Sooner or Later

In a bit of an ironic twist, I spent most of yesterday in bed (I hesitate to use the word irony, because I don't really know what it means). After waking up at about 5 to speak with the parents for free (isn't the internet great) my health deteriorated rather rapidly. One of the first things my Mommy asked me was how I was feeling to which I responded great. No problems; everything going smoothly. Then when I hung up, my stomach was feeling a bit on the quesy side of not. Returned to bed and stayed there. I thought that maybe the water had made me sick, so stopped drinking from the tap. Sometime around 14 I walked to the nearest quickimart and bought 5 liters of water and some yogurt. Here is one good thing that came out of my sickness: now I know how many steps are on each flight where I'm staying. My guest room/apartment place is on the fourth floor. So as I bounded up the stairs I would count them (in Russian of course). Don't know why, but I frequently lost count around six. In my sick state there was no leaps or bounds, but a steady shuffle. I can count past six at a steady shuffle. Before heading to bed for the evening, I signed into AIM to see if there was anybody I could complain to. Who should sign on two minutes later? Anastasia! Perfect, somebody I could share my woes with and be assured of at least an "Aww, I'm sorry." (Un)fortunately, she told me to get up off my bum and go bang on my neighbors' doors until I found somebody that would give me some hot water (I have tea in my apartment, but no teapot or way to heat water). Being the macho I-can-do-it-myself kind of guy, I grudgingly took her advice and went down the hall to the apartment with the cat shaped floormat outside the door. Not only did I get hot tea with honey (from the brother-in-law's bees), but crackers with jam and tvorog. So as I watched coverage on the sickening Beslan school situation, I had my krumpets and tea. Some things are not possible to fully grasp no matter how hard you try. I believe the current death toll is up to 333. A friend of the man that offered me tea has 5 children - all of them inside the school. The last time I spoke with him he still doesn't know how many are alive. Genius on one hand (pose as construction worker to plant bombs, mines, and other armaments), inhuman on the other (children, on the first day of school). Not totally related, but on somewhat of a parallel thought is The Brothers Karamazov.

Following tea I returned to my room for an excellent night of sleep. So far today, I've felt much better. I think the hot green tea helped quite a bit. Now I'm finishing up my laundry. Yesterday I had planned on visiting the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and possibly some place where there is lots of different types of honey for sale (and taste testing). I'd still like to do that, but think that today might be better spent just taking it easy and recuperating. A fellow geek, aka Mr. Grammarian (I think), showed me how to dramatically decrease the size of my movies. While they still may be too large for the average dialup user, they are much more manageable. So after putting a few more pictures up and resampling my movie clips I may try and fill in a few missing posts. Then repack all my booty for the plane flight tomorrow.

How about some reader involvement? Why do you think I became sick? Here are the main options I've thought of or have been suggested to me:

• Water (I've been drinking from the tap for about a week)
• Friday evening dinner - baked potato and kvas
• Breakfast Saturday morning - Sochnik s tvorogom (a small pastry with tvorog inside) that I bought at a roadside bread stand
• Pill I took Saturday morning to ward off Montezuma - Ciprofloxacin
• St. Petersburg's cold rain (Note: I haven't been there for a week)
• Staying up till nearly midnight and then waking up at 5

Post a comment and cast your vote or make a new suggestion.