exhaustion

this week, i have:

~worked three 8-hour days and one 10-hour day

~rolled out 7 pcs with all parts, renamed them, added them to the active directory, added them to the domain, updated them (a three part process with reboots between each part), and properly inventoried them

~collected, de-inventoried, listed in the memo, and stacked in our deep storage room an additional four systems

~attempted to reformat a computer, and received an error message that was wholely new to the entire IT staff here. we still have no idea what's up with that one, but next week is a new start

~built up a projector cart from scratch

~sorted our 'the prof left but here's his/her old equipment' laptops

~counted/arranged chairs in the classrooms on the third floor

~folded 3x5 cards to exact shapes, labeled them, taped them appropriately in the podiums across the building in such a way that only idiots could mistake the buttons (and yes, we'll get a lot of confusion, because of that addage about making things idiot-proof)

~moved one faculty member from office A to office B, along with lots of grumbling about the inconvenience of being moved across the building (because it wasn't at all inconvenient for *me*, but it was terribly inconvenient for him/her ... bear in mind, he/she had all of a drawer's worth of stuff to move, and i had a complex setup of multiple monitors and fancy peripherals to deal with.)

~spent an hour fixing printer settings in an effort to do the impossible, before coming to the conclusion that it was, in fact, impossible

~stood on a table in heeled shoes, held a heavy projector unit while another unmounted it from the ceiling, expended the greater part of an air can cleaning the filters, replaced the lamp, and helped replace the unit on the ceiling

~received an email from a user who has *both* fixed her problem and would like us to look at it to see if we can resolve the issue

~scored a dozen or so essays for the clep thing

~met with a senior faculty member to discuss my syllabus and course schedule, revised both based on excellent feedback, received even more advice from another, revised further, discussed with a third, and have yet to make some more improvements (it will be the best damn syllabus and course schedule this side of wherever by the time the class starts)

~done other, little things i can't even remember at the moment


the reason i only worked four days this week of the five is that i spent the better portion of wednesday recovering from tuesday night. what follows is a section about vomit, so if you are faint of stomach, skip ahead to the single line that stands alone. i called ems tuesday night, and we talked until about eleven. i went to bed, having another full day planned for wednesday. my body woke me up at about one, and after a moment of thought, i turned down the a/c and then entered my kitchen to grab my family's equivalent of a sick pass: a large, stainless steel mixing bowl. it is the tub we've used when overly nauseous since i can remember, and while my bowl set is more shallow than my mother's, the smell is the same. the very smell of stainless steel makes me gag a little. it's a reflex.

i figured i was miserable enough to spend a few minutes with my head over the bowl and i'd feel better immediately with whatever it was out of me. no. and it was getting hot in the apt. an hour later, i wet a rag and crawled into bed with my bowl. another hour later, it was so much worse that i went back to the bathroom, sure the event was about to begin. no. and my thermostat read 61, which was no excuse for the heat. the thermometer, however, read 102.7, which was a perfectly good excuse for the heat. the nausea continued to get worse and worse, and i continued to be unable to bring anything up. it did not matter what images i conjured to help. it did not help to mash my stomach. it did not help to massage my throat. much of the time when i'm nauseous, i'll do very nearly anything to keep from vomiting. this time was much the opposite, and it was quite frustrating.

by four in the morning, i decided that bolemic people had a method for this process, and the romans too. so by golly, i was just going to *force* my stomach to part ways with whatever the hell it was that was so unpleasant. but the thought of throwing up all over my hand was just too nasty. i decided to brush my teeth. sometimes, if i brush too far back on my tongue, i gag a bit. that would do the trick, i decided.

the nausea became much worse at the thought. i figured i wouldn't have to actually do anything but let the process take place. several tense moments of anticipatory heaving later, i reached for the toothbrush, and there it came. and came. and still came. it finally subsided about an hour and half later.

i have never been so sick. it was so violent i had vomit shooting out my nose. i had no idea a nose could hurt so bad, or that nasal drip could taste so awful. there's nothing like having to decide whether it is less painful and gross to blow vomit into a kleenex or to snort vomit into the back of your throat to hack into a mucus/vomit-loogie to spit out. in the end, a combination of both did the trick, and i only had a nasty nasal drip until about seven in the morning.

sore, tired, hot, still nauseous but with absolutely nothing (not even bile) left, i took a quick shower, cleaned the bowl and etc. (there should never be an 'etc' in a statement like that, nor a need for a shower unless one is vomiting drunkenly, and no, i will not disclose the full horror that was my bathroom, nor the entirety of my meals on tuesday, except to say that i shall never again in my life consume raw broccoli, no matter how tasty i find it, and that maybe future vomiting spells ought to just take place in the shower for convenience), and climbed into bed for a few hours of sleep. i slept until about ten, got up, slowly drank some water, and scouted the kitchen and pantry for good 'morning after a sick' foods. nothing.

At this point, the squeamish may rejoin us.

another shower, more water, a trip to the store. some powerade with vitamins and electrolites and shit. some saltines. some way-processed chicken soup. some applesauce. some cheerios. mmmm. wednesday i could only drink some weak mint tea, powerade, water. the water ended up hurting too badly, and the tea gave me a funny feeling, so in the end, i consumed a bottle of powerade.

i was disappointed to see that the entire bottle (32 oz) contained a whopping 40 calories. hello, people. i need more than 40 calories a day to keep going. how about your regular powerade with the super calories? probably, that existed in the store and i just didn't see it. i walked down the cracker aisle twice before some kind young man asked me what i wanted, and got me the saltines. i'm impressed i managed to pick out a specific soup. i was a bit out of it. i probably shouldn't have driven.

anyway, later that afternoon, i managed to make the meeting with that senior faculty member, though in hindsight, i should have called to cancel it. it was a long, hot walk from car to building and then back to car. i haven't felt that tired since the first summer i came here and got mono right before a full load of summer classes. i slept well.

thursday, i went back to work. another bottle of powerade, about a cup of soup, and a whole 5 crackers! i was impressed on the crackers. it was going to look like i'd have to stop at two. and i did, but then later i got down the other three. by the evening, i finished the soup, ate another four crackers, had a few spoonsful of applesauce.

today, i felt much better, as far as the nausea went. not bad at all. ate two real meals, and no problems. this was good, because i needed the real meals to go with the massive quantities of midol, ibuprophin and aspirin i had to take to make it through a 10-hour day with extreme menstrual cramping and a pleasant smile and attitude.

this last month has been an interesting one with the period. some classic physical pms symptoms (tenderness, back pain, headache) lasted the whole month, and then once the bleeding started, they went away, replaced by the cramps. i'll be very happy when the body gets it all sorted out.

in any case, in the next hour or so, i need to make the final changes to the syllabus and course schedule, solidify my topics for the first paper, check to make sure all my readings got added to the server properly, and re-lance the blisters on my toes before bed.

this has been a long post to fit a long week. it's also been a somewhat gross post (sorry for the gastrointestinally squeamish). oh well. i don't talk about vomit *that* often.

love and peace