5 Things to Do When Bronchitis Has You in Its Clutches...

For the past two weeks I have been trapped in my home, forced to wallow in the knee-deep piles of cough drop wrappers and Germ-X bottles that litter my bedroom floor, shut off from the world to the point that even school seemed a welcome reprieve from the germy boredom that has overtaken my life (unfortunately, the whole "school seems like a good idea" thing died as soon as math class started this morning). Who or what do I blame for this sad, sad fate? BRONCHITIS. 
This accursed inflammation of the main air passages to the lungs not only gives you a heinous cough that interferes with even the most basic, necessary things like, oh I dunno, SLEEPING, it also is contagious enough that you can't spend any time with your friends for the 3-6 weeks that it lasts, and your physician father forces you to wear a medical mask (like the one pictured above) any time you leave your room.
So what, you might ask, does one do to stay sane when held in the clutches of such an abominable illness? The answer is this: nothing. There is nothing you can do to stay sane -- it's just impossible. There are, however, a few things you can do to postpone the total mental/emotional breakdown that must eventually hit.


These are my personal favorites:

1. Sleep. Really, I think that one is pretty self-explanatory. When the coughing keeps you awake, medicate yourself. Look for the cough syrups that say "may cause drowsiness" and then take as much as you can without killing yourself. (Even though death might seem preferable to your current state, is OD-ing on cold medication really the way you want to go?) Once you finally emerge from your sweet, medically-induced slumber, move on to things 2, 3, 4 and 5.
2. Watch *insert TV show title of choice here* reruns until your eyes fall out. My *TV show title(s) of choice* are Pushing Daisies and Chuck. Anything silly, fun and slightly weird that doesn't involve too much thought on your part. If you're particularly medicated, though, you might be able to throw in a little Primeval or Heroes, just to shake things up.
3. Eat anything and everything in sight. Make 16 servings of your comfort food and then label the container "Poison" so no one else touches it. 
4. Listen to music. Once your favorite radio stations start repeating themselves, admit defeat and go to your dad for music suggestions. No matter how strange the 80's may have been, the music was pretty good. And really, anything's better than listening to nothing but the not-so-dulcet din caused by your own hacking (up a lung, that is). Or, if you're really lucky, you'll discover that a band you sort of like did a cover of a song you sort of like -- and the result is a sound that caresses your ears and sooths you like a shoulder rub to your soul. Yep, I'm talking about this one:

5. And five, if you ever start to sink into a deep despair because you are feeling sorry for yourself and your admittedly pitiable condition, ask your friends for a pep talk. Because if your friends are half the friends that my friends are, you will get wonderful, comforting, heartfelt messages like this:
  "Oh, you have a cold? You can GET OVER IT."
Yep. My best friend actually gave me that note. Feelin' the  love, Not Cosmo -- reeeaaally feelin' it.

I hope, but don't expect, that you have found this blog post helpful, that you will take it to heart, and that it will come to your relief the next time you suffer from acute bronchitis.

Love,
ME

Hmmm...Hmmm...What to post about?

Well, when in doubt post about your favorite music, right?

So I don't usually listen to pop music and I definitely am not into the teeny-bopper television shows that are on channels like Disney and Nick (because they are, for lack of a better word or any tact, STUPID) but flipping through channels the other day I discovered a band (technically I discovered a tv show, but it holds no interest for me besides the songs) that has some surprisingly good music. Yeah, it's mostly (okay, maybe all) sugary feel-good pop but they're pretty darn talented and the one good thing about a band that comes from a Nick tv show is that you know their music will at least be clean.

Anyways, it's a group of four guys (I have no idea how old they are, but probably no older than 19 or 20) called Big Time Rush. I'm not saying, "Go listen to them all day and buy their album and love them forever," I'm just going to post a couple of my favorite songs by them because at the moment I am lacking a better post topic. The first one is called "Stuck" and the second one is "Halfway There". My other favorite is called "Counting on You" (featuring Jordin Sparks), but I figured posting two is enough and then if you really like them for some reason you can go check out other songs on your own.

Thanks for reading! :D

I think this one has the lyrics, but I give no guarantee that they are correct.

Sorry, the only one I could find for this was the actual music video.


Okay, I thought I would just end the post there but I feel weird just posting pop music (it's very un-me) so I will now post a country song in order to get my mojo back. Here is one of my all-time favorites, Lady Antebellum's "Our Kind of Love".

And we'll have our own show on USA...

  So the mom of some of my really good friends is going back to school to study forensics. Since I work with her most school days in the elementary library we get to talk about this stuff a lot. For a really long time I wanted to go into forensics, the top choice being a...detective-y person (I don't know what the official title is. You know, the ones that work with the cops to solve crimes involving dead people?). This fantasy kind of ended when I realized how much science would be involved, but hey, maybe this year I'll discover that I actually LOVE chemistry.
  You see, I've always had this (somewhat un-ladylike) fascination with death. No, not as in the gothic, creepy, "deeeeeaaaathh" fascination, but as in I wanted to be an archaeologist just so I could touch mummies and my favorite part of studying the Middle Ages was learning about the Black Death.
  Anyways, my library buddy and I decided that we would have our own forensic-detectives team.  We'll solve mysteries and fight crime and be JUST like those TV shows, right? :D