nineteen// colds

Apparently I have caught the dreaded cold that's going around. Yesterday I woke up with a raspy painful throat and snot-clogged nose that almost immediately transformed into a snot-dripping one. And oh, clarity, now I understand why my ears have been popping all week long.

Last time I had a cold I wrote this thing that I'll share if we all promise not to judge me too critically:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

She blew her nose clumsily into a napkin that already held her discarded gum and closed the seat-back tray with difficulty. Stuffed the sorry tissue into a crumpled cup that declared, in Styrofoam blue:

Our lowest fare guarantee, only at AA.com--
and in smaller letters: 
HOT! CALIENTE!

Lukewarm, she corrected the faulty warning, and fished the napkin out again for another damp blow. Cursed nose. She sniffed and stole a sidelong glance out the window, eyes darting, an imperceptible turn of the head. Descending, a dirty blanket hung like smoke over the low city, hazily concealing the concise housing blocks and well groomed trees. Was it smoke?

An inward shudder and she returned to her book, ignoring the chesty ache that was anticipation.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Anyway, that's all. The only other interesting thing to report on is that our toilet won't stop running. Like my nose, it's been at it for the past 4 hours. Well, OK, that's only partly true. After an hour I got fed up and turned it off, but just now we had to turn it back on again because some flushing needed to happen. But I can almost guarantee you that it would have been running nonstop if I hadn't taken action. Too bad you can't turn noses off with the simple twist of a knob.