Ugh, this weekend has not been my best. I think I had the beginnings of something, the flu, a cold, something. I didn't feel terrible, just achy all over and tired. Oh so tired. Friday night I was exhausted but I could not fall asleep. Every time I would lie down and close my eyes I just felt so uncomfortable. My head throbbed, my muscles hurt, you get the picture. I popped some ibuprofen and that, at least, helped the headache go away. I was miserable and poor Josh had to put up with it. He's really quite sweet when I don't feel well. He'll let me lie with my head on his lap and he'll gently stroke my hair or rub my back. He's definitely a keeper.
Needless to say, I spent most of the weekend curled up on the couch snuggled down in lots of blankets sleeping. It was very weird. I'd wake up from a nap feeling better and then I'd get up and do something for about 10 minutes and suddenly I was ready for another nap. I'd say, I'm just going to sit down for a few minutes and I was out!
It was a shame too because this weekend was beautiful out. It was in the mid to high 60's - just a gorgeous Fall day. During one of my periods of wakefulness I insisted that we should go out and enjoy the day. I mean c'mon, we live in France and we've hardly been anywhere to see anything. Even if all we do is drive to some cute little French village and walk around it would be better than making excuses and hanging around the house like the homebodies we are. So, Josh, Ally, and I piled into our trusty little Ford Fiesta and drove about 30 minutes ( I don't really know how long it took us, but not long) to Fort L'Ecluse - if you click here it will take you to a French website about the Fort. If you don't speak French you can either use an on-line translator, such as babelfish or you can click (or cliquer, en francais) on the phototeque link and look at cool pictures of the fort. Josh and I did take some pictures but he has the camera at work, so I'll have to post them later....back to our adventure. Well, it wasn't much of an adventure really. The place was closed, no tours - Ally probably wouldn't have been allowed on the tour anyways. We did discovered a path leading up into the hills that would take you to le fort supérieur. Ah, I guess I should mention the Fort is on this cleft in the mountainside and there is the fort inférieur at road level, which you can take tours of when opened, the the fort supérieur at the top of the mountain which is closed for some mysterious security reason. You can reach the upper (or superior) fort a few ways, by climbing 1,143 steps which are inside the inferior fort; climbing up the mountains cliff - there are signs all over the place saying do NOT try this unless you are an experienced rock climber. In my opinion, you'd be crazy or just plain suicidal to try without previous experience, but that's just me! The last option is to cross the highway and if you've done that without forfeiting your life you can then hike up a rock strewn trail to the top of the mountain. According to the sign it should take you about 30 minutes. I was all for hiking up. We headed up the trail. Ally was in high spirits, it was a beautiful day, but my legs felt as though they were made of lead, and the damned trail seemed to be going straight up. No nice meandering path weaving its way up the hillside. Nope, just a straight line up full of rocks which dislodged with the slightest touch forcing you to try and keep your balance with every step. It was just too much for me. We hadn't been at it more than a few minutes when I was pooped. Ally and Josh were well ahead and I called out, "Just keep going, I'm going to rest for a minute." Josh gave me a penetrating look and said, "Why don't we go home. You need to rest."
Me: "No, no. I'm fine. I just need to sit for a minute."
Josh: "Mel, really let's just go."
Me: "Seriously, I'm fine. I'm just tired. I can't figure out why I'm so tired. I mean I took a 2 hour nap this morning!"
Josh: "You're sick you idiot. That's why your tired. C'mon we're going home."
Me: "But, this is such a beautiful day! What if we miss our chance to see the fort on a day like this, with the valley full of Fall colors?"
Josh: " We live here, we'll come back and see it another time. This isn't the last nice day ever."
So, I agreed and we headed back home. Good thing Josh was driving because I fell asleep almost the minute I sat down in the car! That was Saturday. Yesterday I barely even attempted to get off the couch and do anything. I took Ally for her morning walk and then went back to bed. Got up around 9:30am and ate breakfast - took a nap on the couch. Woke up, brushed my teeth, took a shower, cut up vegetables for a stew and then took another nap. Josh had to go into work so I laid on the couch and watched Rosemary's Baby. It was alright. I'd never seen it before. I didn't find it all that suspenseful of horrifying, but it was decent. Mia Farrow's portrayal of Rosemary really annoyed the piss out of me at first, I mean she seemed like such a push-over wimp. Maybe that's why the devil chose her; she was easy to manipulate. Anyways, Josh got home we ate some delicious Winter Vegetable Stew: I love my Betty Crocker cookbook. Simple and easy dishes, that's what I like. Josh put on the Steeler's game and I promptly fell asleep. This was maybe 7:30 pm. I had hazy moments of wakefulness when I would mumble at Josh "who won the game?" and then drop back off to sleep. This continued till about 11pm when I decided to stumble to bed for good. I didn't get out of bed till 8:30 am this morning! I slept for, like, 13 hours! Crazy. But I do feel better.
I checked the webmd this morning and discovered my mild symptoms could be any number of crazy things. I bet doctors love that their patients can consult the webmd and come up with all sorts of bizarre illnesses for their symptoms. By entering body aches and pains, fatigue, and headache I could have anything from PMS or a tension headache to Fibromyalgia, Lime disease, or multiple sclerosis! Who knew just a little fatigue and body aches could mean so much!! Before I had added headache in there were a number of venereal diseases I could have had, too! How exciting. What a hoot. Can you just picture people going to their doctor and explaining their symptoms saying, "Well, Doctor, I think I either have PMS or Multiple Sclerosis, what do you think?"
It reminds of that TV show House, anyone else watch that? Josh and I love it. I love the clinic patients. They seem like the type that would us webmd to diagnose themselves and get themselves all worked up when all they have is a cold. I especially love the episode where a young woman comes in thinking perhaps she's allergic to the jelly she's using as contraceptive. Her boyfriend doesn't like how condoms feel during sex, so she decided to use jelly, she brought it along in case the doctor wanted to see it, and she whips out a jar of strawberry jelly! I'm snorting with laughter just thinking about it! Sadly, there are people in this world who would actually do that - I've worked with some of them.
Well, enough of that little digression. I must not be completely over my PMS/Multiple Sclerosis/tension headache, because I feel the need for a little napski coming on.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwnnnnn..........
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Glad your feeling better.Like father like son, Dad doesn't get out of bed til close to noon, nor does he hear the puppies who want to go out or are crying to get up into bed and Yorkies can be very demanding. Love Picasso, but no more animals here..although its hard to say no when I see so many homeless kittens and puppies at work cause their owners can't afford to pay for their care and end up turning them over. Your a sweetie for taking care of Picasso, of course I'm prejudice cause I have a very talented, lovely and caring daughter-in-law.
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