Abcde BLOG

I'm more or less better now...I think.

I thought I was better yesterday and I was all ready to go into my afternoon job at the rare books library.  I'd gotten up and showered and forced myself to eat something with protein in it and everything.  On the way in, I thought I'd stop at the Uni's main library since I had a book delivered from the auxiliary library facility.  I thought, oh, I'll just pick this up and nip in to work.  I parked in the main library lot and by the time I got to the front desk, I was shaking and feverish.  Ugh.

So, I used one of the computers there to email in an excuse (I felt awful about it, but I could hardly stand up for the rushing in my ears), and then sat right down in the middle of the stacks.  *snort*  Unsurprisingly, I left with 7 books not counting the one I went in to pick up.  That tells me I'm well on the road to recovery.  And after I got home, I had only one more episode of sweats/chills/dizziness and things seem to sort themselves out. So, I'm at work today *knock on wood*.

I've realized that when I'm sick I crave certain books.  I don't know why, but when I'm ill I want to read home manuals and domestic treatises.  I've only recently realized this pattern and I was trying to understand why.  Yesterday's library loot consisted of Haunted Summer by Anne Edwards (the book I had dragged in from aux facilities), a "best of" Good Housekeeping from the 1920s and '30s, A Tea Lover's Handbook, a book on rural British cooking, a BBC tie in book on Victorian kitchens, Table Topics, Plein Delyt (a medieval cookery book), and a book on the construction and history of Big Ben.  Additionally, at home I pulled out my well-worn copies of Marjorie Hillis' Corned Beef and Caviar, and Rita Konig's Domestic Bliss.  Incidentally, if you've never heard of Marjorie Hillis, you might take a gander.  She's absolutely charming in a sophisticated "between the Wars" way.