Do long absences make the heart grow fonder?

It’s been a while since I’ve had the time or, frankly, the inclination to post anything original.

Oh, it’s not that I’m getting bored with the Jorge Experience., quite the contrary. For the last week or so we’ve been dealing with the flu at Casa de Jorge. The thing that really annoys me about the whole thing is that all the humans in the house had flu shots this year. It does seem however, that our symptoms were much less severe than my mother-in-laws, (she got it from us) who was not inoculated this year.

Here’s what happened.

On Saturday Mona had a massage scheduled for 11:30 with some massage therapist in Plymouth. For those of you not familiar with the area it’s a 20 to 30 minute drive from our house.

Sort of on the spur of the moment she also decided to get her legs waxed. She doesn’t shave them, and it was several months since the last waxing. Her legs were just as hairy as mine, but lucky for her she’s got light hair and you don’t really notice. Plus she never exposes her legs during the winter. Ever. And she only rarely does in the summer for that matter. It’s my fault really, I knew she was a hippie when I married her. One day I’m going to follow through on my threat to stop shaving my face until she starts shaving her legs.

Anyway, she took off around 10 am. I hung out with The Peanut, straightened up the house, did the dishes and started working through the laundry. I got some lunch into The Peanut and put her down for a nap and continued my chores.

Around quarter to 2:00 Mona called and asked if I’d had lunch yet. Hell yes I did. I was a little annoyed that I hadn’t gotten a status update before then. She called when she was a half a mile from the house. And she was calling to tell me that she had scheduled a hair cut for 3:00. That kind of pissed me off.

I knew that she wanted the massage, and had no problem with it. But now she’s having a day of beauty and I’m stuck at home doing the housework. By the time she would get home it would be dinner time and then we’d have to put The Peanut to bed, which means that we’re home for the night.
I knew (and so did Mona) that I was going to spend a good chunk of Sunday studying for 2 tests in my anatomy class, which was going to blow Sunday. That basically shot my weekend in the ass. Shit.

So Mona went to bed around 8 or 9 as usual. I stayed up till 11 or so. Then around 3 or 4 I hear her calling me. She’s in the bathroom throwing up. There was nothing I could do, but she claims she feels better with me in there. Crazy, I know. So there I am, standing behind her, turning on the exhaust fan and handing her the occasional Kleenex.

By morning it’s apparent that she’s sick. So I’m in charge again. She stayed in bed until 11. Her mom was supposed to come over in the morning and take The Peanut overnight. The next day was Presidents Day and the daycare was closed for a Teacher Development Day. Mom agreed to keep The Peanut on Monday so that both of us could go to work.

Morning turned out to be 2 in the afternoon. By this time I was getting pretty frustrated. I really needed to get some study time in. My plan had been to leave in the morning and head somewhere quiet. With Mona out of action there was no way I could study and leave The Peanut to her own devices. So now most of the day was shot in the ass.

Mom was 30 minutes overdue (not counting the 2 or 3 hours that had passed since “morning”) and I couldn’t find the phone with the caller ID to call and ask “WTF?” Mona, you see, is incapable of putting any object a) back where she found it or b) in the same place twice. And since she was sick she wasn’t getting up to join in the search. I was so pissed that I couldn’t find the “page” button on the base to get the phone beeping. I about lost it at that point. The missing phone was the last straw. Mom showed up just as I located the phone and all I could do was glower and grumble. Mom noticed I was pissed (not like it wasn’t obvious) and was offended. She was sure it was all about her. I didn’t care. After she left I told Mona why I was pissed (somewhat harshly) and went to Borders to study. But I was so pissed I knew that wasn’t going to happen so I just browsed for half an hour.

By then the guilt had set in and I went home and apologized. After a nice long talk I headed out again. This time I ended up at a nearby Caribou Coffee. I went there because they were the only coffee house I could find that sold Diet Coke. I don’t drink coffee. There were several people in there studying or staring intently at their laptops. I figured I’d be able to work with little distraction, but was soon proven wrong. Just as I got my self organized it seemed like quite time was over. More people came in, some to meet with the studiers, and began to have quite conversations AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS.

So I packed up my stuff and went next door to Au Bon Pain. I spent about an hour and a half to two hours there when Mona called asking about dinner. So I packed my stuff and went to the grocery store (I had asked her to email me a shopping list).

Later that night I started to get sick. I worked a half day on Monday then went home, took a nap and went to school. I did fine on the first test as near as I can guess. Tuesday I pretty much just phoned in and the rest of the week wasn’t too much different. Wednesday was the low point, but I made it to school for that evenings test and again, think I did OK.

I guess I started to feel better by yesterday. The Peanut seems to have recovered and so does Mona. My mother-in-law was so sick by Tuesday that she told Mona at one point she considered calling an Ambulance. She didn’t, and her physician has given her an official diagnosis of the flu, so she’s been off work most of the week.

There’s still lots more drama, but that’s the gist of things.

How’ve you been?