibly infected all the kids in the nursery school, but at the same time, I feel like a lazy ass for not working. Well...I am kind of still working. I have my adult ed classes that according to my doctor, I should also not be doing...but if I cancel them, I'd have to make them up at some point, and I don't have time for that. To be honest, it's also a relief to get out of the house for a couple hours a day. Sitting on the couch all day gets old fast.
Anyway, aside from that there's not a whole lot going on. Max's birthday is this weekend, so we're going up to Gross Schwiesow this weekend. I'm hoping I'm 100% by then--I was sick for Max's birthday last year, too. I guess September is just a bad month for me.
So, I hope you all are free of semi-infectious diseases and whatnot. I'm going to get back to my couch and the fourth season of family guy. I'm waiting with baited breath for the seventh season, in the meantime I'm re-watching everything Stephan can find for me on the internet.
Stay healthy!
All that aside, I don't feel that bad. I'd been on two different antibiotics by the time the Doc found out what I really had, so at that point, I didn't even have a fever. I'm not really sure I ever did...anyway, the point is, I feel fine and really wretched about putting my boss in a bind. I worked Monday and was fine, then I get the test results from my doctor, who tells me I've been potentially contagious the whole time. Great. So I feel bad about having possibly infected all the kids in the nursery school, but at the same time, I feel like a lazy ass for not working. Well...I am kind of still working. I have my adult ed classes that according to my doctor, I should also not be doing...but if I cancel them, I'd have to make them up at some point, and I don't have time for that. To be honest, it's also a relief to get out of the house for a couple hours a day. Sitting on the couch all day gets old fast.
Anyway, aside from that there's not a whole lot going on. Max's birthday is this weekend, so we're going up to Gross Schwiesow this weekend. I'm hoping I'm 100% by then--I was sick for Max's birthday last year, too. I guess September is just a bad month for me.
So, I hope you all are free of semi-infectious diseases and whatnot. I'm going to get back to my couch and the fourth season of family guy. I'm waiting with baited breath for the seventh season, in the meantime I'm re-watching everything Stephan can find for me on the internet.
Stay healthy!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Domestic Bliss
It's Saturday. The weather is typically crisp and fall like, and makes me think of the leaves changing colors (they don't really here) and fresh apples. I wound up not being entirely healed from my malignant funk of last week, and barely managed to scrape through the work week this week with a late-afternoon visit to le Doctor on Thursday. She took a little swab of whatever the hell it is that's growing in my throat and sent it in for analysis (I was already liking her by then...this is one of the new Doctors who's taking over the practice of the old East German ladies), so we'll see what that turns out to be. For the interim, I've got new drugs so I'm pretty happy. It keeps the sore throat at a minimum.
At the moment, I'm going through a domestic dervish phase, and decided to bake bread today--which when you're all set up and ready to go in the morning pretty much takes the whole day. I think I got started at like, three pm...so we'll see what time I finish and how it comes out. I used my American measuring cups and my great-grandma's recipe, so I'm betting it's going to be pretty awesome...providing my evil german electric oven doesn't sabotage things. Someone's sitting next to me, drooling puddles already. ;) While the dough was rising and Stephan was playing pool, I got things cleaned up and squared away around here. It doesn't happen often that I get so into cleaning and washing and whatnot, so when I do, I try to take advantage of it. I also know that since my adult ed courses are starting, Stephan's going to get stuck doing a lot of the housework. If everything goes as planned, I'll be working until 9pm four nights a week. I mean, I like my job in the Kindergarten, but it doesn't cover all my expenses...we'll leave it at that. So far, everything's started more or less as planned. There were a few courses in the Lichtenberg annex that are reeeeally small, but fortunately my boss there has my back and is pulling all the strings she can to keep my classes going. I've got a great business intensive going until Halloween with four students--it's nice for once not to be the youngest person in the room by at least ten years.
I really like working with adults in this capacity because you get to learn a ton about all kinds of different professions. For example, in my business intensive course, there's a guy who's studying to become an accountant. He knows all kinds of fascinating things about tax law and what have you. I mean...if you think taxes are boring, you've never tried to file as being self-employed in a foreign country. The German department of Finance called me up the other day and I nearly shit a brick. I'm pretty sure everything's straightened out there, though. Hopefully, won't notice that I didn't turn in the invoices for my tutorial work. I forgot to ask my ex-boss there to send them to me. It's not like it was that much money, anyway...but with the department of finance you never know. Apparently here they can randomly call you up five years from now and ask to see your documents from 2006. You know, if they get bored. Although when I see it written in English like that...it sounds like an audit, just described differently.
In other news, as a part of our renovations-binge of last week, I've now got two new additions to the Tyler-Spindler plant family. Not that I'm one of those people who consider plants my children. I talk to them, but there are limits to my affections. So yeah, we now have an orchid and some gardenias. They smell lovely. And for those of you who were wondering, the yellow in the living room isn't too oppressive and the shelving unit in the bathroom is still standing.
All right, kids. It's time for me to go melt some butter for putting ye olde shine on those bread crusts.
At the moment, I'm going through a domestic dervish phase, and decided to bake bread today--which when you're all set up and ready to go in the morning pretty much takes the whole day. I think I got started at like, three pm...so we'll see what time I finish and how it comes out. I used my American measuring cups and my great-grandma's recipe, so I'm betting it's going to be pretty awesome...providing my evil german electric oven doesn't sabotage things. Someone's sitting next to me, drooling puddles already. ;) While the dough was rising and Stephan was playing pool, I got things cleaned up and squared away around here. It doesn't happen often that I get so into cleaning and washing and whatnot, so when I do, I try to take advantage of it. I also know that since my adult ed courses are starting, Stephan's going to get stuck doing a lot of the housework. If everything goes as planned, I'll be working until 9pm four nights a week. I mean, I like my job in the Kindergarten, but it doesn't cover all my expenses...we'll leave it at that. So far, everything's started more or less as planned. There were a few courses in the Lichtenberg annex that are reeeeally small, but fortunately my boss there has my back and is pulling all the strings she can to keep my classes going. I've got a great business intensive going until Halloween with four students--it's nice for once not to be the youngest person in the room by at least ten years.
I really like working with adults in this capacity because you get to learn a ton about all kinds of different professions. For example, in my business intensive course, there's a guy who's studying to become an accountant. He knows all kinds of fascinating things about tax law and what have you. I mean...if you think taxes are boring, you've never tried to file as being self-employed in a foreign country. The German department of Finance called me up the other day and I nearly shit a brick. I'm pretty sure everything's straightened out there, though. Hopefully, won't notice that I didn't turn in the invoices for my tutorial work. I forgot to ask my ex-boss there to send them to me. It's not like it was that much money, anyway...but with the department of finance you never know. Apparently here they can randomly call you up five years from now and ask to see your documents from 2006. You know, if they get bored. Although when I see it written in English like that...it sounds like an audit, just described differently.
In other news, as a part of our renovations-binge of last week, I've now got two new additions to the Tyler-Spindler plant family. Not that I'm one of those people who consider plants my children. I talk to them, but there are limits to my affections. So yeah, we now have an orchid and some gardenias. They smell lovely. And for those of you who were wondering, the yellow in the living room isn't too oppressive and the shelving unit in the bathroom is still standing.
All right, kids. It's time for me to go melt some butter for putting ye olde shine on those bread crusts.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Sick Leave
Mannn is it cool to have a real job. Or at least, a sort-of real job with at least marginal benefits. As it happens, I'm sick with what zee Gehrmannz call "angina" (not anGInah as we'd say it, but anGEENa)--which apparently can be anything from a sore throat to strep. Whatever I have, it's been treated now by antibiotics I got free of charge from the pharmacy, and my next visit to the doctor (actually, all subsequent ones for the next quarter) will be free! It's just wonderful to be able to really rest and concentrate on getting better, as opposed to having to worry if I have enough money to pay the bill. My boss was really cool about everything, too. I called her yesterday to let her know I wouldn't be coming in, and she was just like "yeah, let me know when you're feeling better." Good stuff. That was the upshot of yesterday. The rest of the day I spent passed out on my couch. Quite literally. It seems to have done quite a lot of good, though. I'm feeling much better today. It's a lot easier to swallow and I've got quite a bit more energy. Es lebe antibiotiker. As long as my light itchy-ness doesn't turn into full-blown hives from the meds, I'll be a happy camper. My doc (not the same one as last time, sadly. The old biddies are retiring.) noted that I'm allergic to amoxicillin and penicillin, but proceeded to prescribe me another antibiotic that's apparently almost as bad. Literally, in the little notes in the package, it says 'if you're allergic to penicillin, it's highly likely that you'll react to this drug as well'. Oh boy.
Right now, it's not that bad. Stephan, with classic East German logic believes that if I don't think about it, I won't have any sort of reaction. I try to ignore this, since he's been really sweet and caring since I got sick. He brought home fresh fruit by the bushel, fresh squeezed strawberry-orange juice and this special "winter-bath" with eucalyptus. Now under the best of circumstances, I'm not a huge eucalyptus fan. However, after putting off using the bath crystals for a full 48 hours, the situation was getting pretty critical. I will tell you--eucalyptus in this concentration smells like cat pee. It also turned the water green. I of course drew the water too hot and got ridiculously dehydrated and dizzy, and proceeded to pass out on the couch smelling like cat pee. It was awesome. In the meantime, I've got the cat pee situation under control, but I won't be bathing in or inhaling any eucalyptus any time soon. Chamomile is much more up my alley.
Despite being relieved at the possibility, I'm actually a little bit bummed out not to be able to go to work. This is a pretty good sign of job satisfaction, I guess. I mean, the kids had just started to really get used to me, and I was right in the middle of finally starting to build up a rapport with some of the four year olds (they're a tricky demographic, I'll tell you), and now I'm afraid that after the week, they'll have forgotten all about me and I'll have to start from scratch again. It's a lot easier to change a kid's diaper if they're not fighting you off because they don't know you. It's not that bad, though, since it's been raining pretty much straight since yesterday and anyone who's ever had to take care of little kids knows they go crazy when it rains for days at a time and they can't play outside. I'm glad my boss feels the same ways about kids and fresh air as I do--I mean, yes, these are city kids and their exposure to "nature" is relatively low, but playing outside is just plain healthy. Not to mention tiring for the little scamps. Provided I'm feeling better, I'm going to be pretty excite to get back to work next week.
In other news, I just started readying a pretty fascinating book on Al Qaida by a German author. To be honest, I'd kind of been putting off starting it, because I thought it would be dry and dull, but it's actually riveting. I had no idea that the first attack on the world trade center by Islamic militants actually happened in 1993. I mean, where was I?! Probably in Mrs. Lavallee's second grade class...or perhaps Mrs. Ellis's third grade class, and presumably not at all interested in such things. Anyhow, it's a very well written account of the different attacks; planned attacks, attempted attacks, etc. Very factual without becoming dry or textbook-y. I doubt it's been translated though, since the English-speaking world has no shortage of written material on Islamic extremists and Al Qaida in particular. I've also been re-reading Russendisko by Wladimir Kaminer--I'd lent it to Julia about a year ago and forgotten all about it. There are some hilarious short stories there. What I SHOULD be doing, however, is preparing myself for my adult ed courses at the Volkshochschule that are starting (well, some of them) next week. Apparently, I'm supposed to have a new textbook. I realized this while checking online to see how many people had signed up for my courses. I do wish my myriad of bosses would keep me better informed sometimes. It'd make a lot of things easier.
Oh well. Hopefully they'll reply promptly to my inquisitive emails, and I can get on with my next herbal tea infusion.
Stay healthy, kids.
Right now, it's not that bad. Stephan, with classic East German logic believes that if I don't think about it, I won't have any sort of reaction. I try to ignore this, since he's been really sweet and caring since I got sick. He brought home fresh fruit by the bushel, fresh squeezed strawberry-orange juice and this special "winter-bath" with eucalyptus. Now under the best of circumstances, I'm not a huge eucalyptus fan. However, after putting off using the bath crystals for a full 48 hours, the situation was getting pretty critical. I will tell you--eucalyptus in this concentration smells like cat pee. It also turned the water green. I of course drew the water too hot and got ridiculously dehydrated and dizzy, and proceeded to pass out on the couch smelling like cat pee. It was awesome. In the meantime, I've got the cat pee situation under control, but I won't be bathing in or inhaling any eucalyptus any time soon. Chamomile is much more up my alley.
Despite being relieved at the possibility, I'm actually a little bit bummed out not to be able to go to work. This is a pretty good sign of job satisfaction, I guess. I mean, the kids had just started to really get used to me, and I was right in the middle of finally starting to build up a rapport with some of the four year olds (they're a tricky demographic, I'll tell you), and now I'm afraid that after the week, they'll have forgotten all about me and I'll have to start from scratch again. It's a lot easier to change a kid's diaper if they're not fighting you off because they don't know you. It's not that bad, though, since it's been raining pretty much straight since yesterday and anyone who's ever had to take care of little kids knows they go crazy when it rains for days at a time and they can't play outside. I'm glad my boss feels the same ways about kids and fresh air as I do--I mean, yes, these are city kids and their exposure to "nature" is relatively low, but playing outside is just plain healthy. Not to mention tiring for the little scamps. Provided I'm feeling better, I'm going to be pretty excite to get back to work next week.
In other news, I just started readying a pretty fascinating book on Al Qaida by a German author. To be honest, I'd kind of been putting off starting it, because I thought it would be dry and dull, but it's actually riveting. I had no idea that the first attack on the world trade center by Islamic militants actually happened in 1993. I mean, where was I?! Probably in Mrs. Lavallee's second grade class...or perhaps Mrs. Ellis's third grade class, and presumably not at all interested in such things. Anyhow, it's a very well written account of the different attacks; planned attacks, attempted attacks, etc. Very factual without becoming dry or textbook-y. I doubt it's been translated though, since the English-speaking world has no shortage of written material on Islamic extremists and Al Qaida in particular. I've also been re-reading Russendisko by Wladimir Kaminer--I'd lent it to Julia about a year ago and forgotten all about it. There are some hilarious short stories there. What I SHOULD be doing, however, is preparing myself for my adult ed courses at the Volkshochschule that are starting (well, some of them) next week. Apparently, I'm supposed to have a new textbook. I realized this while checking online to see how many people had signed up for my courses. I do wish my myriad of bosses would keep me better informed sometimes. It'd make a lot of things easier.
Oh well. Hopefully they'll reply promptly to my inquisitive emails, and I can get on with my next herbal tea infusion.
Stay healthy, kids.
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