When my brother was in second grade, he had to keep a journal for school. It was one of those composition books. I had the same assignment when I was in second grade (my composition blook was neon orange) and it is hilarious to compare our writing.

My journal entries were legible, well written and some were quite long. My brother’s, in the other hand, were an adorable mess of handwriting and spelling and mush. One of our favorite entries in his journal (writing from memory, since it is at my mom’s apartment and I don’t have access to it at the moment) is one where he wrote that one of his favorite activities is to “eksusize with my sister.”

This is hilarious on so many levels. First, eksusize! How sweet is this spelling! Next, when my brother was in second grade, I was in fourth. When did we ever exercise together??! And if we did, WHAT DID WE DO! I’d love to know, since he clearly enjoyed it so much. Other levels of hilarity include his handwriting, the messiness of his writing, the adorableness of his words and attempts, and of course the comparison to my writing at the same age. Now he is much smarter than I am. Back then, not so much.

So whenever we talk about exercising with each other, we now say eksusize. Both written and verbally. Say it out loud: EK-SU-SIZE. Fun times.

Also, when we talk about the gym, we pronounce it gime. Look up the Simpson’s clip on YouTube and you’ll understand. It provides endless entertainment for me. Every now and then during out conversation about the gym, I will say “Gime? What’s a gime? OHHHHH, a gime!” I never get sick of saying gime, even though my brother does.

As you know, I was out of commission this past weekend with a cold. Not only was it my first cold in forever, but it was so much worse than I remember any cold being. My entire face was burning and stinging with pain, particularly my gums. I felt so awful and it is good timing that it was bad over the weekend because there is no way I would have been able to go to work the way I was. And I’ve never missed work because of a cold before. This one really knocked me out.

I stayed in bed and ate chocolate pudding and PinkBerry. Yum. On Sunday, I felt a little more like real food, and had a flashback to when I was very young and would go to my neighbor’s apartment when I had to stay home from school sick and my mother had to work. I loved going there because they had sugar cereals, which I was never allowed to have in my own home except on my birthday and Hanukkah. Keeping in tradition, I was craving a delicious cereal for my sickbead. There is one that is fairly new and I have always wanted to try, and decided this would be the perfect time – Chocolate Lucky Charms. You heard me. The part of Lucky Charms that tastes bad (to kids) NOW TASTES GREAT! I ate a few delicious bowls and then threw the rest away since eating an entire box would not be good! I’m glad I got to try it and it was so worth it.

By Monday I was fine to go to work. I wanted to take things easy and make sure this cold doesn’t come back, but I also wanted to get my body moving a little, so I did a workout a la Heather. She hurt her hamstring and to take it easy, has been doing 60 minutes of recumbent bike with no resistance. I thought that sounded like the most boring thing I ever heard, but also the perfect exercise to do while recovering from a cold — especially since I am in the middle of reading American Wife and cannot put it down, so I figured it would make the time pass easily.

After 40 minutes my legs were just bored, so I went on the treadmill and walked for 10 and then it was almost time for the new episode of House so I considered myself finished. Pretty good considering I was bedridden the day before!

Today I am feeling even better and want to go back to spin. I was going almost every day (once I went twice in a day!) before Seattle, and then during my trip I had 4 days of no eksusize at all. When I got back I went to spin once but didn’t feel great there and the next day I came down with the cold from hell. So it has been awhile since I really had a good workout. Tonight I will go to spin but I will take it easy. I will start it off slow to get an idea of how I am feeling, and I won’t be pushing myself too hard. I want to slowly get back into it without risking getting sick again.

Tomorrow I have my appointment with the nutritionist at my GI doctor’s office. I am looking forward to talking to her about my problems and my concerns and hear what she thinks — and hopefully learn more about what I can eat. I have been craving oatmeal lately. I love the texture and the taste and the smell and everything about it, but it is one of the foods that makes me feel at my absolute worst. I want to tell the nutritionist this and see if she has any suggestions for incorporating it back into my life.

Important note to sick people: As much as I love Zicam Nasal Gel, I have to strongly urge you NOT to use it while you have a cold. It stings. Intensely. And worse, the sting lasts for HOURS. Not fun times. But I strongly encourage using it if you feel the start of a cold coming on, or your cold is newly finished.

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