The boys and I put Gerald on a plane to Alabama early Friday morning, so that he could spend a week with his daughters in Birmingham. Despite my solo status, however, I managed to clean the house and host a potluck brunch for friends and family yesterday. (It wasn't going to be potluck until Gerald made his travel plans--I depend on him for much of our hospitality infrastructure, so switching to potluck was the only realistic way to pull it off.)
We had a lovely time, marred only by the fact that I'm developing a delayed allergic reaction to a sulfa drug that I was talking earlier in the week--so about an hour before my guests left, my ankles and chest developed maddeningly itchy hives. I tried taking Benadryl, which makes me incredibly sleepy, so the rest of the day was pretty much lost. The Benadryl was nearly useless, however, and by lunchtime today I was covered with the itchy red blotches (lovely image, no?). I ended up calling the doctor for a prednisone Rx, which I started today. (Will have to hit the gym tomorrow morning and take advantage of my short-term steroid boost!)
My mom took the boys this afternoon, so I did the back-to-school lunch shopping, and more household cleaning--trying to get organized enough to make it through a week of single-parenthood. I even signed up (again) for FlyLady, in hopes that I can defeat the C.H.A.O.S. around here ("can't have anyone over syndrome"). It's not a new year's resolution, exactly--it's more a realization that I'm happier in a house that's not a mess. We'll see if it's possible to change my years of bad habits--and to get the boys to adopt some new ones, as well.
Liz: If that were the case, I'd look more like Arnold than the Pilsbury Dough Boy, having spent much of the last 9 months with chronic hives (and angioaedema and all sorts of other problems). I think you are thinking anabolic rather than corticosteroids. Too bad, too :).
Drat!
Well, I'll still go to the gym, even if I can't leverage the drugs. :)
"hospitality infrastructure"
I like that.
Hospitality was one of the saintly virtues, a type of practice that would enrich the spirit. It's also the root of both Hostel and Hospital -- both of which grew out of volunteer-run way stations for people on religious pilgrimages in the Middle Ages. St Julian, for example, was beatified largely because he had really good "hospitality," and became known as St. Julian the Hospitaller.
Just a little aside. Hospitality infrastructure may have previously unforseen benefits.