An off week with me coming down with something that developed over the course of Monday, lots of ague, total loss of energy, took Tylenol, warm bath, went to bed. So bad I skipped ‘getting ready for bed’ routine, didn’t even brush my teeth. This went on for two nights. Last night, I did the basics, but not some arm push-ups, that, for some reason, I do just before going to sleep. And I cleaned the kitty litter yesterday because Ed thinks the magic fairy does it and I don’t want him to lose faith in magic. Used to be I just took illness in stride. Now I think "Is dis da end?"

I did use my marginal energy to do some writing to the newspaper, and I had some good phone conversations with a couple of friends. Nice to have people check up on you when you are not feeling okay.

Our friend, Sol, called. She is working toward a nursing degree, had a boyfriend for a while but he got so paranoid about her being faithful (his evidence: when she is studying, she doesn’t answer the phone, so … WHERE IS SHE, WHAT IS SHE DOING!!! WHO IS SHE SEEING??) So she broke up with him and he was devastated and wouldn’t give up and was begging her and stuff that speaks of a psychology that can’t stand rejection more than the love one professes to hold. Then she was questioning herself, did she do the right thing and I had to explain to her that him being controlling wasn’t love. So far she has stuck to her decision. And yes, it was nice to have someone to hang out with, but it did seem this personality quirk wasn’t going away and if she moved in with him, it would only escalate.

Then I lost my bed remote that operates the Tempurpedic. Ed has a rolling night stand on his side of the bed, so he never loses his. No room on my side for such a stand, so my remote gets lost in the bedding. Well, I took the bedding apart this morning, checked underneath, since sometimes it falls between the twins, and no remote. Wondered if I had mindlessly walked it into another room and left it, so checked around. Then Ed was breaking down the tissue box for recycling and it was the one I was using during my illness, and there it was in the box, where I had put it so I wouldn’t lose track of it. So, come get me. I’m out of it.

And if anyone is thinking of getting an adjustable bed, you might benefit from our experience. One, if you want the bottom to look good, you might want to pay extra for a manufactured piece that hides things, but then you can’t use under bed for storage. No cloth bed skirts I have looked for fit the frames. We have what is called a split king: two twin frames joined, with separate mechanism for adjusting, the only feasible way to deal with different sleeping patterns. Each bed has a twin fitted sheet, but the ones available at stores aren’t long enough, so you can buy longer ones on line, but these too do not stay in place and ride up when the frames are raised. I was using king sized bedding on top, but Ed is a restless sleeper and tends to roll one way and take more bedding with him each time, and traps it all between his legs, so I switched to twin top sheets and comforters, which I already had in the attic. For some reason, these get terribly messed up so I can get into bed after he is asleep (I stay up a lot later), without waking him to get some bedding on my side (it’s not pretty), but it’s just as tedious to make the bed as before. In addition, the Tempurpedic mattress retains heat, so, for Ed, I bought a top that is supposed to lessen the heat transfer. It doesn’t stay in place and has to be pulled back each time the bed is made. I maybe should have bought one for myself because of the, you know, hot flash thing, but I take with me to bed a lined pouch into which I put a hard ice pack, and I use that between my knees and it works perfectly. The upside is that I am sleeping better but Ed waffles between liking it or not liking it. Well, them’s me thoughts. If anyone out there is using an adjustable bed and has solved anything I am talking about, let me know.

xx, Teal

P.S. Thank you God for locating my remote.