Go-go-gadget immune system

Last Monday morning I woke up with the familiar yearly allergy feeling. The tingle in the back of my throat, the watery eyes, and the definite sensation that I didn't want to get out of bed. I then realized that I was dehydrated, had just slammed by knee into my bed (hence the watery eyes), and at 6a.m., does anyone really want to get out of bed? Well, Tuesday it turned out the dry throat was allergies -- although I suspected a cold since many people in the program have claimed "allergies" and recently developed into a cold nearly on par with a plague. It's now Saturday, I'm fairly sure if it was "the cold" that everyone else has, that I would have progressed in terms of symptoms instead of just feeling like I was nearly better. The lost voice of course makes my one-mode of communication with anyone not in Houston more difficult. But it's been a quiet day in my head - brace yourselves, this could be quiet a ride of a post.

A lot has happened in just a week. I've had great joys and great disappointments. Both amplified by the feeling of getting sick, and both inspiring me to run away - something that has been difficult with my car in the shop. So in the interim, I of course did my taxes. Pathetically easy when you make as much (or little) as I do. But I took joy in the number of deductions I got to make thanks to my aging body and health care bills; not to mention the "work-related" expenses that add up over time. Oh how I miss having a real job with an income. I, of course, don't miss the 40-50 hour work weeks, but that's an entire post in and of itself.

It's suddenly become a scary thing to not know what I want to do with the rest of my life. I've learned a lot of tools over the years, but really don't have a good question of my own to be asking. In short, that makes me a methods person, constantly borrowing other people's dreams and improving upon them, progressing them to the next step. I would like to be a theory person, someone with a dream, or to use Nikki's really bad joke - to be the guy in the pitch-black room, searching for the black cat. While I'm sure this "issue" will be resolved on its own like so many others have been - I can't help the nagging feeling.

I'm becoming more and more a believer in Déjà vu. There have been numerous times in the past two weeks where things from my dreams happen or I'll be somewhere new with new things happening and know that I've been in that place before. The other explanation is sleep depravation -- which is infinitely more likely than being able to see into the future. Alright - crazy talk away -- back to reading about ANCOVA.