I’m sick. Sick-sick. Not hungover, out-of-it, or otherwise decommissioned in some way. I haven’t been this sick since Chicago–that shockingly windy, deathy cold city that caused my immune system to collapse every month or so. Oh my how I got sick in Chicago.
Back home, I seem to be in my healthy element. Except for this one blip.
Being sick turns my world upside-down. I haven’t run in a week. I don’t want to eat. I don’t want to drink. If I eat, I eat cookies. When I was a kid, I requested Pepperidge Farm Mint Milanos. Right now, I’m sitting at The Grove on Fillmore drinking white tea, nibbling on a pan-sized chocolate chip cookie. I’ll probably have another cookie for dinner and be done with eating for the day. I’m wasting away, losing all my toned running muscle, as I watch the number on the scale drop every morning. I don’t want to read. I don’t want to work. I’m not 100% when I’m in the office–eyes glazed over, congested. I just want to go home and snuggle in bed.
This is when I wish I had a TV. That’s right, I don’t own a TV–by choice. My sister and I made a pact to raise our kids without television. I spend so much time reading, I have little use for a TV. She spends so much time on teaching, music, arts and crafts that she too doesn’t need a TV.
It’s the first thing people notice when they come over. “No TV?!” When I moved from Chicago, the estimator walked around my Lincoln Park studio, then asked, “So where’s your TV?” But I have to be honest, for someone who doesn’t own a TV, I do watch a lot of it. I run so much at the gym, what else am I going to do while on that treadmill for an hour? Read a book or flip through the pages of a magazine? Not while running. I run pretty fast, too.
I’ve seen it all between the hours of 6 to 10pm: The OC, Sex and the City, Cribs, Dr. Phil, Seinfeld, Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Fabulous Life of.., Nanny 911, Extreme Home Makeover, The Apprentice, The Scholar, Hell’s Kitchen, America’s Top Model. I can spout out every detail of the Natalee Holloway disappearance thanks to Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. Ideally, I love to run while listening to my ipod and watching Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals on the Food Network. “Remember: A great meal is never more than 30 minutes away!” She’s so cute and energetic. I don’t cook, but I’ve always been fascinated by cooking shows.
Not sure what the point of all this is. I guess when I’m sick, I want what I don’t have–like a TV so I can sit and watch movies with a box of kleenex at my side. Or a man who would come over and bake me cookies and put M&Ms in them–the way I like–just like my ex-boyfriend used to. Oh when will that happen again? Sniffle-sniffle. Time for a commercial break.
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