I am officially entering week 4 of being sick. It’s so wonderful.
It started the night before I began my new job with a tickle in my throat and sneezing. It has turned into a weeks long battle with my sinuses. Two antibiotics later I think I am starting to turn around.
On Thursday I was advised by my spouse to stay home and I went in for my second round of drugs. The past 2 days I have spent cocooned in my home. Thankfully today was warm enough to have doors and windows open. In February. In upstate NY. This is surely a sign of the coming apocalypse.
So I thought I would write a bit about my lack of lenten discipline or, rather, the way I have utterly failed in my mission. I had lofty goals to begin with that I thought were perfectly do-able, such as not drinking wine (I lasted about a week and a half-more on that) and learning to make crepes (haven’t even looked at the pan or a recipe) as well as not checking Facebook (it’s all I’ve really accomplished this weekend), but have ultimately shown me exactly what I was supposed to learn: That I am weak, weak, weak and in most desperate need of rescuing.
First there was the women’s supper, aptly named “Bread and Wine.” Well, how could I NOT partake in THAT? I am the leader you know. What a lovely example I am… The next day we went to a basketball game and the only gluten free offering in the entire snack court was, you guessed it, WINE. Well there went that. I stopped there and have only had the warm loveliness of a snifter of Grand Marnier but as luck would have it, cognac is apparently made of grapes too, so in a way is actually wine? That would just figure.
Then, what else am I supposed to do when I am sick but ogle Facebook? It’s the perfect sick time activity. I can’t talk for long periods due to the whole, need to breath but my nose is clogged thing, but my fingers are free to click like and type away. It requires very little brain power except when you get into a theological discussion with a friend. Of course.
Crepes? Well, being sick for all of the Lenten season thus far, I have not had any brain power to learn something new. I am already engrossed in re-learning things like treating dehydration, diabetes and fluid and electrolyte imbalances in nursing home patients. Crepes are low man on the totem pole. Epic Fail.
But all is not lost! One of my other “pledges” was not to weigh myself throughout this season. Although it’s been tempting as I hope against hopes that being sick and having difficulty eating AND breathing simultaneously have ,perhaps, left me a pound or two lighter, I have fought the good fight and avoided the scale. I’m sure I sounded a bit odd when I refused to be weighed at the medical office and told the nurse I had given it up for lent. Whatever. I’m weird for Jesus. That’s cool. I may ultimately end up giving my scale away or putting it in my husbands bathroom. It’s a bit of a burden to be obsessed with a few ounces every day and I’d like less burdens in my daily life TYVM.
I think I had more on my potential list but these were the few I actually decided to commit to. This is the first (disappointing) time I haven’t held to my lenten discipline since I started doing this again. Avoiding Wegmans was apparently easier than avoiding Facebook. Â There is, however, a month left and time for a do-over. Except my birthday falls in that time frame and most surely good wine should be a part of that celebration of 42-hood. I need some kind of consolation in that, don’t I ? I may actually get enough brain power restored to try out the whole crepe thing, especially since I have now received my fancy schmancy Williams and Sonoma crepe pan and paddles (it was free with points from a card I no longer use). Facebook? I admit, I am weak, weak, weak. Thank God for mercy and grace so that I might have HOPE!