A busy day, and annoying symptoms (probably allergy)

I was out yesterday from just after 8 a.m. until almost midnight: normal enough, but I'm not used to it anymore.

I started by going to the gym; the basic morning workout. (Details below, for anyone interested.) Then I called eleanor, who said she would welcome company. I picked up my new sneakers (o frabjous day! Two pairs of proper boring walking/exercise shoes, which fit and don't leak!) and went down to Chinatown, where I had duck with black bean sauce at my usual place, and told someone else at the table, when she asked, that it's a Chinese restaurant, not a Vietnamese one. It seemed a slightly odd question, given that she'd already ordered and, thus, seen the menu, but harmless enough.

Ellie mostly wanted quiet companionship. We talked a bit (I listened more than talking), and I read about 50 pages of Ian Macdonald's Out on Blue Six, which I probably should have asked to borrow. We also went out, so Ellie could buy groceries for dinner; we stopped off and I had ice cream and she had fat-free frozen yogurt. (I let the man give me a taste of that but, as fat-free dairy tends to, it tasted thin to me.) I spent a lot of time stroking Norton, the more social of Ellie's two cats, and quite a bit with the irrepressible Morgan, her dog.

And somewhere in there I started sneezing, and then coughing. By dinnertime I was feeling decidedly short of breath and unhappy, and strongly suspected I was coming down with something. Dinner was the two of us and Emily WINOLJ, who I had not met before and quite like. I left a bit after ten o'clock, and took the M20 bus to the subway, rather than walk the seven or so blocks. (Those of you who know me will know that this is an indicator of my not feeling well, especially since it was a pleasant night out.) I coughed quite a bit on the bus. The A was local, but I sat and played Bubblet on my PalmPilot, and contemplated the merits of getting a car service for the walk home. By 207th I was feeling a bit better, and I didn't cough much walking home.

I went to bed without taking the cough syrup I'd planned on, hoping I didn't need it; a few minutes after lying down, I coughed, got up, and took the medicine, then slept happily for nine hours.

Today I feel basically fine, albeit still a little weak and slightly congested. I thus strongly suspect this was an allergic reaction. I think I can rule out lunch, because it's a dish I've had before at that restaurant. Ergo, I have probably developed an allergy to either Norton or Morgan. This is not good, though it's better than having some brand new lung/upper respiratory infection, or a recurrence of last Fall's bronchitis or pneumonia.

( gym details, if anyone has read this far and wants them )

A busy day, and annoying symptoms (probably allergy)

I was out yesterday from just after 8 a.m. until almost midnight: normal enough, but I'm not used to it anymore.

I started by going to the gym; the basic morning workout. (Details below, for anyone interested.) Then I called eleanor, who said she would welcome company. I picked up my new sneakers (o frabjous day! Two pairs of proper boring walking/exercise shoes, which fit and don't leak!) and went down to Chinatown, where I had duck with black bean sauce at my usual place, and told someone else at the table, when she asked, that it's a Chinese restaurant, not a Vietnamese one. It seemed a slightly odd question, given that she'd already ordered and, thus, seen the menu, but harmless enough.

Ellie mostly wanted quiet companionship. We talked a bit (I listened more than talking), and I read about 50 pages of Ian Macdonald's Out on Blue Six, which I probably should have asked to borrow. We also went out, so Ellie could buy groceries for dinner; we stopped off and I had ice cream and she had fat-free frozen yogurt. (I let the man give me a taste of that but, as fat-free dairy tends to, it tasted thin to me.) I spent a lot of time stroking Norton, the more social of Ellie's two cats, and quite a bit with the irrepressible Morgan, her dog.

And somewhere in there I started sneezing, and then coughing. By dinnertime I was feeling decidedly short of breath and unhappy, and strongly suspected I was coming down with something. Dinner was the two of us and Emily WINOLJ, who I had not met before and quite like. I left a bit after ten o'clock, and took the M20 bus to the subway, rather than walk the seven or so blocks. (Those of you who know me will know that this is an indicator of my not feeling well, especially since it was a pleasant night out.) I coughed quite a bit on the bus. The A was local, but I sat and played Bubblet on my PalmPilot, and contemplated the merits of getting a car service for the walk home. By 207th I was feeling a bit better, and I didn't cough much walking home.

I went to bed without taking the cough syrup I'd planned on, hoping I didn't need it; a few minutes after lying down, I coughed, got up, and took the medicine, then slept happily for nine hours.

Today I feel basically fine, albeit still a little weak and slightly congested. I thus strongly suspect this was an allergic reaction. I think I can rule out lunch, because it's a dish I've had before at that restaurant. Ergo, I have probably developed an allergy to either Norton or Morgan. This is not good, though it's better than having some brand new lung/upper respiratory infection, or a recurrence of last Fall's bronchitis or pneumonia.

( gym details, if anyone has read this far and wants them )

Tiptree Award: much progress has been made

At this point, we have a winner (we're waiting for Karen Joy Fowler to make the formal announcements, and I suspect she wants to notify the winner before sending out press releases or putting anything up on tiptree.org, but I don't think it's jumping the gun to say that we have a winner), and a shortlist. I just took the list of works we had and, as requested, emailed it to Karen with author names and publication information.

We still need to finish compiling the longlist, and write about why we selected the things we selected. So our work is not yet done, but I think we're entitled to a sense of accomplishment.

To celebrate, I'm going to either eat ice cream, reread the winner, or go back to reading Steve Brust's The Paths of the Dead. Okay, I will do all three, starting with the ice cream, but I'm not sure what order I'll read in. I should also go back and get out some of the books that got "read this later, it's good but not Tiptreeish" from my fellow jurors.

Tiptree Award: much progress has been made

At this point, we have a winner (we're waiting for Karen Joy Fowler to make the formal announcements, and I suspect she wants to notify the winner before sending out press releases or putting anything up on tiptree.org, but I don't think it's jumping the gun to say that we have a winner), and a shortlist. I just took the list of works we had and, as requested, emailed it to Karen with author names and publication information.

We still need to finish compiling the longlist, and write about why we selected the things we selected. So our work is not yet done, but I think we're entitled to a sense of accomplishment.

To celebrate, I'm going to either eat ice cream, reread the winner, or go back to reading Steve Brust's The Paths of the Dead. Okay, I will do all three, starting with the ice cream, but I'm not sure what order I'll read in. I should also go back and get out some of the books that got "read this later, it's good but not Tiptreeish" from my fellow jurors.