Potatoes in the Mist

Gah. I got sickish, maybe allergies, maybe a cold, and my Claritin just wasn't cutting it. So I took a Benadryl. They are both Category B* drugs, but I got nervous because I had taken Claritin 9 hours before. D reassured me that it was okay, and it seems to be. Moreover, the Benadryl actually worked. Of course, Nyquil would have really vanquished the cold, but it's Category C and hence out of the question. Am enjoying The Abstinence Theory Teacher by Tom Perrotta, though he definitely switched from writing about more personal things to Ideas at some point. I don't mind the change entirely, though it can make his characters cartoonish, or at least a little caricature-y. It's like they're symbols rather than real people. The Wishbones is my favorite book of his, written when he was younger, but I guess people run out of that fund of personal stuff to write about and he has settled into a nice groove. The book also has plenty of comedic scenes that you know are going ...

I've been fighting with some kind of cold/flu-ish thing. It's gotten better since a couple of days ago, when I wrapped myself up in a blanket for two hours due to the chills coursing through my body. Of course, neurotic as I am, a checklist of possible ailments is running through my head: Bacterial meningitis? Probably not, since I'm still around. Bronchitis? Maybe. Had that in 2nd grade and freshman year of college. Strep throat? Maybe. Once I took a writing course where a girl mentioned in her piece, "She was a hypochondriac who hated going to the doctor...what an unfortunate combination of neuroses." That's me. In more cheerful news: My sweater yarn is coming from the Canadians next week. You may have been wondering, "What is the derivation of 'The Bronx'? The other boroughs don't get a definite article." Well, I can tell you. Apparently, when the Dutch settled in New York, there was a family called the Broncks. They had an active soc...