Happy November, blessed Samhain, happy birthday to a couple of people whose special days I missed. ♥ I am ringing in November the same way I did October: I'm fucking sick. *scowls* I'd been a bit run down still from the chest cold/mild flu earlier and then on Friday I woke up coughing and sneezing and that's still going. *sigh* In fact, I have just run out of cough syrup, which means I have to put proper (non-lounge-y) clothes on and actually leave the house to go get more. This does not fill me with joy. Needs must, however. Boo.

Rob played St. Louis on Halloween and dressed up as zombie!MJ from Thriller, and the band played Thriller! Too cute. Wisely, he did not attempt the dance during Vincent Price's voiceover bit, just did a couple arm movements then hijacked the keyboards. *g*

Green Day... well, the concert Oct. 24th was awesome, apparently the best UK gig to date at that time. I'm thinking Manchester on Halloween may have eclipsed it, given some of the video I've seen (hello Billie climbing a fan!), and the fact that FBHT co-opened. And then played a small venue in London late Sunday night, which had me right back at the pissed-off that I was before my concert. Seeing as they could have done that the weekend before when they played London, and y'know, we were all there, and might actually have been able to GO. But, whatever. Tickets go on sale Friday morning for a few European stadium dates in the summer, and I'm contemplating what I'm going to do there. I think I'm going to go for Paris, because I suspect that having an actual event at which my attendance is required is the only way I'm going to kick my own ass into going to France by myself. I can plan a little vacation around it.

Aside from that, things going well. They sorted out our payscale thing at work - salary revisions and the like are done annually based on performance reviews - so I got a raise, backdated to August, and a performance bonus on my October paycheque. Sweet. I'm scouting for computers because my laptop is exhibiting some strange behaviour of late and I really don't want to be caught out without one. May just get a netbook and leave the more intensive applications on the lappy. We shall see what I find/decide but that's what I'm designating the bonus for, my new computer (partial) fund.

I was going to do this big long pointless ramble just to get shit out of my head, but I can't even focus for that. My cough is worse again today and I'm tired and I had to stop at the store for stuff I forgot the last time (toilet rolls are a bit important to have) and yes, I am fully aware that I'm whining, but I came home to mail from my mom, who aired and repacked all my books in the summer, and surface-mailed me just past the deadline for Christmas delivery with a book of poetry she'd given me several years ago entitled, To My Child ...We may no longer live in the same house, but you're always in my heart. Um... yeah. I have officially lost the battle against crying today. Which is not really helping with the coughing and breathing thing. Awesome timing, Royal Mail. :S

For day 8 - the last day, thankfully! - I am happy about having cream of mushroom soup. Mmm, comfort food. You know, it's not that it's difficult to find *something* in every day that makes me happy, but I've found that I don't like being constrained to specifically think and post about it. Makes me feel like if I'm posting about being happy about something, I should not then go on to bitch about something else, y'know? However...

I had plans to do things today and be all productive, but this has been the longest week in forever and I have no energy left. I made a few stops after work last night and by the time I got home, I was that bone-deep kind of tired where you're not quite sure how you're managing to still put one foot in front of the other. One of said stops was for more cough syrup b/c the cough keeps fading in and out but isn't going away. I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on myself for slacking off this weekend (or today, at least) since I have been pretty sick. I really just want to finish my soup and go back to sleep for a while, so I think I will. This whole episode has reinforced that I need to take better care of myself; I haven't been, so much, which is why this cold hit so damn hard. :-/

Couple things for the happiness meme today. First, went back to work and that went all right. I was definitely coughing more, but no uncontrollable fits, and I'm tired but not all-out exhausted. W00t. It was also very, very nice to be asked if I was sure I was well enough to be there as opposed to the 'omg how dare you take time off to be sick?' attitude at many workplaces. Reason number ten million and two to like this job. :-)

The second thing has me a little O_O - the Athenian birth of a brand new original character today. Full name, partial physical appearance (can't get a fix on facial features), some personality aspects, some family background, some 'personal issues,' some ideas about the best friend. I have no idea what to do with a quirky teenage girl begging for a YA novel living in my head. I don't know what kind of story she's linked to yet, though I do know it has something to do with her name, and names and labels are a critical theme, but... wtf? I even have a first line! That I LIKE!

What makes this even funnier to me is that I was doing mental run-throughs of upcoming Est stuff, you know, the kind that tends to be X-rated and all boys, and every time I'd hit the point where M!Rob would go, "I can't predict what the little fucker will say/do next," my mind would do this lateral flip and I'd be back with MNO, getting details like what kind of glasses she wears. My brain, she is an interesting place some days. :P

I am home today, having been whacked over the head with a particularly nasty chest cold and cough. It came pretty much out of nowhere. I was coughing a bit on Monday and actually assumed that it was just leftover reaction to the weekend, eating different stuff, etc., as a mild cough is one of my allergic reactions. But then I kept waking up Monday night with coughing, and yesterday the congestion arrived, along with the "it hurts to breathe" kind of sore throat. :-/ It took me about twenty minutes to even figure out what sort of cough syrup to buy because the only kind that was familiar was one that I know doesn't work on me. Alas, England does not appear to do Nyquil, which is a damn shame, but the stuff I got does an okay job at keeping the cough under control. When I woke up this morning with that wheezy breathing, though, I pretty much decided to say fuck it and go back to bed as soon as it was late enough for me to call in (we don't have voice mail so someone had to be there to talk to). After sleeping long enough to have a bit of a headache, I feel marginally better, and I'm still very congested but don't sound like an asthma attack is imminent anymore, woo. God, I hate coughing. Hate. I deal so much better with head colds. [/whine]