Let me just say, first of all and for the record, I am not “sickly”. I’ve heard myself described that way once or
twice and it’s always driven me nuts.  Or
at least it drove me nuts once I got over being flabbergasted.  People who are sickly have serious ongoing conditions
with multiple complications. They are
people who have “compromised immune systems”, who always develop pneumonia… on
top of a blood disorder or rare genetic condition, who have to monitor themselves
and take a lot of medications all the time.  Those poor folks are sickly.  They are not just catching whatever round of
viruses the season has cooked up. 

Someone even once told me I was sickly because I was “cold
all the time”.  ?!?  Really?  As opposed to being hot all the time? Is that the definition of health?  (By the way, I was cold a lot until they put me on thyroid pills (my one true “condition”)
and now, damn it, I have to suffer the summer heat along with everybody else. Thanks.)

I do not have a compromised immune system.  What does
happen, though, is every once in a while my immune system just seems to get
really low (usually from stress) and then I catch everything for a period of
time.  (Usually until I figure out to stop pushing it and actually rest.)  This happened the first time when I was 19 and
got mono really
bad, as well as cat
scratch fever
on top of it.  (Let me
tell you, cat scratch fever sucks big donkey balls.)  In fact my doctor thought I was having a mono
flare up when I went in to see her. She
always does a full blood work up on me. She’s
thorough like that. And considering that
she herself had brain tumors a few years ago… who can blame her?  (P.S. She thinks I’m really healthy but that I
should take yoga.  Long story.)

Anyway, every few years this happens and it seems like I am
in one of those bouts. I also know that
stress with me always comes out physically.  I can feel emotionally together but if there’s
enough stressful activity going on eventually I’ll feel it in my body somewhere. (And yeah, that does suck.)

Plus, I’ve noticed those poor schmucks who brag that they’re
“healthy as a horse” and don’t catch “so much as a cold”… those are the ones,
eventually, who get really knocked on their ass by a virus.

I’m just saying.

On a slightly related note, earlier this week I noticed my
pants were all loose so I jumped on the scale… and I’m down to my pre-pregnancy
weight
!  Can you believe that
shit?!  Basically, three viruses in a row have
accomplished what I have not in three years. (Not that I was really trying. People to see, brownies to eat and all that.)  

Of course, I had to take inventory in the mirror. Stretch marks… still there but faded without
the fat pooching them up. Jiggle butt…
OK, still jiggly but not as much! And
look at those thighs!  I could not believe it… so I did the normal
thing and grabbed bronzer (and yes, that is normal. Tanned skin is the miracle that
magically camouflages all those lingering stretch marks and cottage spots. Or at least makes them look golden and happy). And, shaky and still slightly feverish, I smeared
that shit all over myself.  Until… behold!…
in the mirror I am once again… a bronze pre-partum goddess!! 

As fleeting as that is. 

Because really, how long can it last? And do I really want it to?

Because I must admit the boobage is sadly deflated. I like having boobs.  And now items in my current wardrobe – the cute
wardrobe I built so carefully after the baby – aren’t fitting. 

So sad… you know you’re really
a mom when you look at yourself in the mirror and think, “You’re too skinny! Eat something!”   

 the weirdgirl