No Respite

Argh, another week. I would post the whole "10 things about me" deal that other bloggers such as AJ, Matt, Razz, E, and James have done, but I've already have a post dedicated to this kind of thing. So, I'm not going to add to that list tonight. I would, however, like to give a shout-out to Matt at Brass Matt, AJ's boyfriend's blog. Seems like a really cool guy, go over and say hi.

Now, a couple positive highlights first . . .

- My youngest brother, KC-M, got into the College of Engineering here! I expected nothing less. Now let's see if he can get into "better" engineering schools like MIT or CalTech. I wonder if he even applied to those places . . .

- My friend, SA-F, got into nursing school! I haven't seen her practically since we both graduated from high school together. I only talk to her online a few times a year because she rarely signs on. She's going to be paying me a visit some time in early December before she moves miles and miles away for nursing school. I'm SO proud of her. :D

- I made my first chicken potpie/chicken broccoli bake. Chicken broccoli bake was one of the few things in the dorms that I actually looked forward to eating, it was sooo yummy (and probably quite bad for me, hence why I magically lost 20 lbs in a year after I stopped eating dorm food). It actually turned out pretty well. It was cooked just right, it was edible, it looked yummy . . . the only problem was that it was a bit bland. Hmm, maybe I really should've used cream of chicken soup rather than low-sodium chicken broth. Oh well, got to go with what I've got (which also happens to be healthier).
-----
Now for the negatives.

- It's cold. It was about 50-55 degrees F during the middle of last week. It's in the low 30s/upper 20s this week. It's freezing (literally)!! It snowed all day yesterday and I made the unfortunate decision to leave my apartment to go to the library to study. And so the annual ice age begins around here . . . brrr. I swear I live in a global warming-proof state (there is actually some scientific data to support this, to a point).

- My window doesn't have a very good seal where the latch is. It's gotten cold enough to the point where condensation has formed on the inside of the windows. I live in the freezing Midwest for crying out loud! It wastes A LOT of heat and energy if cold air is going to leak in and hot air is going to leak out all winter. So I sealed it up with this plastic insulation thing. Now there's an air bubble where the cold air wants to get in but can't. I wish apartment complexes would invest in energy-saving technologies so they didn't have to jack up the rent every year. Sigh.

- I saw 2 ants in my bathroom. They have no business being there or anywhere else in my apartment. Ants must die, when I find them again.

- My bathtub periodically clogs. It sucks. I keep forgetting to pour Drain-O or a similar substance down the drain to clear it. Consequently, I shower while standing ankle deep in water that's not draining away. Note to self: remember to un-clog bathtub drain.

- I seemed to have developed a cold, again, only about 6 days after I had just gotten over a cold. I should not be getting sick so soon after just being sick. This is suspicious. And being the recovering Type A pre-med I used to be, I've come up with several possible scenarios ranging from the most plausible (like, 99%) to the least plausible (of which they all total about 1% in my mind).

The most plausible biological explanation is thus. I've been stressed, tired, and sleep-deprived all of last week. Consequently, my adrenal glands pump out cortisol to help me maintain homeostasis and cope with the stress. Cortisol also causes a person to go into a fat-storing phenotype, and thus causes people to crave fatty comfort foods. That explains why I've been craving to eat out all last week (I didn't eat out, because it was rainy and cold). Cortisol also, over long periods of time, causes a weakening of the immune system. With this weakened immune system and the many other sick people around me, it's totally plausible that this is the precise mechanism by which I've become sick so soon after just recovering.

I would go over the less plausible explanations that haunt and plague my thoughts, but they're pretty ridiculous in retrospect because of the low-risk I've put myself in (low-risk doesn't, however, mean no risk). The possibility of a worse scenario is very very slim, so I'm trying not to dwell on it.

Edit: Some may misinterpret this last part of my post, if one's been particularly keen and sharp. Let me point out examples that could fall under the "least plausible" category. There is the possibility of me getting the flu, as this is flu season and I didn't get a flu shot. A flu could kill me by initiating a cytokine storm - aka, my immune system goes into overdrive and kills me in the process. Another somewhat more likely, though still not too plausible, would be mold or some toxicant in my apartment. I have noticed that I feel significantly better when I'm not sitting in my apartment for extended periods of time. I cough less, my throat hurts less, etc.