Desert Magnolia

To say I'm extremely healthy would be an understatement. I am blessed with strong genes, which means, naturally, that I take my wellness for granted. But not now. For the last five days my life has revolved around trying to get comfortable enough to not want to crawl out of my own skin. The aches, the low grade (but fucking persistent) fever, the mucous...good lord don't get me started on the number of kleenexes that have given their lives so my nose can be dry for about fourteen seconds - all of these things are part of this year's flu virus, and I'm not happy to be experiencing ANY of them thankyouverymuch. Things that have helped so far include several Chinese herbal formulas that are working at a deep level to rally my immune system to kick this goddamned virus' ass, Advil (I broke down..I tried for the first few days to just do herbs and they weren't enough. I figured if, in ancient China, someone had the flu and had Advil and didn't take it, the

Happy New Year!  I hope you are all in a place where you feel ready to press on after the holidays, and that your year will be filled with much happiness and enough adventures to make it interesting! I don't know what ours holds, yet. I mean, there's the whole school thing, which goes on and on and on, though at some point I will be launched from the academic coccoon (they tell me at the veeeery end of 2016...) and into the world of board exams, licensing, and heaven forbid, practice building. But there is still so very much to learn, so very much to do, so very much to help begin to pull all the pieces of this very complex education together before the launch happens that I dare not even think about the end. Yet. But at some point, I will. We joined a gym. Or I should say my spouse rejoined, and I joined. And so far I like it. I like the machines. I like the choice of treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes. I like getting there, getting into a zone, doing sets, wiping down th