What a week I had. A wondrous week full of surprise and warmth.

A truncated timeline follows:

Thursday, July 22 – At about midnight or 1 am, on my way back from 5 days of vacation spent house-sitting for my folks with my sweetie I think I feel a bit under the weather. I figure it could be allergies (I’m not allergic to my parents’ cats) since I just spent 5 days in Stockton which is known for its dust, pollen, and mold, or possibly I could be sporting a mild sunburn.

Saturday, July 24 – I’m definitely sick. Fever, aches, desire to watch shows on UPN: all the signs are there. My girlfriend is on her way back to her house, too, to finish packing for her move this direction. After 9 days together it is weird to have her 200 miles away again.

Monday, July 26 – I’m home sick from work, the temperature outside is going to try to hit triple digits again for the third day in a row, and I have no AC at my place. Doesn’t matter, though, since my own body has spent the last 3 days dancing on both sides of the 100 degree mark. I’m standing in the freezer section of the grocery store in a T-shirt, shorts, and sandals and so hot I am sweating profusely. Advil and Tylenol are taking the edge off, but every 4-5 hours the fever comes back as the last dose wears off.

Tuesday, July 27 – I haven’t slept through the night in 4 days. I sweat through my sheets every 4 hours because of the fevers. At about 4:30 pm I get a call from my mom asking how I am. And telling me that she left my father. For good.

See what I did there? “Warmth” because of the fevers and “surprise” because my parents are throwing away what would be 33 years of marriage as of August 29. It was “wondrous” because I am full of wonder that I didn’t die from something.

I did lose about 8 pounds, though. It wasn’t all bad, I guess…

For the record, it looks like the 13 total days I got to spend with my fevers were due to a bad bout of influenza, a low-grade West Nile virus infection, or something similarly heinous. I followed all that that with a lovely 7 day chaser of strep throat. It was actually a shitty 3 weeks, but who’s counting?