Of gas guzzlers and hypochondria

I really, reeeeeeaaallly hope I'm not coming down with something.

I was suddenly overcome with a bout of sinus allergies last night and took two benadryl. They seemed to do the trick, as the sneezy itchy cloggy crap cleared up pretty quickly. My sinuses left me alone while I slept, but I slept poorly and kept waking up feeling overheated even though the AC vent (which usually leaves me huddling under the comforter even in summer) was blowing straight down on us. I had those freaky "did the alarm go off...did I miss it...where am I..." half awake dreams that I get when it's too warm. Sneezed a bit when I woke up, took another benadryl, felt fine (albeit sleepy) for the rest of the day. Then we picked up the boys and S, the hypochondriac of the pair, starts hypothesizing that he has swine flu because he's been coughing since this morning. Which reminds me that my chest has been feeling slightly congested these last few days, and I've been coughing off and on too, and now add to that the sneezing...yeah, you see where I'm going with this.

I'm pretty good at holding my hypochondria in check. But when exposed to another hypochondriac, forget it. Now I'm feeling like I may be coming down with a cold, allergy attack, or maybe the very earliest stages of swine flu (because the symptoms vary by individual!), even though part of me knows I don't feel any worse than I have in the last couple of days. Nonetheless, as I type, I'm also swallowing and noticing a hint of scratchiness...I'm feeling my lymph nodes and wondering if they've swelled a bit...I even got chills when I opened the cabinet a minute ago (granted, I had the fridge open prior to that...but hey, it's still out of the ordinary).

Ugh! I really wasn't too worried about swine flu until Hypochondriac Boy started going on about it this evening. And he and his brother just went back to school. Schools are like petri dishes. All kinds of contagious shit incubates in schools. The last thing any of us need now (or, to be honest, ever) is the swine flu. Especially with my history of lung problems.

Must think healthy. Must think positive. Must chew another yummy orange Vitamin C tablet.

-------------

We also had to postpone our South Carolina trip this weekend for what is possibly THE stupidest and most unforeseen reason. Our rental car--a 2010 Nissan Maxima--turned out to get less than 20 mpg at highway speeds. So when you factor in the trip to and from SC plus two trips to and from south Florida, we're talking several hundred dollars in gas on top of the rental fee!

Pretty pitiful when a BRAND NEW CAR gets worse gas mileage than the almost thirty year old (and out of tune) full-size van that we would have been driving otherwise. It's quite hilarious. But postponing our trip sucks enough to negate the humor I would otherwise have reveled in.