Sneezy, Sleepy, and Dopey

I had a nice Christmas. I went to my friend's parents' house in Lancaster. That's an 85 mile drive that makes you want to learn a foreign language on tape. Yeesh. Anyhow, we had mucho food for dinner, and learned that you're not supposed to add more sugar to cans of already candied yams. And after an hour, I stopped being able to breathe well. We went outside for a bit, then decided to take a walk. Our other options were (1) see a movie or (2) go hang at a bar. But (1) didn't allow for friendly banter and (2) didn't allow for bringing the kids and I had to drive back, I couldn't stay over. So we walked. And her older boy rode his bike. I was able to breathe better almost immediately.

When we got back I didn't want to cut the evening short but it was too chilly just to sit outside so we tried playing a game indoors. A couple hours later, I decided to leave while I could still breathe. I was fine driving home. I took a shower, put all my clothes in the laundry, did my sinus rinse, and *still* got a pre-sinus-infection snot waterfall about 6 hours later while I was trying unsuccessfully to sleep. I did another sinus rinse, took 2 benadryl, 2 cholortrimeton, and was able finally to sleep when the benadryl stopped my nose from producing buckets of mucous. (Had I not taken the benadryl, I would have a sinus infection now, simply from the quantity of snot - all my sinus infections begin with that waterfall of snot.)

And the fallout from 4 hours in a house with a cat was that I lost all of the day after Christmas. I went to the UPS store and picked up my gifts, got some stuff at target, and went home for a 4 hour nap. (More TMI: The fact that it also coincided with my period just put it over the edge.) I was barely conscious the whole day. I did wind up waking up and watching Mythbusters late into the night, and reading snippets of a novel, but I couldn't focus, hurt everywhere and could barely move. Didn't feel even like typing

I was marginally better yesterday. I got up and went on a nice little hiking trip with some colleagues. We drove up some wicked ass scary windy road and then hiked to the top of Sandstone Peak. Up and back was about 90 minutes, including some time to look around from the top. Views were of the valley I live in and the Pacific ocean and Malibu. It was quite windy, so it was clear enough to see mountains in Pasadena and most of the Channel Islands too. It was stunning, and everything we could have hoped for. If I can figure out how to download the pics from my phone, I will but it won't do justice to the panorama.

From my perspective, I was distracted by breathing. I'm not sure if I'm out of shape or just out of breath. I couldn't breathe through my nose for the first 20 minutes. But exercise helped clear my sinuses and I started being able to breathe better. In time to be pretty pooped. I did fine on the way back down - usually I'm slow going down to check my footing, but I did fine. There were 10 of us, so we paired off with people to talk to and I had an interesting talk with a colleagues husband (who wasn't breathing hard but is 15 years older than me. grr.)

After the hike and the scary ass trip back down the mountain on the cliff side of the road (how can people live up there???) we stopped at "Neptune's Net" which is essentially "Brown's Lobster Pound" on the opposite coast, with more expensive lobsters. So I got fried seafood instead. All in all, it's a great "California Experience" and one I'll probably replicate with visitors, even with the windy roads. The hike is long enough to be a workout without overdoing it. The mountain roads are very much part of the experience, the view is fantastic, and the seafood place is just my speed - picnic tables and a handwashing sink, right on the ocean.

The only bad part about yesterday was that I came back and fell asleep for about 6 hours on the couch. Which means I'm now nocturnal again. I think I'll go see a movie today. I'm still thinking about what to do or exercise. With the exception of the day after x-mas, I've managed to do my 30 minutes or more every day.

Good Stuff:

• Finally went hiking, and it was great
• Have relaxing time off work
• Got to see friend and her new boy
• My little christmas tree makes me happy