Sick as a dog

So for the past few days, my throat has been scratchy, and I haven't been feeling well. I thought it was a result of several plane rides (ew, confined space with a bunch of grubby people) and the conference I went to last week (for some reason, the dry air in conferences just kills me). I figured I would go and check in with my doctor late this afternoon just to make sure all was well. All day yesterday, my throat was hurting more and more, and it was getting tougher to swallow.

Fast forward a few hours. I woke up pretty much every hour on the hour, hot as a furnace and having really odd and unsettling dreams. At 6am, I took my temperature - 102.0 degrees - NOT GOOD. I could barely swallow, and I am fairly sure I even cried because I felt so bad, but it's a bit fuzzy. I changed my doctor's appointment to the morning, and my doctor looked at my chart and said "whoa, you have a fever!" and then he looked at my throat and said "whoa, that looks like a sore throat!" I can't think it's a good sign when the doctor looks surprised at how bad you are feeling! Apparently my glands are also all swollen - I have tonsillitis. Dr. D gave me a fairly strong antibiotic prescription, which I hope kicks in very fast, as he said I needed to lay low until my fever was under control. Sadly, it's not yet, but here's hoping.

Want to know why I want to feel better?? We leave on Friday for NYC to visit Stacy and Cory, and then I am staying a few extra days for work. I've been looking forward to this trip for a long time, and I definitely don't want to feel sick while I am there! Stacy, if you are reading this, I promise I am really working on feeling better so we can have a fun time while we are out there. (Oh, and I don't think we need any special food or anything. The one thing in NYC that I haven't seen that is on my list is Central Park, so it'd be cool to add that to our itinerary.)

OK, even though I have dozed literally all day, I am tired, and I am going to bed. Fingers crossed for me, everybody!!

-SKH

Cannot believe...

...how tired I am this week! I had a very long week at work, and there is no end in sight!

At least I leave for Chicago on Sunday, which will be a fun week!!

-SKH

Book Club Books!

The Grab Bag Book Club met for the first time last week, and we discussed a book by a local author (Patty Jane's House of Curl by Lorna Landvik). We had a great time discussing the book, and picking out some of our upcoming books. I think we have determined that we all have different tastes in books, but we do all agree that we are looking for more fun reads, not ones that are super in-depth or serious. To that aim, we came up with a bunch of books that look good!

I found a great site called Reading Group Guides that has tons of great resources for a book club leader - ideas for books, themes, questions to guide discussions, meeting location ideas and more. Check it out. :) We found some of our "to read" books from that site.

The book we are reading for our next meeting is not on that site, but it does promise to be hilarious: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands by Chelsea Handler. Erin Jane thought her books would be very funny.

Here is a list of some of the other books that the attendees last week agreed on:

1. Mrs. Perfect by Jane Porter
2. Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA by Kris Radish
3. No Good Girls by Jean Marie Pierson
4. Names My Sisters Call Me by Megan Crane
5. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (my mom and I have read this and it is phenomenal...she has a new book out now called The Sugar Queen that we could read, but it is only in hardcover, so that could make it a bit tougher. However, I think it would be worth it. FYI, it's also available on the Kindle.)
6. Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch
7. My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson

We also had a couple of maybes, looking for approval or not from the folks who couldn't make our first meeting on these ones:

1. Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble
2. The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

Our next book club meeting is going to be at the end of June (I'm thinking either Thursday the 26th or Monday the 30th, or even Tuesday, July 1st), where we'll be discussing the Chelsea Handler book. If you have any suggestions for a meeting location, or for another good book to read (either from the lists above or anywhere else!), please send them to me. It's always best to have a lot of options on our "to-read" list, plus you may find that one of these interests you and you want to read it now!

Please let me know which date works best for you, or if a date doesn't work for you.

• Thursday, June 26th
• Monday, June 30th
• Tuesday, July 1st

Happy reading (try not to shoot Diet Coke out of your nose when you realize how hilarious Chelsea Handler is...)

-SKH

Excited for the long weekend? Me too!!

The long weekend has really started out well for me. On Thursday, we did happy hour, and I (ME!) lasted until 10:30. That's pretty impressive, and I had a lot of fun. I did have to work a full day Friday - the last one of the summer for me - but accomplished a lot in the new building. I got grocery shopping and some errands done last night, and then went to Hava's for a house warming party, which was very fun. (We are going to make fun of the fanny pack, sorry.) :) After that, Amy, EJ and I went to grab some dinner at Granite City, and that was lots of fun.

Now it's Saturday afternoon, the weather is perfect for chilling out, Travis and I made waffles for breakfast, and I am going to go get a couple of spa treatments at my favorite salons. I'm not sure I could ask for much more today. The only thing I could request is that Travis wouldn't be working this weekend, it really sucks to have a long weekend, and he has to go to work each day.

Hope that everyone else has a fabulous long weekend (and happy early birthday, Amanda!!!)

-SKH

Go Go Gadget LISA!!!

Alright everyone...send good thoughts to my sister, Lisa. She has her last final of law school today, and then she is DONE with it all! She graduates this Saturday (which is coincidentally when Wandering Bront makes their big debut to an audience).

Congratulations, Lisa!!! Well done!
Thank God for no more law school :)

-SKH