MOO COW!

I hate being a housewife. Now before you start sending me emails asking if I got married, I didn't. I have spent the last three weeks in Orlando, taking care of my mom who has idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. She is quite ill right now and is waiting for a lung transplant. So, while my dad went to Korea to see his father (my grandfather is more than 105 years old now), I have been here, making three meals a day, doing laundry, cleaning the house (well, putting things away), doing the dishes, putting out the trash, etc. Let me tell you - housework SUCKS! I can't even imagine having to do this on a regular basis! I mean, I do it for myself in New York, but it's totally different when you need to take care of yourself versus taking care of others. I have to applaud everyone out there who is taking care of themselves and others and a household. It's thankless work. But I love taking care of my mom and being down here in FL with the warm weather.

The one thing I can't stand about housework is figuring out what to cook three times a day! I mean, my repetoire is not that extensive. It's quite limited in fact. And then once you cook, you have to serve, and then the worst part comes. You have to clean the dishes, pots, pans, etc. Horrible. Seriously horrible.

I know what you are thinking: Michelle, you are just realizing this? Not really. But I have been sticking it in the back of my mind, pushing it down into a tiny, little hidey hole for years. If it wasn't for the fact that it is environmentally unfriendly, I would use disposable everything.

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At Swellesley, whenever you went to the infirmary with a cold, they would give you a small packet of gargle powder. Oddly enough though, I felt like everytime I went there, regardless if I had a cold, I would get a packet of gargle powder. Sniffles? Gargle. Cut finger? Gargle. Pap Smear? Gargle.

Frannie-san (also a Swellesley alum) had a sore throat recently and, when I mentioned the gargle, she had no idea what I was talking about. So, I contacted the Swellesley infirmary for the recipe and here it is:

Our "magical" gargle recipe for a sore throat is just equal parts table salt and baking soda.
Mix a teaspoonful with warm water, gargle and spit.

I love that they tell me to spit it out.

I remember one Sept at college, after taking my stuff out from storage, I found that somehow the gargle tried to run away and was open all over my stuff.

Ah, funny gargle.

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This week's horoscopes go out to:
Frob and Frussell, thanks for watering Sy
Fertischek and Frynn, you guys rock
Frim and Frethan, thanks for the grocery bag! Helps me be more green
Frandy - Welcome to the world, Frenelope ;)
Frisa D and her family - my sympathies

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Free Will Astrology
By Roby Brezsny
Horoscopes for week of January 10, 2008