Easter - What Could Have Been

Paul, Cory and Joanne came to DC this weekend. I was so excited to spend time with them. They are the ultimate travel partners: adventurous, enthusiastic, curious, and they love food. I have this policy that I won't travel with cheap people or people who don't eat. It just won't happen because these people are killjoys and traveling is about, you know, joy. When I went to NYC with Paul, Cory and Joanne, I was introduced to their travel-style and will never go back. Generally, I was lucky growing up that, when we traveled, part of the fun was eating at an interesting restaurant or going to a unique destinations within or trip, and P, C and J matched this fun with their own engagement of their vacation destinations. You are never unsatisfied as a traveler with them.

Anyway, so I was excited to see them and to visit some local tourist attractions (also, I won't travel with people who use "tourist trap" or claim any "only what the locals do" pretension - because they tend to be killjoys too, I have so many rules!), but Thursday evening I started to feel run down. By Friday afternoon I was in a full-blown, high, painful, delirious fever. I tried desperately Saturday morning to pull myself together for breakfast, even though every breath I took burned my lungs and forced sharp, painful coughs from me. We ate breakfast and caught up with P, C and J while Louisa twirled around in her tutu and tucked her dolls under napkins to nap. After breakfast we walked along the embassies and Louisa spent most of her time with Cory and Paul while Joanne and I had deep conversations.

More art!

Helping Cory find an Uber

Deep discussions regarding art

 When it was time to turn around I realized I was too ambitious and walking back to the car seemed insurmountable, surely I had consumption! I thought, but we did it and Louisa feel asleep immediately.  That afternoon, Amos brought Louisa to an Easter egg hunt at a nearby petting zoo and had dinner with a Portland friend that was in town as I cuddled with my cats and a heating pad. I guess we are lucky, we had such a busy weekend, so Louisa was preoccupied and missing her mother less.

Sissy took good care of me

By Sunday morning, when my fever still hovered around 102 I decided I needed to go to an Urgent Care. I remained convinced I'd feel better by brunch so I weakly dressed myself and tried to look presentable so we could go to the doctor and off to brunch to have fancy donuts and gossip about Minneapolis. But at the Urgent Care I knew it was hopeless for me. I couldn't sit up, I was feeling incredibly guilty about not being with my friends and Louisa for Easter brunch, my whole body ached, it sucked. The doctor decided I had bronchitis/sinusitis and gave me a prescription. LJ and Amos went to brunch after they dropped me off at home where I lay awake in my bed, listening to podcasts, trying to sleep but in too much discomfort to even get comfortable enough to do that.

That afternoon, Crysten came over so Amos could go for a run and get dinner. She is so funny and great with Louisa and much stricter than me. She'd only give Louisa a jelly bean once Louisa swallowed the previous one and would have LJ open her mouth to prove it was gone. And Louisa is so obedient with her. So funny to watch it.

I stayed home from work yesterday and recovered, finally reaching a body temperature that was not so painful. And I made my first homemade meal for days which pleased Amos and LJ but I could barely stomach, as flus do to you.

So I missed out on Easter fun. I'm super bummed about it. But my mom comes to town next weekend and we will color eggs and hopefully build a garden so it will feel like Spring again. Okay, I have to take a nap.