Dammit! I'm sick. I woke up at 7am feeling like hell--my throat really felt raw and my sinuses were stuffed and I felt rotten. I immediately called my neighbor and asked her if she could take Joey to school. Once that was arranged, I rolled out of bed to help Joey get dressed and her hair brushed and fixed her a bowl of cereal and then crawled back in bed. Ed took care of her until she got out the door--I believe I was back asleep before she left the house 10 minutes later. In fact, I think I was asleep before she got into the kitchen, I felt so bad.

Next thing I know, the phone is ringing and it is 12:30. I couldn't believe I'd slept so long. Clearly, I was needing some big sleep. I stayed in bed until 1:30 by which time I had to get out of bed and forage for food. I was very stiff from being in bed for 14 hours--I don't know what I'd do if I had to stay in bed for a long time, like in the hospital. Not only was my body achy from being prone for so long, I had one hell of a caffeine headache. I needed to get some in me fast. My caffeine delivery system of choice is ice cold Dr Pepper. I tell you, no Dr Pepper ever tasted as good as the one I drank this afternoon.

It was a quiet day, though. I left at 3pm to retrieve Joey from her piano lesson and then we went to the store for paper products (we were out of everything--napkins, paper towels, Kleenex and toilet paper. Bad news). When we got back, Joey took the remainder of her Halloween candy over to the neighbor's house to sort it (not sure what that means exactly since it came back exactly as it went over) while I sat on the couch, drank chamomile tea and read book reviews on Amazon trying to choose my book club book titles to present at book group tonight. I chose The Red Tent (Diamant), Back When We Were Grownups (Tyler) and Good In Bed (Wiener). We decided on the latter. I'm glad--it's the one I really wanted most, though I was interested in all of them and hope to read them all.

I was planning to leave early tonight, like around 8pm or 8:30, but I stayed until 9:30. That's still kind of early for me since I often don't leave until 10:30. And I was the first to go, which never happens. Our numbers have dwindled somewhat--we were swelling at around 13 or 14 last Feb/March, and then some people went on summer hiatus and never returned, one moved out of state, one is pregnant and due next month and lives very far away from everyone else and the only one who lives at her end of town, at least 20 minutes away from everyone else and she doesn't like to drive alone. Another member who only came about every 2 or 3 months dropped out, too, because she felt like it wasn't fair to the group to be such a flake. While I agree that her assessment it true, I hate to lose her from the group. So after our Christmas gathering, we will invite a few new people. We discussed some potential people and we'll see what we end up with. I wouldn't mind having only 8 people in the group, but 2 of them come only sporadically (though they aren't ready to retire entirely) so most of the time there are only 6 of us. One thing that is paramount, though, is that we need to make sure that prospective members are committed to the group--coming every month, reading the book--and that they are a good fit for the other members--not overly dominating, not too mousy, able to disagree respectfully. I'm very protective of the group and I'd rather have a small membership than add someone who is brusque and disagreeable and monopolizes the conversation.

I'm tired. You'd think that after 14 hours of sleep, I'd not be sleepy but I'm tired enough to go to bed. Not that midnight-thirty is early or anything. (Right on time for me, actually.)

Hope I feel better tomorrow--I've got too much stuff planned for this weekend.

--L