(no subject)

The virginal brides file past his tomb
Strewn with time's dead flowers
Bereft in deathly bloom
Alone in a darkened room
The count
-- Bauhaus

I don't know what's worse -- the flu or the recovery. At least with the flu I could lie in bed and shiver silently to myself. Now, I'm weak as a kitten, with dizzy, ringing ears, and I have to make up for all the work I missed. Everything seems to be in slow motion...unreal, like I'm watching everything in a dream. I drive into work and I don't remember half the trip. I can't think, and thinking is life to me. My job is thinking, my diversions are thinking, my fun little infatuations involve cleverness and quick intelligence and I'm too slow and muddled to follow anything more involved than half of a direct, slow conversation.

I got my tickets out west today, for a conference in early March. I can't wrap my mind around the amount of travel I have coming up....

Early March: Vegas (just passing thru) and Los Angeles
Late March: Chicago and Indiana
Early April: South Florida
May: Tampa/St. Pete
June: Denver
October: Albuquerque

And those are just the ones I know about right now. The year is still very, very young.

The thought of being thousands of miles away, and yet functional is alien to me right now, when I can't remember the last time I had an effortless thought. I feel like I took a couple roundhouses to the jaw, then stayed up for 48 hours celebrating. Did I win, coach?