Sick days

I pride myself on not getting sick very often, but this week was an exception. I had to take the entire week off, with a sore throat and lots of congestion. That's the longest I think I have ever stayed home. I have been sicker, but this was a longer duration. Some of it also has to do with the fact that my present job includes interacting with the public all the time, so it's more important for me to stay away.

It all started on Good Friday, when I woke up with a slightly sore throat. No problem, I just figured it was dehydration or a canker sore or something. I feel bad; that was the day I was in the barbershop, touching people all day. I hope I didn't start an epidemic!

On the day before Easter, I wanted to run up Mueller Park, which is just over 3 miles up, 6.5 miles round trip. But when I got just over a mile up, I wasn't feeling very good. My throat and lungs hurt. I might have been able to power through it, but I really had no desire to, which is unusual. So I only went two miles instead of six.

On Easter Sunday, I felt a little worse.

But Easter night, I had to keep drinking water to soothe my sore throat. I had to get up every hour to release the water and blow my nose. And when I woke up on Monday morning, I was just too congested and sore to go to work, so I stayed home.

That pattern continued three more nights. All I felt like doing was watching trashy TV shows. One of my Sundance coworkers wanted me to help out with a book she was working on, so I did work for that while I was home, only to find out at the end of the week that the publishing deal fell through.

As I was sick, I kept thinking, "How do people binge watch stuff when they're healthy?" I just feel so lazy and worthless watching TV all day! I'm sad that I got sick this week, when the weather was so nice.

Monday was Earth Day, and I wanted to do something environmental, but I was in no shape for a run or hike. So I went to the Wild Rose Trail to try to pull up myrtle spurge. That did require physical exertion, but I did it anyway. I feel like I'm hardly making a dent in it. But it's still better than nothing. One couple asked if I considered it a weed; I explained how it was an invasive species that took over the hillside. The woman picked up a piece, but I said, "Oh, don't touch it! This milky stuff can give you a rash." And indeed, I have a tiny bit of rash on my wrist, where my sleeves and gloves didn't cover. So even though I didn't pull much myself, I was able to educate people about it. And I only started doing it because I was educated last year. I should make more time to get rid of it.

The yellow flower on the right is arrowleaf balsamroot, one of my favorite wildflowers. It is tragic that the spurge competes with such a wonderful plant. There were also some vetch plants being crowded out by the spurge.

On Friday, I was finally feeling better, but still not well enough to work. My parents were camping on Antelope Island. On Friday afternoon, I rode with my sister to see them there, my favorite island. We went to the visitor center, but I was in no condition to do anything else.

Saturday was my scheduled day off. I had heard that the original Golden Spike was on display at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, but it was the last weekend there. I wanted to see it, so I did. I was glad to see it, but I was unimpressed with the exhibit. There were absolutely no explanatory signs for the spikes. The spikes have writing on them, but it was too hard to read, and I would have appreciated a caption. The rest of the exhibit was boring black-and-white photographs of the nineteenth century. There were stereoscopes, which are cool, but you can only look at so many. I liked the other museum exhibits better than the one I went to see.

Last night I wanted to try Empire Chinese Kitchen, a relatively new restaurant in North Salt Lake. But the Asian woman "helping" us spoke almost no English. We wanted a combination plate, but she told us we couldn't get what we wanted. She couldn't answer our most basic questions, and we literally did not know what we were getting when we ordered. I feel conflicted. I think it's great that immigrants can come here and get jobs and be successful and share their culture. But if you're running a business, you need to be able to communicate with your customers! I feel super racist, like one of those MAGA types saying "We speak English here!" But it was a frustrating experience. That was my worst experience with a language barrier at an Asian restaurant, but not my only one. If you can't answer my questions, then your menu and sign had better be 100 percent clear.

Oh, and then my mom got food poisoning. I don't plan to go back there.