Whine, Whine, WHIIIIINE

Not the kids. Me.

My ribs and my back hurt from coughing. My tongue and the roof of my mouth hurt from being continually scalded as I chug hot liquids--from Theraflu to licorice-spice tea (licorice is supposed to be soothing to the throat, and I do have to say my throat is no longer sore) to bowls upon bowls of chicken soup. I have deadlines both at my university job and my (not-much-longer-mine if-there-really-is-a-God) alternative medicine journal that I have to meet before I leave, next Tuesday morning, for New York, where I am having an orientation with the so-far-very-cool-seeming gang from my new parenting website gig. (That last part is a YAY and not a whine, although the time pressure added by my leaving for a week adds to the too-many-deadlines part of the whine.)

[Yes, I do love me some compound hyphenated adjectives. Why do you ask?]

So, in other words, I'm sitting here worrying about meeting deadlines, wincing in rib pain every time I move, trying not to cough (so as not to incure more rib pain), and thus trying to drink some more licorice-spice (with lots of honey) tea, but wincing in pain with each sip, due to the tongue and mouth-roof burnage problem.

I'm a mess.

BUT. Bonnie, who I don't think I knew of before today but who is now my New Best Friend, left me a really sweet message on my last post, which made me smile, and since my cheek muscles are not involved in the general messiness of me, I didn't even have to wince while doing it.

Guess things could be worse.