Thank goodness it’s not swine flu

It’s not because of some whim that my blog has a new look. When stress catches up with me, I try to keep busy and, as much as possible, do things that require a lot of focus. Like counting pixels. And making precise measurements. And matching colors. All of which are part of designing a web site.

What was so stressful? Well, Alex came home yesterday with a fever. She didn’t even wait for the school bus but took a tricycle and came home by herself. You say “fever” these days and the thought that it might be “flu” is not far behind. And when you think “flu” that’s just one thought away from “swine flu.” The worst part is not knowing. It might be just an ordinary fever. The weather has not been very friendly, hot and humid in the morning then rains and cold winds in the afternoon, and the body’s immunities can’t cope with the too sudden, too extreme and too frequent changes.

And with the rains come hordes and hordes of mosquitoes. And you think of dengue fever and the stress over what might be a worse possibility is just dreadful.

So, I had to watch Alex. She wouldn’t eat last night, she had some soup this morning and, by early afternoon, I was getting very anxious so I tried to tempt her with her favorite snacks and meals. She wanted French fries, I cooked her a bowl of French fries. When she finished her fries, I felt jubilant. She had to be feeling better to eat all that.

As it turned out, the fever signaled the onset of a bad cold. And cough. The fever was gone before sundown and I really, really needed to get rid of all the stress inside my head which, I felt, had trickled down to every nerve in my body. So, I started to redesign my blog. I had gone as far as resizing the image for the header when I received a text message from Sam.

Sam: “Ano dinner (What’s for dinner)?”

Me : “Baka yakisoba. Pagod na ako eh (Probably yakisoba. I’m really tired.)”

Sam: “Yak.”

Me (getting irritated): “Eh ano ba gusto mo? Sige, stir fry. (Well, what do you want? Okay, stir fry.)”

Sam: “Hay nako! Midterms ko na tapos ganiyan ang pagkain! (Oh, come on. It’s my midterms and that’s the food!)”

I could almost see her pouting, lips quivering and near tears.

Me: “O s’ya, lamb biryani. Happy? (Fine, lamb biryani. Happy?)”

Sam: “Okay. Yes. Hahahahahahahaha!”

Of course, she would have eaten anything I had prepared. But I didn’t want her to feel that I didn’t cook something special for her especially since she’s only home during weekends. I feel bad when I don’t. It’s like not welcoming her home properly. And she knows it. And she’s so darn good at taking advantage of my weakness.

Yeah, we had lamb biryani for dinner. I don’t even remember now how I managed to cook the darn thing in less than an hour.