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Rest, Relax, Rejuvenate, and...Recover?

By Cheryl Brooks

I've gotten a little bit of rest this spring and summer. Unfortunately, most of it was sort of forced on me. Read on and you'll see what I mean.

Starting in April, I went to the RT Booklovers Convention. Needless to say, I had a lovely time at that event...






















...but arrived home with lots of swag and a sinus infection. I finally went to the walk-in clinic the following Friday after taking my cat in for her shots.The NP there asked if I'd ever had pneumonia before, (I hadn't) gave me a shot of Rocephin and prescriptions for Augmentin and an albuterol inhaler, and told me to take Claritin. Apparently, I was sicker than I thought.

Feeling slightly better, I went to the Indiana RWA chapter's mini conference the next day. Our speaker was Bob Mayer. Great workshop, but I went home and basically died for the next three days.

I spent the following weekend with my sisters in Kentucky. We drove up to Louisville and visited Farmington,

















Locust Grove,

















and the JB Speed Art Museum. I came home with a stomach virus. Are you seeing a pattern here?

Two weeks later, I went to Ireland for a week, arriving on Mother's Day.
















We had a wonderful time, but I was home for about three days when I came down with another cold/sinus infection. I knew I shouldn't have kissed that blasted Blarney Stone!

I went back to the clinic and got antibiotics again, but I was still coughing my head off when I went to the Lori Foster Reader and Author Get Together the first weekend in June. We had a great time in Cincinnati, and I wasn't nearly as sick as I'd been when I attended that same event the year before, which was some consolation. 

















Then, on June 16th, my younger sister and I went to visit friends and family in Louisville. Bonnie said she'd just gotten over some sort of illness that began with a sore throat, but wasn't strep. Three days later, my throat was hurting, so I took some Ibuprofen. Then I started running a fever and went back to the clinic. Considering my diagnosis, I think Bonnie must've had strep throat after all, because I'm pretty sure that's where I caught it.

Somewhere along the way this spring, I've managed to finish the rewrite of the first book in a series that I plan to self-publish, completed the revisions to CSC #9: Wildcat, finished one erotic novella for Siren and started another. I've also been trying to keep my flowers and vegetables alive despite a severe drought. This photo was taken right after we returned from Ireland. They're still alive, but they don't look quite so nice and neither does anything else.























A couple of days ago, I took time out to sit down and watch Russell Crowe in A Good Year. All it did was make me want to go to France--either that or turn my pasture into a vineyard.
















Winter is actually a more relaxing time of year for me. I'm rarely sick (believe it or not), and all I really have to do is keep the fire going in the woodstove. Even so, I probably won't get any real rest until January, or perhaps March since Wildcat's release is in February.

I am reasonably healthy at the moment. Apparently if I want to stay that way, I can never leave home again. Unfortunately, summer isn't over yet, and I'll be heading to Anaheim for the RWA Nationals on July 24th.

Something tells me it's going to cost me another trip to the clinic. :(

Comments

  1. Sounds like you had lots of fun things to go to, Cheryl! You just weren't supposed to come home from them. That was the problem! :)

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  2. Stress whacks the immune system. I'm with Terry--stop going home, trying to do two weeks of laundry in a day, catch up on the bills, look after the garden, say hi to Hubs and the cats, write 10,000 words a week, and plan more travel.

    Just become an itinerant author, roving from conference to conference, making friends with all the cover models and meeting all the other authors who've learned to hang at Starbucks.

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  3. LOL! Excellent suggestions! If I traveled even more, perhaps my immune system would adapt, thus making me immune to every pathogen known to man. It's a thought...

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  4. I think you do need to just go stay away from cute doctors. This all started with him. So Enjoy the 4th!!

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  5. I love your photos, Cheryl, and Grace's suggestion of becoming an itinerant author! Maybe I can too. LOL!

    I think the biggest problem in hotels is the lack of outside air...just recirculating the hotel air. Not healthy IMHO.

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  6. You're right, Donna. It's all Ivan's fault for standing so close.
    But what a way to go!

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  7. Airplanes are a good place to pick up infections too, Colleen. We were certainly packed in like sardines on the way to and from Ireland. It's scary to think how many people pass through Heathrow Airport carrying germs from all over the world.

    We itinerant authors should form a pack. We could sit in Starbucks discussing aliens, werewolves, vampires, cowboys, dukes, and such. No one would come near us!

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  8. I enjoyed your post, Cheryl. Sorry you've been sick so many times. Hopefully all that is over and at RWA you will break the spell!
    Amelia

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  9. Bless your heart! Put my name down for one of those authors who sit at the table with you and discuss writing. Let's pick a Starbucks in Texas or Oklahoma. It's so hot here that the germs are fleeing by the groves. They don't do heat any better than my fat cells!

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  10. Wow! You need to rest and recuperate. You remind me of Baby Galen. She has not been sick since last July, and two weeks ago she got croup. How do you get croup in summer? But she gets it every summer!

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  11. I hope you're right, Amelia! Looking forward to seeing everyone in Anaheim without feeling like Typhoid Mary.

    It's about 104 here today, Carolyn. I hate to think how hot it is in Oklahoma. Maybe we could get together in Canada. ;)

    @Shana. I've been told that a lot of this is due to allergies, which is probably true since I've been sick at almost exactly the same times for the past three years or so. I was never allergic to anything but poison ivy before (oh, yes, I have that too) but they say you acquire allergies as you age. Yet another thing to love about getting older!

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  12. Good, maybe I'll get a chance to meet you at the Literacy signing event (I'll be the one toting the big bottle of hand sanitizer, lol). Maybe you should wear a mask on the airplanes or something...but I suspect that part of the problem is that your immune system is compromised by exhaustion!

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  13. You're right about the exhaustion thing, Elf. That's certainly how I feel most of the time. I'll be looking for you in Anaheim!

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  14. Hi Cheryl. Love your pics. Happy to say I was right there for that pic of you & Ivan - good times lol. A Good Year is one of my fave movies.I want to live there.

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