Sick Rituals

I'm home sick today and I think I needed a break from life. I always push myself to work through my impending sickness and I always end up getting really, REALLY sick instead of just a little sick. Listening to your body is hard work especially when you disagree with what she is saying. I probably over-did it this weekend with camping and the Renaissance Festival. The change in weather happened so fast that I was not ready for this.

The wave of illness and disease has been washing over various colleagues in my workplace and we've all been talking about our favorite ways of combating getting sick.

Right now, I am wearing a shirt, two sweatshirts, fingerless gloves, a winter hat, sweatpants, legwarmers and fuzzy socks in an effort to stay warm. My friend, Josef, told us that he used to layer up, drink as much orange juice as possible, and lock himself in a room for a day. I guess I am employing his method, only instead of OJ, I am drinking my favorite panacea.

3- ginger slices (I cut mine into coin-sized medallions)
1- lemon wedge, squeezed,
2- dashes of cayenne pepper

Throw in a mug and fill with the hottest water you can find. The spicy ginger and cayenne soothes my sore throat-- plus this drink is gross to sip cold. I think this is a number of the components used in the Master Cleanse cocktail, however, I got hooked on this stuff when I was raw-foods detoxing a few years ago. It tastes kind of like weak broth.

My other favorite things to do when I am sick are:
- Watch teen movies (like Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Can't Hardly Wait, and more)
- Drink a Hot Tottie right before taking the hottest shower ever and then go to bed
- Hot showers to sweat out the sick
- Eat pizza (before I became allergic to cheese)
- Read comic books in bed until I fall asleep
- Nap -- which I am going to do right now