"Who put canned laughter into my crucifixion scene?" - Charles Simic
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Pulling Through & Famous Last Words
So, I have been absolutely miserable for about a month now. Clammy, sweaty skin, a vague, sickly odor following me around. Fatigue. Headache. Sore throat. chest congestion. I went to the doctor thinking it was my annual bout of bronchitis, and I guess my doctor agreed too, because he gave me a z-pack. That one didn't work, so he gave me another one. And then, about 2 days ago, I woke up at about 6 am and felt like I was trying to throw up some gigantic, stretchy, enormous thing that was blocking my air passage. It turned out to be my uvula. My uvula had grown overnight to the size of a grape! It was enormous, and it rested on my tongue and slid down my throat. I went to the hospital.
It turned out it wasn't bronchitis I had, but mono. They shot me up with steroids, told me to eat some ice cream and get some sleep, and I did. I felt much better the next day, and feel better still today. I'm still a little sweaty, and will be sucking on sucrets all day, but at least I know what the deal is. And that uvula thing...that was weird. I've spent my whole life ignoring that thing. I don't like it when organs decide they're not getting enough attention.
We had family movie night last night. We watched The African Queen together. We liked it, although Humphrey Bogart really reminds me of Bugs Bunny in that movie, which makes it a little hard to invest in. Abby & I were talking about the movie as we lay in bed. There was a silence as we kind of drifted off into our own thoughts for a minute, and then I said, 'You know, I don't think Katharine Hepburn was very attractive'. Abby said, 'I don't think that's why they picked her for her roles'. And then I started to fall asleep again; but then it occurred to me; Abby and the kids will be at her family's house all holiday weekend. What if I'm killed by a meteor or escaped tiger this weekend and that's the last thing I ever get to say to her? 'Katharine Hepburn wasn't very attractive'. That's not a good final statement. I told Abby about my problem, and she was nice enough to let me revise my final comment to her for the night. I came up with something much deeper: 'Audrey Hepburn was much more attractive than Katharine Hepburn'.
You can put that on my gravestone.
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are on your way to feeling better,
Little know fact.
The uvula was used as a punching bag in many Bugs Bunny cartoons.
Feel better man. And yes, Audrey was quite the dish. Katherine?...not so much.*
ReplyDelete*thanks to Borat for that one.
Katharine Hepburn in Lion in winter. Breath taking in scope and range.
ReplyDelete.little know fact. The us army trained thousands of bats to be dropped on Tokyo with little incendiary devices strapped to them The idea was they would crawl up into the eve and attics in daylight. The bombs go off, paper houses whoosh... They escaped at the army base and burnt all the buildings down.