Can one digress at the beginning of a topic?
So I woke up embarrassingly late today… because I can. Actually, I want to get up earlier, but I can’t get to sleep at night until 3 or 4… so of course, my wake up time ends up being 11 or 12. So because I’ve been unable to breathe normally at night and just have coughing fits, I’ve been having trouble sleeping and so I wake up late. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
I lost my voice last week because of the sinus stuff, but I still held class so the ladies had suggested different home remedies (soaking eucalyptus leaves in our makeshift humidifer, which is basically a pot of water sitting on our heater throughout the night, gargling with salt water, eating lots of turnips). I did the gargling, did the makeshift humidifer, didn’t do the eucalyptus because I’m too lazy to go outside and pick the leaves.
Turnips I had 2 weeks ago when I first got sick. The Elahis had Bobby and me over and the Khanum made me turnips. It was so cute. The turnips were for my illness, but we all had tea and turnips. They also made me eat sweet lemons and oranges. And, the Khanum also made me a tea from a little purple flower that you dry and steep in boiling water. It’s called “khatmi” in Persian, but I don’t know what the English would be. It could be lavender… that’s the only little purple flower I know of, so of course, it must be the only little purple flower in existence on this green earth, and thus, lavender.
AliBob’s tutor’s wife had also called to ask me how I was doing and to suggest a few treatments, and my neighbor Mrs. MM also came by 4 mornings in a row when I was apparently dead asleep and drugged up to check on me.
Also, Agha Fazl also inquired about my health and he told AliBob that his doctor neighbor also wanted to know how I was doing and was offering her doctoring skills to me again if I needed them.
I feel special. Move aside Sharon with your paltry stroke. Here I come with my sinusitis. For a day, after reading about the bird flu thing in Turkey, I tried to convince myself I had bird flu; it just sounds so much more exciting than sinusitis... better ring to it. But no, just sinusitis.
It's annoying because it’s not typical for me to get sick like this and so frequently too. I’m healthy as a horse. A healthy horse, anyway. Not a sickly one with ribs all stickin’ out. Because unfortunately, I haven’t seen my own ribs in years…or any other bones for that matter. They’re safely blanketed in layers of fat.
But so far, this whole post has been a digression because I meant to tell you that, after waking up at 11am, as I sat in bed for the better part of an hour wondering what to do with myself (besides the obvious answers like getting out of bed, washing up, doing chores or any otherwise useful activities), the doorbell rang so I threw on my headscarf, my black overcloak “abaya”, and looked for my keys, unlocked our door, put on my shoes and ran down the stairs to the building entrance (yes, this is the process everytime someone rings the doorbell because our little intercom phone thing doesn't work) and it was Mrs. S, one of my students and her 7 year old son.
It turns out that she made me turnip honey and brought it over for me. Yes, let me say it again, Turnip Honey. So you boil the turnips, make a hole in them, pour in the honey and let it soak in there overnight and then put the mixture in a glass and put it behind the heater to let it warm up and then you drink it. It actually was *really* good. It was a tiny glass of the stuff. She said she'll bring me more before bed. Aww. (I offered to go over there, but she said no no, I'll just come.) She also declined tea and fruit. Am I a bad hostess? Do I give off a vibe of general ineptitude?
Anyway, her visit was a good motivator to do some housework and cooking.
I lost my voice last week because of the sinus stuff, but I still held class so the ladies had suggested different home remedies (soaking eucalyptus leaves in our makeshift humidifer, which is basically a pot of water sitting on our heater throughout the night, gargling with salt water, eating lots of turnips). I did the gargling, did the makeshift humidifer, didn’t do the eucalyptus because I’m too lazy to go outside and pick the leaves.
Turnips I had 2 weeks ago when I first got sick. The Elahis had Bobby and me over and the Khanum made me turnips. It was so cute. The turnips were for my illness, but we all had tea and turnips. They also made me eat sweet lemons and oranges. And, the Khanum also made me a tea from a little purple flower that you dry and steep in boiling water. It’s called “khatmi” in Persian, but I don’t know what the English would be. It could be lavender… that’s the only little purple flower I know of, so of course, it must be the only little purple flower in existence on this green earth, and thus, lavender.
AliBob’s tutor’s wife had also called to ask me how I was doing and to suggest a few treatments, and my neighbor Mrs. MM also came by 4 mornings in a row when I was apparently dead asleep and drugged up to check on me.
Also, Agha Fazl also inquired about my health and he told AliBob that his doctor neighbor also wanted to know how I was doing and was offering her doctoring skills to me again if I needed them.
I feel special. Move aside Sharon with your paltry stroke. Here I come with my sinusitis. For a day, after reading about the bird flu thing in Turkey, I tried to convince myself I had bird flu; it just sounds so much more exciting than sinusitis... better ring to it. But no, just sinusitis.
It's annoying because it’s not typical for me to get sick like this and so frequently too. I’m healthy as a horse. A healthy horse, anyway. Not a sickly one with ribs all stickin’ out. Because unfortunately, I haven’t seen my own ribs in years…or any other bones for that matter. They’re safely blanketed in layers of fat.
But so far, this whole post has been a digression because I meant to tell you that, after waking up at 11am, as I sat in bed for the better part of an hour wondering what to do with myself (besides the obvious answers like getting out of bed, washing up, doing chores or any otherwise useful activities), the doorbell rang so I threw on my headscarf, my black overcloak “abaya”, and looked for my keys, unlocked our door, put on my shoes and ran down the stairs to the building entrance (yes, this is the process everytime someone rings the doorbell because our little intercom phone thing doesn't work) and it was Mrs. S, one of my students and her 7 year old son.
It turns out that she made me turnip honey and brought it over for me. Yes, let me say it again, Turnip Honey. So you boil the turnips, make a hole in them, pour in the honey and let it soak in there overnight and then put the mixture in a glass and put it behind the heater to let it warm up and then you drink it. It actually was *really* good. It was a tiny glass of the stuff. She said she'll bring me more before bed. Aww. (I offered to go over there, but she said no no, I'll just come.) She also declined tea and fruit. Am I a bad hostess? Do I give off a vibe of general ineptitude?
Anyway, her visit was a good motivator to do some housework and cooking.
posted by Irfan Ali at 4:07 PM
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