Here and There

Glad last week is over. It all started out at 5am eastern on tuesday. One would (and rightfully so) suspect my roomates and I to be sound asleep in our respective home away from homes. However, on this disastrous morn we could be found wandering through our abode, in search for some pungent and seemingly causeless smell. When i woke, I actually figured someone had burnt some onion while cooking. After finding out that this was certainly not the case, and the four of us playing around with every heater in the house, we decided to move on with our lives. After causing quite a stir in all of our classes that day, and the rest of the week, we had found the fickle cause of the smell.

This guy, minus the adorable features. After completing a ride on the trainer that evening, I found myself on the couch with a horrendous burning in my throat. It surely was just the skunk.

Alas, the following day it became evident that such a smell could not also be responsible for the severe cough and congestion that had festered overnight. In class, I was feverish, nauseous, and I smelled awful. The skunk was ruining my life slowly. I felt like I was reenacting a scene from seinfeld as I stormed out of Lowe's hardware, toting 16 dollars worth of simple green in bags (which is, truthfully, the only way to rid a house of "mountain musk"). Hoping for detoxification, I opened up all the doors in our house, and embraced the small cat. 5 hurricane produced by the 6 box fans raging in the living room. After an hour, we had hit our limit, unable to withstand the arctic chill of the crisp air:

The post indoor winter saw heavy showers of simple green, resulting in the most successful house cleaning yet. But gaining strength and moving in quickly was the sickness in my chest. A few of my teammates had had similar symptoms earlier in the week, and after much assurance that health and wellness was forecasted within four days, I hunkered down in bed, resisted the desire to exercise, and waited for the worst to pass. Friday had arrived, and recently departing were nausea and fever, so I looked happily to the weekend's task--

I was going to see my sister's ballet! After a 6 hour drive to Birmingham, AL, I was chillaxin' with the fam, as both my parents and even my Aunt Sue had travelled to watch the show as well. My dad had "William Shatner'd" the Hilton Hotel with priceline.com, so we were sleeping in style as well. Saturday involved quality time browsing the stores of Homewood (severe cough invited himself) with everyone before the big show.

The Student Choreography Workshop began at 730 and it was awesome! All the seniors in the dance program at Birmingham Southern College get to pick a piece, select fellow dancers, and choreograph as they choose. Some of my favorites were "The Red" (which my sister performed in), "Circle in the Middle Circle in the Middle" (a really trippy, modern piece), "Escala" (My sister's roomate's brain child--also a string tribute to led Zeppelin's "Cashmir"), and the only classical ballet piece in the performance, my sister's work! She and her friends are so good at what they do, it's wicked awesome! Too bad they don't let me take pictures in the auditorium . . .

Anyways, we celebrated in style with some good ole', down south gluttony at The Cheesecake Factory. Fun fact, we ran into a great Memphis friend of ours who attends Auburn. He and his friends just finished watching some motocross race downtown. They missed out.

Sunday was fun/sad, but its nice to finally be back in the mountains. I get so flustered in the humidity which accompanies sea-level regions. yuck. I also just found out today that I have bronchitis, so I get to spend 2 more days without training (8 total). I will be vegetating in my kings size bed for a while now. Nothing like gaining back the 6 pounds you lost in february through one week of bed-riddenness.

Carpe Diem, before you get skunked on and bronchitis-ed.