Sick Again
Rebecca January 8th, 2008
I’m home sick from work. I’ve been in this state since Saturday: sore throat, clogged sinuses, a cough that starts at the arches of my feet and ultimately rattles the light fixtures. Luckily, I have half a bottle of codeine-laced cough syrup left from last year’s bout with bronchitis. I’ve spent the last four days in a pleasantly mild opiate haze spiked with the citrus notes of Lemon Zinger tea and Halls cough drops. During this downtime, I’ve watched movies (Pirates of the Caribbean 3, The Science of Sleep, Serpico, La Vie en Rose*), posted commentary all over the Interweb (everywhere except where I should, ahem), finished one book (The Discovery of France by Graham Robb) and started another (Ian McEwan’s Saturday), and caught the season premiere of my beloved “Antiques Roadshow” (dammit, they’re not going to be anywhere near me this summer). I also watched the return of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert without their writers last night.
Did you see either? Boy oh boy, I’m not sure if anyone on TV is funny anymore without their writers. Oh sure, both men had their moments, like Colbert’s introduction of a show with nothing on it, but…overall? Meh. The highlight was Andrew Sullivan’s appearance on Colbert. Apparently I haven’t been paying enough attention to the chattering classes lately. I had no idea he left the Republican Party for our team. He was there to discuss his article about Barack Obama in December’s Atlantic Monthly. Watching him, I came to the conclusion that someone (Hello, Bill Maher?) needs to have both Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens on their show to debate the issues raised by Obama’s candidacy. Or, if you’re like Hitchens and believe any reference to race is “pathetic and embarrassing”, debate the very existence of such issues in the first place.
Anyway, enough codeine-fueled rambling. I’m off to watch some daytime TV. BBC America is airing back-to-back episodes of “How Clean Is Your House?“. I have a deeply masochistic need to be upbraided–via a hapless English proxy–on my housecleaning skills. If I’m lucky, “Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” will air later this afternoon. Lord knows I need more BLEEP! in my life.
*Marion Cotillard is amazing, just amazing as Edith Piaf. Even though I gave La Vie only three stars on Netflix, those three were entirely due to her performance.
Sorry to hear you’re under the weather. (Where did THAT expression come from, anyway?) Dang, hope you didn’t catch your bug at my party. (I feel fine, not to rub it in or anything.)
Can’t wait to see La Vie en Rose. Science of Sleep sounds interesting; I might have to go check that out.
And, will Sweeney Todd EVER get to Missoula???
I think most bugs take 24 to 48 hours to…er…well, whatever they do, so I didn’t catch it from anyone at your farewell party.
Perhaps it will be here for Valentines Day! Nothing says love quite like murder and mayhem!
I can’t decide if i heart or hate Christoper H. I think he would prefer hate. He’s that kind of guy. And yet, so appealing in a smart, drunk, hateful, English kind of way.
And I love it when wealthy white males insist that even mentioning race is pathetic. Yeah, you tell ‘em Anglo-Saxon-Man!
Oh, how I love the left-over codeine cough syrup… I think the Canadians can get it over the counter, damn them.
Hang in there, keep watching bad TV and avoid the news channels, as Matt has already pointed out.
I wonder when “the crud” is going to migrate this way?
Last night was my first full night of sleep in five days without the codeine cough syrup. My brain feels a thousand times clearer today.
As I said elsewhere on the Intertubes, sometimes I agree with Hitchens, sometimes I don’t, but I always find him to be entertaining, intelligent and a master of the English language. He makes even the most wretched diatribe (pro-Iraq War, for example) interesting and informative.