Coo coo ka-choo, how do you do?
Before Christmas, I realized New Years also falls on the next Monday! How nice! However, everything isn't as lucky as it seems. Let me get into the snowball of misfortune that has plagued my family this holiday season.
Saturday, Christmas Eve-eve, my mom and I went out to get last minute presents as she normally does. She cuts it close every year, only recently getting stuff earlier because it has to arrive from online stores in the holiday shipping chaos. So we headed to the mall, got my cousin his cast iron skillet, got his mom/my aunt some really nice coasters, and got my other uncle some cologne. I'm not particularly good with greeting my family when they come to visit, so it's nice having my mom to buffer between them. Of course, it doesn't help that the only way to do that is to brave the Christmas mall crowds.
Sunday, Christmas Eve, rolls around and my mom and I went to get our hair done. Well, hers done and mine cut back down to nothing. I wasn't thrilled about having to spend so much time outside and then keep my "normal person" face on while my family visited, but it ended up being not as taxing as I expected. My uncle, who I didn't realize enjoyed current anime, ended up asking for recommendations and I told him Hell's Paradise. That was the only anime I'd finished in one sitting for a very, very long time. I feel like a fake weeb, most anime these days feels like it's too hard to keep up with since there's so many episodes. Anyway, Hell's Paradise/Jigokuraku is definitely not a wholesome sit around the TV type anime, so I was dreading when we got to the surprise REAL villains. I won't spoil it, but artistic nudity comes to mind when thinking about the reveal. Luckily, or unluckily, my mom called me away before they could be introduced.
Christmas Eve night, my mom called me into her room and warned me that she tested positive for the virus. Crap. We've been basically joined at the hip all week. Last week, we cleaned up the yarn together. This week, we were in an enclosed car together. I take a test and surprisingly, negative. So I let the rest of my family know and we all wore masks for the rest of the night. We put my mom in exile, lovingly, of course.
Monday, Christmas, ended up going pretty okay. At least, as good as it could go with one of us trapped in their room all day. With Facetime and my selfie stick tripod thing, we were able to stay on a call with her while we opened up presents. A long time friend of mine stopped by to drop off some snacks and a present from her family. A weight was taken off me cause I'd been holding on to her gift since February, we hadn't gotten to see each other in nearly a year! It was a Sylveon and Jolteon chibi plush! This was the first time I'd tried making them. I had speedran both of them after I expected to see her within a few days, but they came out really nice and I think she loves them!
My family ended up leaving early so that my mom could rest and that left me with four extra hours of Christmas to work with. Most of the stuff my mom got me was supplies for the store, so I started putting together the new sets of shoe holders that I use to put the finished products into. I started cramming the heart bubble wrap bags in, but they took up way more space than I expected. I used maybe 3 of them and still have half of the blue ones loose. After I got those together, I went into the basement to open the rest of the gifts.
My gifts from her weren't really surprises since she usually shows me what's in her cart before purchase. The surprise here is what box has what in it. Other than the boxes that have what they are on the outside, it was a treat opening something expecting something else! I got a bunch of blank stickers for my label printer along with a water-activated tape dispenser and extra rolls of tape. That was probably the heaviest item down there. Next came washing supplies, two new collapsible buckets to replace the ones that got "misplaced" and a fancy lint roller. For organization reasons, I got some desktop stackable drawers along with a couple sticker dispensers for the amount of sticker rolls I've started gathering.
The odd one out in all of this is a Midi keyboard. I almost thought I was shooting for the stars, but that one was behind the sofa and I opened it in front of my family. They all were confused when it didn't make noise, but I explained it's silent and only plays music through a computer. Note: I suck at making music. But it fit under my monitor, so into the setup it goes! I spent a good amount of Christmas night fiddling with it and downloading a ton of included software. Around 10pm, trouble started brewing when I couldn't get a tickle out of my throat.
At a nice, early 1am, I said good night to my cat and came upstairs to climb into my loft bed. My body felt super weak, but I figured it was just all of the lifting and "normal person" acting I'd done all weekend. Boy, I was wrong.
At 4:30am, my feet hurt like crazy. They felt like they were freezing off of my body regardless that I was under the covers. My room tends to not get good warmth due to a broken vent, so I figured it was just that and tried my hardest to get to sleep. When I did drift off for a few minutes at a time, I realized I must have a fever because my dreams were extremely weird. Well, weird-er than normal.
At 7am, I managed to climb down since now my grandma would be awake if I were to collapse somewhere. I splashed some water on my face and tried to get something to drink. I felt extremely light-headed and managed to stumble my way back up into my bed. Pains still shot through my feet, but at least I could rest for a while. My brain hurt to think about anything, even just wondering what time it was. Looking at my phone just made the headache worse.
Of course, my mom got concerned when I wasn't responding properly when she called to wake me after noon. I could barely get out "I feel so dizzy" and she encouraged me to get something to eat or drink. Climbing out of my bed felt like climbing vertically off a boat with how much the world swayed in my mind. Sitting at my desk was painful, leaning on my hands was painful, my feet were still freezing and I don't have a rug so they were painful. My grandma brought in some leftover Christmas food and I couldn't even eat! Chewing made me dizzy!
I took another test and still negative! So my mom and I, well mostly her in my handicapped state, brainstormed it's probably iron related anemia problems. Usually I get super sleepy and fatigued around my period, so maybe it's just the fact that that ended and I hadn't been getting my usual extra hours of sleep. So I chugged a ton of apple juice and she bought some iron supplements. I went to sleep and hoped the next day would be better.
Wednesday, 2 days after Christmas, the symptoms have stopped attacking me as hard! Yay! I still can't look at my phone and the light hurts, but at least I can sit at my desk for longer than a few seconds before my head begins feeling way too heavy. My grandma tells me my aunt and uncle have the same symptoms I do. Crap. So I just take it easy, start up on some tylenol, and try to stay hydrated. My fever probably hit a peak at 104.3.
Thursday, 3 days after Christmas, I'm no longer dizzy! Now I'm super congested and sneezing! So, I figured whatever this weird sickness is, it's going away. It just switched to a common cold and it's going away, right? Right? Please! I take another test. The T line stares back at me. Not even a minute in, the T line is as bold as I've ever seen it. No, no. This can't be right. Tuesday I was negative. How did I gain COVID within a day? This is the first time I've had it. How am I lame enough to catch it 3 years after it arrived?! I don't leave the house!
By midday Thursday, I was back at my computer, doing my dailies on Elder Scrolls and mourning the limited horse pet I lost because I didn't log in while I was too sick to function. I logged into Cookie Run to manage my guild and I didn't even miss the time I designated for our weekly run. The game was still too bright and flashy for my weakened brain, but I patted myself on the back for keeping up.
Friday, it's basically back to normal other than my occasional cough or sneeze. Log in, do my dailies, and then wander the internet for the rest of the day. My mom brought the switch upstairs into my room, but I am in no rush to try playing Splatoon or any other brain intensive games. I'll stick with fishing in an MMO being my most taxing activity.
Saturday, New Years Eve-eve, I remembered to log in to another gacha game that I manage a guild in. I've been dropping this one, so I wasn't in too much rush to get back in. Well, the game assumed the same because I'd been demoted all the way to member again for the first time in two years. The guild had been handed to me when the original leader left the game and I'd been begrudgingly managing it since. Now I'm just RustyyHeart the regular member. It's bittersweet, but if the game wants to fault me for being too sick to play, it might be for the best that I fade away.
Sunday, New Years Eve, Duolingo hits me with a 0 day streak. This can't be right, I've been logging in just to buy streak freezes LOL. What's up with that, demon owl? I think it's the fact I didn't participate in the leaderboard last week. So I do 6 lessons to bring back my 920+ day streak and call it a day. Since I am still a weeb, I watch the Holostars new years countdown stream to celebrate despite a 13 hour time difference. It was nice to just turn my brain off and watch the show for an hour or two. My mom and I had a mismatched countdown, her watching the real TV and me watching a livestream on youtube. Both were late, but mine was a whole minute behind!
So, we get to today. As I wrote this, I took another test as it's been the recommended two days. No good. A very, very faint line but the positive is still there. I'm "lovingly" in exile as well, confined to my small closet of a room. Fortunately, my mom said she was negative and she'll come out in a few days. All my day one plans have been completely derailed. I haven't crocheted since Christmas Eve, and I ended up frogging that hat because it was the wrong yarn weight. I don't want to start making things again while I'm sick. Not that it's dangerous since I'll wash it, but it just makes me feel bad. My hands are getting restless for things to do. The boredom I had on Wednesday, not able to focus on things but lucid enough to need something to do, was awful. I keep looking over at the mandala sparkle I brought in now 2 weeks ago like "Ah, I should work on some gloves." It's been sitting on my stack of labels collecting dust. I had so much I planned to do this past week! All for nothing!