January 13 - Have I mentioned my super powers? I have them you know.......

The first super power I lay claim to is having 9 lives. Between being run over by a van when I was 14 years old, to the emergency appendectomy a couple of years ago, to the recent tongue cancer, it would seem that life is trying really hard to rub me out but I'm refusing to cave to the pressure. And hey, if I've only used 3-4 lives at the age of 43, maybe I'll live to be 90 after all!

My second super power is sometimes being a little too intuitive about what a person is NOT saying. It can sometimes be awkward and sometimes really funny. Most recently a coworker was at my desk telling me that he and his girlfriend were heading to Tahoe to see his family for the holiday and he was crabbing about how hard it was going to be to find a flight, how expensive it was going to be, and he was telling me what his options were.....and I just looked at him while he was talking and out of the blue I said "Oh, you're going to propose?". He stopped mid-sentence, his jaw dropped, and his face turned pink. I have no idea how I knew he was going to propose, I just got a vibe. The look on his face was priceless! LOL! Meanwhile, she did, indeed, say yes. :-)

My last super power is having an above average tolerance for pain. As with all super powers, it has its pluses and its negatives. An example of a negative was the emergency appendectomy. All day long I thought I simply had some bad girly cramps. It wasn't until I was laying in bed at midnight and everything was quiet that I took a close look at how I was feeling and decided that medical attention would be a good idea. I took a taxi to the emergency room and less than 6 hours later my appendix had been removed because it had perforated. An example of a plus was the kidney stone I passed many years ago. I didn't know what it was so I took it in to the doctor to find out what was going on with me. The doctor took one look at the grapefruit seed sized stone I had passed and almost fainted in front of me. He couldn't believe I had passed it without seeking any medical attention whatsoever. He told me that people pass stones the size of a grain of sand and they're at the hospital screaming for morphine. I remember being a bit taken aback. Sure, it hurt. It hurt for over a week as I recall but it was ignorable. Hey, maybe that's my actual super power, I have the ability to ignore things like nobody's business! Ha!

You might be wondering why we're talking about super powers today. Well, it would seem that many friends and coworkers out there have either had shingles or know someone who has had shingles. And by the way, it was great hearing all of the stories, I had no idea how common this was, thank you for sharing! And I had to laugh because I suddenly noticed a sign at both Wegman's and Walgreen's yesterday announcing that you should get your shingles immunization today. Wonder how long those signs have been up? I'm so oblivious sometimes. Anyway, my boss told me to let him know if I needed any time off due to the pain, a coworker said they heard the pain can be absolutely debilitating, Sammy says her MIL was taking a double dose of codeine and then sleeping throughout the days because of it. So, I just wanted to state that yes, it hurts. It especially hurts because some of the blisters are inside my right ear causing a constant low grade ache. Not pleasant. But luckily, I have this awesome super power. So no worries, I'm ignoring this latest development, moving forward with life, continuing to be a dating machine, and am happy as a clam. And as a bonus, can you imagine how amazing I'm going to feel 2 weeks from now once this thing has run its course and I'm back to whatever my usual state of health is?? Ahhhh, I can already anticipate the bliss! Something to look forward to! :-)