Dec
3
I wasn’t going to get a flu shot this year, mostly because I am a giant pussy and the memory of last year’s post-shot achy upper arm (what? IT HURT LIKE HELL DAMMIT) still lingers, but at my last OB appointment the friendly nurse drawing blood for a test asked if I wanted to go ahead and get the (mercury-free) injection at the same time and I couldn’t think of a good non-wimpy reason to say no, thanks anyway, I’d rather do something less painful to my arm, like whack it fifty-seven thousand times with a meat tenderizer.
For whatever reason this shot didn’t hurt at all afterwards, and I instantly felt both virtuous and impervious to disease. Foolishly, I assumed that one injection would have the power to keep me snot-free throughout the long winter months, while all around me people were felled in droves, hacking and sneezing and futilely gnawing at zinc lozenges.
This is why I am totally pissed off that I’ve had the same damn cold for DAYS AND DAYS ON END over here, thanks to Typhoid Riley. I got the shot! I’m supposed to be the picture of health, not a consumptive shadow-eyed mucus machine trailing disgusting little piles of kleenex wherever I go. I CALL BULLSHIT.
I will also note that my son and husband, neither of whom received a flu shot, have merrily bounced back from this shared virus and I—the only one fortified by anti-flu fairy dust—am the one that still sounds like a phlegmatic elephant seal.
(BULLSHIT.)
Adding to my general feeling of goopiness and malaise is the weather, which has turned from snow (pretty!) to a nonstop aggressive downpouring of rain (sucky!). I mean, it’s not like rain is exactly an anomaly here in the Northwest, but this is a deluge of the build-the-arks variety—on each of my (eight thousand) lumbering trips to the bathroom last night I could hear water cascading from the skies and smashing into our house. Our rain chain that hangs outside the bedroom window has been jangling frantically, totally overloaded and tinkling a desperate little oh dear oh dear chime.
So while I ponder my cold-symptom-relief choices (Mucinex, steamy shower, lustful piglike rooting in leftover Halloween candy stash) and the rain transforms Seattle into a traffic-snarled swampland, distract me from the dreariness, will you? What’s the one thing you would like most this holiday season, and I’m talking selfish materialism here so no “world peace” type answers allowed. If you could have any boxed-and-wrapped present this year, what would it be?
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Boo rain! There was freezing rain here in Toronto yesterday so now the sidewalks are all slippy.
If I could have anything, it would probably be an external hard drive where I could backup all my stuff. That would be pretty sweet.
An iphone or a macbook. I’ve been lusting after the iphone for months now (ooh, shiny!). And my pc seems like it wants to die (ooh, bummer!). So either or. Ideally both.
Actually, ideally I would want a week or two on a nearly deserted tropical island. But that is difficult to wrap.
My engagement ring from my boyfriend. Which I think I actually AM going to get. :) I told him I wanted my mother’s engagement ring, which was sitting in my jewelry box, needing to be resized, cleaned, etc. It disappeared last week on the day he was going Christmas shopping, so…I think I’ll have it Christmas day.
Also, I want a KitchenAid mixer. And lots of money. :)
An iphone or a macbook. I’ve been lusting after the iphone for months now (ooh, shiny!). And my pc seems like it wants to die (ooh, bummer!). So either or. Ideally both.
Actually, ideally I would want a week or two on a nearly deserted tropical island. But that is difficult to wrap.
(I keep getting a “cannot find server” message. Sorry if this double posts. Damn dying PC)
Also, what Denise said about the Kitchen Aid mixer and lots of money.
Apparently I am indecisive. Or greedy.
I want one of the Flip cameras. One thing I miss about my point and shoot is the ability to capture video quickly. Also, a gift card to Victoria’s Secret because I would like a fancy bra but I can’t justify $60+ for one. That’s like 30 bucks a boob, way too rich for my bust.
I want a digital camera. Want want want! Oh and I want someone to tell me who is building the ark? Because the RAIN! First the snow and now the downpour. Someone out there in the local internets area must be building a nice, warm, DRY boat for me to live in when my house floats away? Please tell me your name. Thank you! Oh and did I mention I’d also like World Peace but you said that I couldn’t want that.
You have leftover Halloween candy?!?
Pregnancy = suppressed immune system. Otherwise, your body would reject the fetus as a foreign object.
I want a handyman at my beck and call. He does not even have to be boxed and wrapped!
I’ve got my eye on a Crumpler 6 million dollar bag..I recently got another lens for my camera and have outgrown my current bag. Everything else mentioned sounds pretty cool too. :)
This might be akin to “world peace” but what I DON’T want for Christmas…my 18 year old (hygenically challenged, loves to argue with you because he is always right) step son spending the week with us. Fun! Merry Christmas!
I guess I want a drama free week.
I would like my basement finished. It has seriously been in transition for almost two years. I would love to see some “lube” tube sitting around because that would mean someone was acutally doing SOMETHING! I am sick of having to put up a sheet in the bathroom to take a bath in the whirlpool tub and then getting out and stepping on the cold concrete sheetrock dust filled floor. Plus the atmosphere I get to look at while trying to relax is 2×4 framing, half sheetrocked this and that, and plumbing sticking out of the walls begging someone to please put a damn fixture on it already!
I want a GPS. The number of times this fall that it would have been helpful just isn’t funny. I have been stuck on two highways with accidents, it just the past month. When I was visiting my sister, I realised I no longer really know my way around the area I grew up. I know essentially how to get places but I no longer know the short cuts.
oooh, if I was wishing big I’d say “a car”– but public transporation is pretty good in Glasgow so I will go with what my heart really wants– a new camera body. The subassembly on my Rebel took a dump when I was shooting the Queen Elizabeth II (argh), so I glued the two mirrors together to get it to work again, only this means I don’t have auto-focus capability. It’s been a great learning experience yadda yadda, but I WANT the new Canon 40D :
I would really like a fuel belt. Yes, friends, a FUEL BELT. I am running my first marathon this spring and my entire list to Santa (oh, yes, I believe!) consists of various sweat-sucking, blister-preventing, super-hydrating running accoutrement.
I want the perfect art/ photography/ decorative pieces for my living room walls. I took me a year to decide on paint colors–now that that’s done I can only imagine how much longer my (new! pretty!) walls will remain bare, thanks entirely to my crippling self doubt. Santa, I want EFFORTLESS STYLE for Christmas.
A job that makes me happy and pays well and also a winning powerball ticket for a few hundred million bucks. I’d do good with it and share, don’t you fret.
I want the new Blade Runner 5-DVD box set and the new Twin Peaks DVD box set.
Although Seattle is known for the rain and all of that, people who live here know that our rain is generally not activity defeating. It is generally just a misty rain that messes up your hair.
This crap is awful. Completely activity defeating.
As for holiday wants, I want a better nonstick skillet and a new ipod nano.
Oh…I’m asking for Tiffany earrings from grandma. Fingers crossed!
Is “new job” a valid answer? Because that’s totally what I’d like. If not, then how about “big box of cash so I can quit my job”?
I would like a new lens and flash for my camera because as soon as my kid sees the red laser dot of doom indicating the flash is setting, she runs.
Oh and for this morning, nay, evening sickness to go away because I like food a lot, damnit, and puking is really cramping my style.
I really want The Griddler from Cuisinart – it’s a panini press/griddle/electric grill that has removable plates you can put in the dishwasher for easy clean up. Am I an adult or what with that kind of feature totally turning me on?
My husband wants a digital camcorder (Panasonic some-model-or-other) so that he can record all the little details he can of the little one we have on the way. I wish I could get it for him, but I think this may have to wait unfortunately since we just spent all of our money on a chair and a long trip to my grandma’s funeral.
There are a million things I want that are way beyond Christmas-gift-level (need my house decorated, new tires for the car, etc.), but I think if I had to list something that’s kinda reasonable, probably a zoom lens for my D50.
Ooh, Anne & Rumblelizard: ME TOO.
Can’t tell you what I want! Too busy googleing “rain chain”.
A subscription to cable with DVR. We’re trying to save money, so we only have the regular channels. I want TiVo!!!
A subscription to cable with DVR. We’re trying to save money, so we only have the regular channels. I want the Food Network with TiVo!!!
Dyson. AMEN.
A wide angle lens for my camera! And a tuition waiver for my next quarter at the UW!
I agree, this rain, it sucketh.
I would like Alton Brown’s collection of cook books, becauase that man has transformed my cooking and the way I look at food. I’m tired of checking them out from the library, and then re-checking them out, and then paying over due fees, and I love the library, but really I need my own copies.
Also, new winter boots. The kind that keep your feet toasty warm and comfortable on long winter walks through the woods
Either a digital camera or my own room. An office that is off-limits to all other (small) people in the house so that I can write and not dodge the finger prints on the computer screen. When I plug something in, dammit, it STAYS plugged in. In my room, there will be no ground-in oatios on the floor. No weird food blobs I can’t (and won’t) identify. I will be all alone!! Oh, and the walls will be sound proofed so any banging or “mine” fighting won’t be heard. La, la, la, I can’t HEAR you!!!
A quad processor, quad core (AMD) server with 4T of RAID5 storage and 16G of RAM. Or finish my office (with Server Room).
I already got my present early that I wanted, my brother bought it for me. I wanted an MP3 player. Yup, I’m the only person on the face of this earth that didn’t have one yet. But aha! I do now :)
But for an unrealistic gift that I’d like to receive from my super rich step grandmother? The $900 dollars that is due in January for tuition….
An iBook. Or about $3,000 to completely replace my wardrobe with a stylish, yet sensible one. Including socks and underwear. Holla! Oh, also a basement with a floor and painted walls (as opposed to the dungeon look mine is sporting at the moment).
I would like a new key ring with the following keys:
1. Keys to a brand new BMW x5
2. A new House with a bedroom for a baby!
That’s a lot to ask for – but the keyring could be wrapped and tied up with a pretty bow.
Rain chain? I assume this is something like a wind chime but for rain…
Roomba!!!
I want an endless spree at sephora. But why, I don’t go anywhere?
I just fell in love with fleece vests from eddie bauer and I would like to have a few more. I have a feeling I will be wearing this one out.
Also? My husband wants a huge, dumb flatscreen even though he already has one, so I would like the means to give him a big smile on Christmas morning. I don’t think that one is about to happen though.
Hope you feel better soon girl, sorry you are full-o-snot…
Torsten asked what I wanted (within the budget that we set for ourselves) and I told him a pretty, colorless (i.e. metal and MAYBE some small diamonds) necklace that I could wear every day and not have to worry about matching to my outfit. So he started browsing online and then called me over to look at two necklaces that he thought fit the bill. One had purple stones and the other blue.
Luckily, I had your recommendation from one of your other sites about Red Envelope, so I went on there and showed him a necklace they had that was more along the lines of what I was thinking. So hopefully now he’s got a more accurate idea.
Anything from titlenine.com
I have come THISCLOSE to baring my jiggly butt at several people while jogging in the last few weeks. My old workout clothes are too big (and also 15 years old and from WalMart) and I think I deserve better.
Of course, I don’t want to buy them MYSELF.
I want new floors to magically appear in my house without all of the sweaty butt cracked workers actually being in my house. I would love Kitchen Aid Mixer and numerous kitchen items that are expensive but I would not purchase for myself. Finally, I would like a whole new wardrobe that is in style and cute and covers my baby gut/big butt in a fashionable way ;)
I want a GPS thingy for my car. A nice one that talks and will be my friend and help me out when I’m lost. Which is always.
Oooh! And new carpeting.
Yup, pregnancy = 9 month vacation for your immune system. Your germ-fighting cells are flipping through Vogue and examining their nails as cold viruses parade through.
However, flu shots only protect you against influenza. If you had influenza, you would know it. All the cases of actual influenza I’ve ever seen in my short career as a doc have showed up in the ER convinced that they were about to die. So, you know…you’re good on that front.
In terms of presents–there are any number of things I want, but they’re mostly intangible or unlikely, like a job after I finish residency this summer or a brownstone in Brooklyn for under a million dollars. I did tell my husband that I wanted some old-skool plaid flannel PJ’s and some slippers, and a package arrived about a week later, so I’m guessing that’s what I’ll get. (The fact that he lit up and said “HOT” when I mentioned the PJ’s may mean that they’ll be a little more fun than I anticipated).
New car.
It’s like M-n-M’s, I can’t stop at just one.
2)Leather chair, sofa table.
3)iBook.
4)Smaller ass.
5)Employed husband.
My flu shot hurt like a bastard (I’m not a wimp about needles, but for days afterward OUCH), and I too have been suffering with the cold of death for weeks. I don’t have a fetus growing, either. (I do think that the traveling over the holidays was a setback, though.) However, the flu shot only protects against CERTAIN strains of the virus – the ones they think you’ll get this year. I don’t think it applies to just plain old colds, either. Which is lame.
Present? I liked Dawn’s answer about a new job and/or a box of cash. I’d also go with a housekeeper, a giant pile of books, and a new computer desk.
Not only a shiny new Macbook Pro, but being able to take it out of the box and have all my things magically put on it. Because that’s the part where it’s all going to hell, I just know it. (Note that I am switching from PC to Mac, so this isn’t an Apple complaint… more like a me whine.)
I would love a ridiculously expensive handbag, because that’s something I wouldn’t buy for myself. Thanks to Whoorl I have been coveting a grey leather Orla Kiely from Anthropologie.
I’d also really like a piece of jewelry from my boyfriend…he has great taste and has given me some nice things in the past but I haven’t gotten any jewelry in a couple of years…
I realize I’m not following instructions, but more than anything in the world, I want a referral for our baby girl from Vietnam.
As of tomorrow, we’ll have been on the waiting list for 8 months (and in the process for well over a year), and I am desperate to see our daughter’s face.
I’ll take whatever material gifts I get, of course, but that’s the only thing I really want.
An iMac.
And 20 pounds of bacon.