Low Grade Fever and Chagrin

With a bit of a sore throat and also a bit of a headache last night, I conceded to taking my temperature. Always a bad idea. Turns out I had a fever, which is still hanging on. 98.8 degrees of sleight crud. And a *lot* of episodes of the Office.

So after staying in bed an inordinate amount of time this morning, I got up and had some grits and eggs made by my lovely honeypie. And since then, to his utter disappointment, I've been tidying the house in 15 minute increments. According to him, I should be relaxing and taking it easy. Well, he knows this as well as anyone, but when I say "take it easy" or "easy does it", I'm actually pretty riled up. So I think that with advice to "take it easy", if I'm only tidying in 15 minute increments - instead of setting the house on fire or re-upholstering both the big blue chair and the sofa simultaneously - we're doing good.

Things to do when you have a low-grade fever:

1. sort your socks. You have lots of places stuffed with odd socks. In the wicker picnic basket. In two levels of the mesh hanging Ikea cylinder thing. In one slot of the closet shoe organizer. In the chest-of-drawers sock drawer. Why not get them all out in one place and try to match them up so you don't have to use your husband's tube socks, much to his chagrin!

2. gchat with your mom and brother *simultaneously*. I know, it's never been done before and it's a little frightening, but it's also very exciting. Use cut and paste to tell them both some of the same things, but don't ever ever get confused about which chat window is which.

3. tidy the house. Notice that I don't say "clean the house" here. Clean would be too intense. Just tidy. A little at a time. Take the egg timer from the kitchen and literally set it to 15 minutes. (But when the 15 minutes are up, you can always set it for just a little more.)

4. enjoy the cheeze-ball fashion magazine provided by your loved ones. Vogue was my treat from Mr Johnson this morning. I love it. Especially "The Rules" section: "more sleep". I'm on it!

5. during the holiday season, open Christmas cards. This is always a treat, but even more so when you're feeling a bit under the weather. Great to hear from gunners and snowers. Great to see improbable pictures that are always part of these Christmas card: She *can't* be that big! I didn't know it ever snowed up there!

6. make hot drinks. Tea in the morning, and then a move to my special hot toddy: water, whiskey, lots of lemon and lots of honey.

7. call your friends to cancel all your plans for the day. Not as much fun, but definitely necessary. We don't want them sick, too!