The Golden Ticket

I am SO TIRED of being sick. Justin came down with pneumonia last month so I fumigated the entire house with Lysol and took some natural immune boosting pills, but it was no use. I got sick over the holidays and have been sick ever since. Right now I have this horrible post-nasal drip...constant coughing, scratchy throat and sinus pressure. It wakes me up every night which is a pain because I normally don't have trouble sleeping. I'm quite miserable, really.

On top of all of that I went to the doctor last month to attempt to get a grip on my diabetes. There have been changes in my body (besides losing 85 lbs. without trying!) that are scaring me and I don't want to end up dead from something that I could have had control over. I did some fasting labs and on my return visit the doctor wanted to put me on insulin and I said no way. I told her that I really wanted to attempt one last time to control it with oral meds and watching what I ate. For the last two weeks I have had nothing that has sugar in it. I went cold turkey and it has been hard as hell - especially over the holidays. We had "food day" at work and I can't even tell you how hard it was to not have sweets - especially chocolate! I didn't even go to the table to see what was there. I had nothing. Not even a cracker! I didn't even want to look at it because of the temptation.

Since going on my medicine again it has been a constant roller coaster. My body doesn't know what the hell is happening and there are days when I crash and feel horrible and days when I feel great. I can't wait until I finally reach that happy medium and the meds become regulated in my system. Last week I was at work and started feeling weird and shaky. I checked my blood sugar and it was 83. I'm sure that it hasn't been that low in years! It really should be between 90 and 110 so that was not good. I tried to convince my coworkers that it was okay for me to eat cake (it was someone's birthday) but they weren't having it and I knew I would feel guilty if I did so I just went and warmed up my lunch and had that. I told Diane that if I passed out to make sure they didn't send me to the hospital until after 4pm or else I wouldn't get paid for the holiday, which was the day after.

So, with being sick comes the irritability. If one more person at work mentions weather to me I'm going to go nuts. Everyone knows that I don't like snow. Everyone knows that it scares the crap out of me to drive in the snow. I listen to the weather, I watch the news so, YES! I know when it's going to snow!! When I'm at work and it starts snowing I get this stream of people that take joy in walking by my desk to report to me that they have seen a snowflake. It's so irritating. I get the little pats on the back with people saying "It'll be okay" like I'm mentally challenged. Yes, people actually do this. I always tell them that I'm not worried about my driving, I'm worried about all the assholes in Ohio that think they are invincible and drive like maniacs (namely, them!)

Sorry, just venting.

Speaking of snow (or hopefully lack of!)...

Weather and finances permitting, I'm attempting to go to Obama's Inauguration in D.C. I like to think of it more as Obama's Inauguration/Pam's 40th birthday celebration. Can you imagine a better place to spend your 40th birthday? After Obama's kick-ass landslide win, I contacted both Ohio Senators and also my local Congressman to put my name on the list for tickets. A couple of days later I received an email from Senator Voinavich saying that I might as well hang it up and that all the tickets were spoken for. A couple of days after that I received an email from Senator Brown saying that my name was put into a lottery and if my name was chosen they would contact me. They even sent out follow-up emails with updates. In the end I wasn't selected so I was pretty bummed. I never did hear from Congressman Boehner's office.

I've been reading up on the events of the inauguration and trying to figure out how I'm going to navigate my way through the city. I will probably drive to work with my friend Elizabeth and trek to the city from her office, which is 2 1/2 miles to the Capital. I'm pretty familiar with D.C. so I just need to figure out which Metro stations are going to be open to shorten my walk! They said that if you go you should choose between being at the Mall for the swearing in or on the parade route because the possibility of doing both will be slim.

Today, on the way home, I called both Senators offices and asked them what happens to the tickets that people don't pick up. The girl from Senator Voinavich's office said that they have a list of a couple thousand people and only a couple hundred tickets so there will be none left over (that's kind of sucky!) When I called Senator Brown's office the girl said that they have a strict follow up procedure to ensure that all people that are issued tickets come and pick them up. I didn't question it... why bother?!

I decided to call Congressman Boehner's office to find out what was happening there and the guy who answered the phone was the most helpful out of all of them and actually gave me a bit of hope! He said that all the tickets were spoken for but they have had an occasion where someone has to cancel plans and can't go. In that case there is a list of stand-by's so he put me on the list and said I should hear something within the next week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I can't tell you how bad I want one of those damn tickets!

I feel like Charlie Bucket looking for the golden ticket! Thankfully I don't have to look through all those chocolate bars - I definitely would have been in trouble then... unless they were sugar free, of course!