Making the call

After spending Saturday night tossing and turning in tummy agony, I finally fell asleep for a couple of hours and woke up feeling somewhat refreshed on Sunday morning. After a giant stomach-calming mug of peppermint tea, I toasted half of a freezer bagel and had some with peanut butter and some with Olga‘s apricot jam:

I love this jam!

Enormous apricot alert:

As sad as I was to miss all of my friends’ festivities on Saturday, my paper productivity made it worth it. I felt so much more capable of finishing it after I got all the research out of the way. Sunday’s task was simply to write and write and write and write and write.

When I needed a break, I went to the freezer and found some rhubarb-blueberry compote that my mom must have sent home with me after a MA visit at some point in the last four years. I melted it in a saucepan with a little bit of water, 8 watermelon ice cubes, and 2 chopped dates (the additions were necessary to eliminate the freezer taste) and had a few spoonfuls straight out of the pot:

My mom’s rhubarb compote was always one of the hallmarks of spring/summer growing up, so I was glad to have little taste of it.

I went back to writing writing writing until I got hungry … or at least I think I was hungry! My stomach had started to feel angry again, like I was about to spend the rest of the day with my head hanging over a bowl, yet nothing was happening. I toasted half of an everything bagel from the freezer, globbed on some of Diana‘s hummus, and topped it with cucumbers:

Mmmmm, I haven’t had a bagel with hummus and cucumbers in forever. This hit the [somewhat uncomfortable] spot:

On the side, I had my CSA salad of the week:

And, for dessert, a ramekin of yogurt with more rhubarb-blueberry compote:

After lunch, I arranged myself in bed with my laptop and my paper research since sitting upright was growing increasing painful for my belly. When I needed a break a couple hours later, I decided homemade bubble tea was in order, courtesy of Elisabeth‘s colorful tapioca balls:

Aren’t they the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen?

I also snagged a little spoonful of date bliss:

And it was back to the paper! Ayyyy this paper. It was only supposed to be 8-10 pages, but I was not even 1/3 of the way through, and it was already up to 6! I started to panic and took a lunch-prep break. I didn’t have time this weekend to get to the store for milk so that I could make yogurt, so I decided to revisit my flax pudding instead. I used Mr. Coffee to grind 1/4 cup of whole flax seeds and then mixed them with 2 cups of jasmine iced tea, 1 chopped date, and cinnamon. I brought the whole mix to a boil and then moved it to the fridge to cool and set. When it was fully chilled, I blended in my last 1/2 cup of yogurt. It was still a bit loose for my liking, so I also added 1/4 cup extra thick rolled oats to help thicken things up:

I divided the pudding into my three little tupperwares and topped each with blueberries, CSA blackberries, chopped CSA plum, and hemp seeds:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There is nothing more photogenic than fruit!

I went back to the paper for some more self-torture (going to grad school was a voluntary decision, right??) and then broke for dinner around 6: the other half of that Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake bulked up with about 1/2 cup extra black beans:

Seriously, sooooo good! Hands down the best frozen meal I have ever eaten.

Dessert was about 1/4 cup of cinnamon oatmeal raisin cookie gelato (still sooooooo worth the purchase) with some more fruit compote.

This was a brilliant combo! The blueberries and cinnamon were a match made in heaven.

I went back to work on the paper after dessert, and my stomach started to feel worse, a frustrating development since I had been hoping to start feeling better all day long. I started to panic that maybe I had become lactose intolerant overnight. Nooooooooooo!!!! I calmed myself with an authentic Sicilian marzipan strawberry (??) from Wife and Ted:

I paaaaaaaaainfully struggled through the rest of my paper (I hope the prof doesn’t mind that my 8-10 page paper is actually 15 pages???!!!) and then gleefully (if not entirely comfortably) celebrated with an UliMana chia moon drop chocolate:

This raw chocolate delight was a lovely way to conclude the homework portion of my summer sessions, mmmmmmmmm:

(I’ll be turning in the paper and having my last class (for two weeks) tonight, woooooooooooooooooooooooot :-P)

Despite the emotional high of finishing my paper, I felt absolutely miserable physically and, once again, threw myself into bed at 8:45 pm. I was in such agony all night!! I kid you not — I did not fall asleep until 4:47 am. Thank goodness I had the foresight to reset my alarm from 5am to 6am when it became clear that a morning gym session was not in the cards. When my alarm went off at 6, I thought I felt better and got out of bed to get ready for work. The nausea immediately came rushing back, and I had to call in sick and go back to bed. Ughh, I hate having to take sick days — I’m always worried that I’m getting worked up over nothing, but I just felt SO uncomfortable and knew I would be useless trying to be help families while I was so exhausted and pained!

How do you know when a sick day is in order?

17 thoughts on “Making the call”

Gina says:

August 6, 2009 at 9:15 am

Oh ugh, that’s the wrost thing in the world, sitting in bed when you FEEL tired, but then not being able to fall asleep for hours, what a pain! I would call in sick if I had only had 1-3 hours of sleep. In that case I wouldn’t be efficient at work anyway, so I may as well not be there.

The flax pudding looks so yum! I love the combination you’ve created. The tapioca balls and marzipan also look delicious, how fun!

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