The good, the bad and the not very flattering

So the good is that I have a reasonably normal week ahoy. By that I mean I am not traveling this week, there are no out-of-towners to entertain and there is also something else that provides relief that I am currently unable to think of, but I'll let you know. But I know there were 3 things.

The bad is that I am still sick-ish. I can't even actually decide if I'm sick or if it really is allergies like I keep telling people - if I say it enough will it become true? Please? And if so, what am I allergic to exactly that has lasted this long? Fall? Baltimore? Wine? MYSELF???!

I guess if you look at me (this is where the not so flattering (but ugly would be a stretch) comes in) I might appear to be sick. At least this is the message I'm getting based on the fact that HN keeps looking at me and knotting his eyebrows together in concern and going "awwww". Whatever, we all express desire in different ways and I'm not here to judge. My chapped nose is quite probably considered sexy in many cultures, and I know women who sleep in wool hats and sweaters and cotton sweat pants with their faces buried in a handkerchief are also quite the turn on (although, I don't think if I were to wave and drop this particular handkerchief that HN would gallantly race to pick it up without a biohazard suit on).

Essentially this is what HN has been coming home to every day: Wild hair, because I can get through the shower part but I really just don't have blowdrying/styling in me right now so I pretty much trade in my hair towel for a hat and praise the fact that wool keeps you warm even when wet, bloodshot eyes with big sexy bags under them and a nose area which is just a hot mess of chapped skin/mucosal egress right now. Fuck, I think I've turned into my mother.


But I can still cook. Or at least I could 3 days ago and for now, we're still living large on leftovers.

Saturday HN's mother made this, which he seemed to like so I then duplicated it on Sunday because I had a pound of shredded chicken going nowhere fast in the fridge due to a slight miscalculation in whether I was making soup for 2 people or 10 last week. It turned out to be 2 and I was left with a ton of shredded chicken just waiting for me to do something with it. I had already made empanadas last week for company (empanadas de pino, using the recipe from cook's illustrated;big hit) and then used the leftover dough from that venture to make Moroccan spiced butternut squash empanaditas (fucking good) the next day. Anyhoo, I made the aji de gallina sunday, adding some Jalapeno powder and cumin but otherwise sticking mostly to the recipe. Solid dish, good use for the meat but I don't know that it's going into heavy rotation as a destination. I'm not a huge fan of chicken and cream based things. Meh.

Anyhow, I had a long solid day of doing nothing yesterday and am feeling like I could almost be on the mend. For dinner last night I ate a bowl of shredded beets and carrots as big as my head with some vinegar for good measure, and today I'm on a program of even more veggies (stuff is starting to go soft in the fridge while I convalesce) plus a shit ton of pickled hot peppers; vitamin C plus hellfire and brimstone and this cold/allergy/parasite doesn't stand a chance. I'm supposed to have an onsite meeting today and I'm on the fence. On the one hand, it would be nice to get out of the house and perhaps even to see people but on the other, the novelty of those things tends to wear off after 10 minutes or so, and then the actual meeting continues on for another hour, so this could backfire. I have 4 hours and a jar of hot peppers between me and the time of decision. I'm also contemplating in some area of my brain getting exercise, thinking that if I just start acting like I'm fine and everything is good then my body will fall in line.

Being sick is boring I guess is the bottom line. BO-RING. and also, I'm lazy, so I can never decide if I want to stay in bed/dog bed/house because I'm lazy or legit tired. Then I think of those germy posters on the subway, you know the ones: "If you're sick keep your broke ass at home" or whatever they say and I try to compare myself to the dude in the picture and wonder if they're talking to me. Maybe I'll call the person with whom I was supposed to meet and cough for her, let her decide if she's up to the risk. Caveat emptor and all that...