I’m done with February!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I’m tired of winter.  I’m tired of snow.  I’m tired of having this head/chest cold that won’t go away.  I’m tired of being too busy to avoid getting behind on everything.  I’m so done with February. 

Last night, just as we were trying to get to bed early, I was having another coughing attack and ended up with my nose bleeding at the same time that I coughed up blood.  It sounds far, far worse than it is/was - I have something called Von Willebrand’s which means that my clotting factors are kind of slow.  It’s not the same thing as hemophilia because it’s not even close to that level of seriousness and because I actually do clot but there is a problem in the second phase of clotting.  So, basically the main thing is that I can’t take aspirin or ibuprofen or any of those NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs).  That sucks for a runner - obviously.  But, it definitely keeps me from overdoing things when something hurts!  So, anyway, even though I know that it was just a matter of having this cold for a while, it’s a little bit un-nerving when you think about going to sleep after your nose was just bleeding everywhere and you coughed up blood.  Ah, but fatigue got the better of me, I grabbed a towel (a brown one), slapped said towel on the pillow, and off to la-la land I went.  Woke up this morning no worse for wear, so to say, and so I ran my long run (interspersed with coughing attacks), and then proceeded to eat everything I could grab that didn’t require any preparation:  mini chocolate covered donuts, cheesecake, a banana, grapes, leftover cold ravioli, yogurt, chocolate, a poptart, and diet mountain dew.  All that with just 3 units of insulin! 

Despite my impatience over the late arrival of Spring, February hasn’t actually been all that bad.  The first part of February, I was in the Boston area and that trip was great (even though I came home with this horrible cold).  Then, last week a friend of mine from college came to the area to give a talk at UNC-Greensboro and so I got to spend a couple days with him. 

I’ve kept up with quite a few of my college friends over the years and even with a good many high school friends as well, but this particular friend had a tremendous impact on me.  Andrew Parasiliti and I were both in the Psychology Department (I was studying physiological psychology, in particular auditory perception which is a fancy way to say hearing, and Andrew was in cognitive and behavioral psych, so there was a lot of overlap in classes and in the labs that we worked in). 

More than any other single person during my college years, Andrew taught me simply by his example how important education was and how rewarding it was to embrace learning.  He was actually a really normal, cool guy who hung out, went to parties, and all that.  But, he was also very enthusiastic about school and never tried to make excuses or deny it. 

This sounds so simplistic as I try to explain how much Andrew’s friendship affected the trajectory of my life, but suffice it to say that he changed the way I view the world and my place in it.  It was fantastic to catch up with him in person last week and I feel all charged up and ready to take on the world now!  Below is a pic of Andrew, me, and two of our profs, Cheryl Logan and Dave Soderquist.

But, in the meantime, back here in NC, in my tiny little office on the second floor, I’m still trying to get back into a regular groove with work and such.  Of course, I tell myself that if the weather would improve I would be more productive, but I suspect that the opposite might be the case as I would probably need to take some emergency leave and spend the time outside! 

So, in a nutshell, I’m done with February. 

Enjoy,

Missy