Let's Get Comfortable

Let's get comfortable. I'm not feeling well (big surprise there...) and thought I'd share some of the ways that I try to make myself feel better and/or distract myself from the misery of a nasty respiratory infection (or whatever the ailment du jour might be.)

Pajamas. I have an old, faded set of pj's that I just adore. They were a big splurge on a snowboarding trip with my Amazing Aunt Risky. My favorite color, turquoise, with bears on them. And they came with a TANK TOP and long pants. Perfect for me who's always too hot, but wants the coziness of pants that are too long. I even have matching socks. Aaahh...

Pillows. I'm fairly high maintenance when it comes to pillows. I sleep on a tempurpedic cooling gel pillow, hugging a very old and broken down tempurpedic squishable pillow, with another pillow over my head. It's not really a pillow anymore, it's a bag of tangled rags after having been washed throughout its life, which as far as I can remember goes back to elementary school. But for lazing around in bed when you're sick, nothing beats my sleep number “rest and relax” pillow. On one side, it's just slanted, but on the other, it has a section of those tiny little beads right where your back goes. It's perfect for sitting up in bed and having the exact right back support.

Food. When I'm feeling lousy, I turn to soup. We usually have something homemade in the freezer, in two serving portions. Very convenient for melting when needed. I also have a thing about New England clam chowder. I'm still searching for the perfect store-bought version, but nothing compares to the seafood chowder at my favorite restaurant. Hmm...maybe it's a take-out kinda day...I can also wistfully dream about THE best clam chowder EVER, which was (surprisingly) at a hotel restaurant. OK, it was Seattle, but I've never found airport hotel food all that memorable. Until then.

Entertainment. Nothing comforts like an old movie. Also good for when I inevitably fall asleep watching it. I know how it turns out! Some of my go-to movies include Bull Durham, Devil Wears Prada, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Star Trek (JJ Abrams'), Dangerous Minds, Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Love Actually, A Love Song for Bobby Long, The Big Chill, Princess Bride, Big Night, Hunger Games, Miss Congeniality, The Proposal, and Juno. I never get tired of them – it's like playing a favorite album.

Activities. As few as possible. And a nap on the schedule for sure.

What do you do when you're sick or just down and out (or both?) What are your go-to movies?

~Tina

R ~ Retardant, as in Flame and Pajamas

These are the continuing adventures of a Swedish immigrant during her first year as an American. She boldly went where she'd never gone before...please come along on Adventures in America.

I think it's entirely appropriate that I'm IN pajamas, at 5:48 am (on a SATURDAY...sheesh) as I write this. Another one of THOSE days yesterday, only it included 4 hours of daycare for SMK (see nicknames above) so that she could take her oldest to his new school. I'm so proud of him – he got a soccer scholarship! Anyway, I'm talking about pajamas here, so ahem, back to that.

In Sweden, everything is natural. Natural colored wood for furniture and floors, natural fabrics, as in 100% cotton pajamas, along with clothes also in natural fabrics. None of this “this item is not intended for sleepwear” crap you see on baby and toddler clothes today. That's because pj's have to be FLAME RETARDANT. I discovered this little lovely addition to clothes when we moved here.

For a gift, I got what I thought was THE most wonderful pajamas ever. A gown, with matching robe.

Not so fast. If I tried to run my fingers over the beautiful LOOKING fabric, little pieces of my imperfect skin snagged. It felt kinda like finger nails on a chalkboard or touching unwashed potatoes (big shudder) to touch those pj's. I was immediately in mourning.

Farmor and Farfar gave us pj's that year, too. Nothing fancy, just good ole' cotton. 

(I haven't put mine on yet, but they look just like Swissie's)

Heaven. I wore Grandma Vivians pajamas when I spent the night at her house, which was a Friday ritual that Swissie and I alternated enjoying. (DataBoy was 2, as I keep saying, so he got his turns later. And ended up Grandma's favorite...but that's another story.) I wore real pajamas the rest of the time.

When it came time to dress my little boys for bed, I tried to be a good mom and keep them safe from fire, but once they outgrew footie pj's, it was back to cotton. They survived. They'd kill me if I told you what they sleep in now, so I'll just leave it here. I only have to buy pj's for me and the engineer.

~Tina, who is SO sorry I haven't been visiting these last two days, but I WILL catch up. Promise.

P.S 5 extra entries in the drawing (for a $25 IKEA gift card) for the first person to notice and comment on the anachronisms in these photos...

P.P.S  One of my minions, AJ, wrote an amazingly intricate pick-your-own-plot post for P.  You gotta check it out!

N ~ Not Paying For a Creeper

These are the continuing adventures of a Swedish immigrant during her first year as an American. She boldly went where she'd never gone before...please come along on Adventures in America.

I told you that I think my claustrophobia started with being tied down and in traction (check out H and I). I think my current complete and total disrespect, hatred, malice, nightmares, and frustration with medical insurance companies started with this incident.

Yesterday I told you about the mechanics creeper that I tooled around on.  Here's the picture again:

(that black pad was where my head went, and I used my cast-only-to-above-the-knee leg to push myself around the house, though here I'm lying completely off of it so Farfar and I can do the puzzle)

This idea was really genius on The Swede's part. Mechanics lie on a wheeled short-bed contraption to roll themselves in and out from under the cars while they're working. A determined girl (like...ahem...say me...) could wheel herself about the house if she had one. So he bought me one.

I don't remember if I overheard this conversation between The Swede and the insurance company, or if it was between my parents, with The Swede recounting the story, but it went something like this.

“Sir, we don't pay for special pajamas for kids in casts. You have to buy those yourself.”

“Sir, I'm not talking about pajamas. I'm talking about (insert my description from above).”

“But it says here on your itemized list “creeper”. Isn't that some sort of pajamas?”

“Well sir, for babies, I guess they might call their pajamas creepers, but my daughter is 9 and is in a body cast. There are no pajamas she can wear. This is a device she uses to move herself around the house.”

I wish I knew if they paid for it or not, but I can't remember. If it was my insurance company today, they'd call it “durable, medical equipment” and make ME pay for it. Believe me, I know.

P.S Have you met Gary? Gary Pennick of the blog Klahanie? He's our anti-challenge spokesman, and has done amazing promotion for us WITHOUT being a participant. He's actually blogging the alphabet backwards. He's just that way – unique, super punny, has the sharpest wit I've met in a long time, and well, I just adore him. So please, go pay him a visit and tell him Tina sent you.