(no subject)

I woke this morning with a headache that I haven’t quite managed to get rid of. I took Ativan (because it might be trip related anxiety) and Amerge (because it was definitely migraine-ish). It might also relate to the weather. I heard thunder right for a couple of hours this morning. I just can’t seem to kick this one.

Scott is worried that he will get sick because he often does during his vacations. He thinks that suddenly not being sleep deprived signals his body that it can afford to be sick.

I’m going to work at getting Scott to bed by 10:00 on work nights. It will mean prodding and nagging which I hate doing, but apparently he can’t do it himself in spite of wanting to or, at least, saying he wants to.

I got Cordelia to talk to me about possible shopping destinations. Water Tower Place didn’t appeal to her at all. Her main objection was the lack of a book store. Neither of the other options seem to have a book store, either, but they do have stores that carry things she won’t see at our local mall. I think her interest in Navy Pier is more or less nostalgia because she had a lot of fun there when Scott’s brother’s family lived in Chicago (she and her cousin can’t have been older than about six). All of the things that I told her about that are there, she kind of went 'Eh' to (except the candy store), but she still wants to go. She’s very enthusiastic about the idea of Chinatown because the photographs online are very colorful and full of things that she’s not going to see in Ann Arbor.

Scott and I are thinking that they’ll start Monday with Willis Tower then go to Navy Pier and then to Chinatown. If I can manage the anxiety/agoraphobia, I will join them in Chinatown, and we’ll find dinner before going back to the hotel. I’m not entirely sure about paying admission to Navy Pier entirely for nostalgia and a candy store, but… Yeah.

Cordelia doesn’t actually care about the museums (or says she doesn’t). Scott wants to go to Science and Industry because it’s been his favorite since he was very, very small. I want to go to Field because I want to see the terracotta warriors exhibit (which costs extra). Both museums are big enough that it’s impossible to see everything in a day even if you’re there from open to close. I’m trying to figure out if we should try to do both museums or just one or the other. If we do just one, I’m inclined to go for Science and Industry because, for me, seeing a museum exhibit isn’t really all that different from seeing photographs. I can’t touch anything either way, so there’s the same level of distance and the same tendency for what I see to vanish into a kind of cotton wool memory where I know I saw it but don’t really remember the sight.

Scott needs to do several things today so that we can leave on time tomorrow. We have to pick up library holds. We need travel food and hotel room food. We need portable recharger thingies for our phones. I can’t do any of that without him to drive.

I need to dig out suitcases (I wrote yesterday. I didn’t actually do anything useful). Now that we have a plan for Monday, I have to print directions. Scott’s planning to get an app for finding directions on the fly, but he can’t tell which one is the official app and refuses to go to the the CTA website in order to identify it. I have no idea what that refusal has to do with. Is it like the old 'If you ask for directions, you lose,' thing?

I’ve got enough clean clothes to pack without needing to do laundry, so I should be able to start. Cordelia has packed everything except what she needs to get through today and tomorrow morning. I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to take all of my medication bottles or just count out enough to get through the trip. The bottles are a PITA, and I would have to leave them in our hotel room. I don’t think anyone would steal any of my meds. People don’t go wild for anti-reflux meds or for singulair or what have you. The bottles are also evidence that the medication is legitimately prescribed. But, really, would anybody think I had levothyroxine for some other reason? I think Wellbutrin is the most likely, of any of my meds, to be abusable, but that’s purely a guess.

Let’s see… The trash has to go out. It’s already a bit stinky. I can’t imagine what it would be like by Wednesday. I should probably pull things that will go bad out of the fridge and toss them before I take out that trash. I’ll run the dishwasher tomorrow morning, whether it’s full or not, because I’m not willing to leave dirty dishes in there for days.

Oh, great. The mail just arrived, and I’ve got a largish packet from Social Security. They want me to prove that I’m still disabled. I think I’d be better able to deal with this if I didn’t have a headache and wasn’t trying to put together a vacation plan. They want a list of every doctor/medical professional I’ve seen in the last year. I hope I can pull that list together. It will probably help that all but one of them is part of the UMHS.

(no subject)

I’ve got some packing done, almost all of my clothes and an assortment of dishes, cutlery, and canned goods. I’ve packed the medications that we might need on the trip but won’t need before we leave.

Scott did the grocery shopping. I asked for canned fruit and canned vegetables, and he got like five cans of vegetables and no fruit (we have two cans of fruit in the cupboard) which I think is kind of the opposite of the correct proportions in terms of what our family will eat. I had him get some Coca-Cola because I don’t know that I want to deal with trying to make coffee that will please me while we’re at the hotel.

I think Scott and I have very different ideas about food for this trip. He thinks that, with one loaf of bread, we can all three eat two sandwiches a day, Sunday through Wednesday, and be fine. I don’t think I can do that without just stopping eating by some time on Tuesday.

We made it to the library to pick up the audiobooks I had on hold. It was incredibly crowded downtown, bumper to bumper traffic all the way down Division and Broadway and hordes of people walking along the sidewalks, and it took us twice as long to get home as it normally would. Scott got stuck in a turn lane as we headed down Division, so we had to go around the Farmer’s Market in order to get back to the street we needed to be on.

The audiobooks are The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken, Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine, and How They Choked by Georgia Bragg. Another audiobook came in, but that's for me rather than for the family to listen to on the trip. I think Scott and I might like trying Ancillary Justice, but I'm pretty sure Cordelia would rebel.

Right now, I want to nap, but I need to do more packing. I also need to shower and then pack the shower stuff. I’ve had some things I want to take laid out on the couches in the living room, but Scott keeps moving them and piling other things (that we’re not taking) on top of them, so I’m going to have make extra sure I find everything and actually get it to the car.

Scott thinks we’re actually going to go out and do something after we reach the hotel tomorrow. I think he’s dreaming. I also can’t think of what on earth we would want to do that we could start at 4:00 or 5:00. I had thought we’d stay and the hotel and that Scott and Cordelia would swim and we’d all relax. Maybe we could watch a DVD on my laptop or something.

The idea of doing something after checking out of the hotel on Wednesday but before heading home makes more sense to me. Scott says that he thinks Cordelia will enjoy the Field Museum more than the Museum of Science and Industry and that he likes the idea of having the planetarium and aquarium right there if we get bored with the Field Museum. Maybe we can do Science and Industry on Wednesday. I’d hate for Scott to miss it altogether, and I very much want to try to get Cordelia to be interested in science enough to be (at the very least) scientifically literate.

I haven’t started printing directions yet. I will likely do that while we watch whatever movie Cordelia picks out for tonight. We’ll see.

(no subject)

The odors from Scott's cooking have driven me out of the living room. Onions and broccoli aren't good with an odor sensitive headache with nausea. I think he thought my headache was gone. I'm in our bedroom with an open tube of Bengay shoved right up to my nose.