Wednesday, September 15, 2004

I'm siiiiiiiiiiiick.

I used to say that when I was a kid, pitched at just the right frequency to gel my mother's nerves. I'm actually sick at the moment. It's an early cold season here in Utica. The weather's changing. It's warm during the day and chilly at night. All the undergrads are inoculating each other in their dorm rooms. . . picking their noses and wiping them on doorknobs, desks, podiums. I'll bet one of my students infected my coffee mug while I wasn't looking. I knew I'd be getting sick this weekend. It was only a matter of time. I've been having a bit of trouble sleeping because I've been adjusting to a new teaching schedule which has me teaching 8:30AM classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with a 6:30-9:20PM class squeezed between on Wednesday. Anyway, I just got back from teaching a night class and my throat feels like I swallowed a hairbrush. It's hard to be taken seriously when you're giving feedback on someone's poem and your voice cracks in and out.

So I'm nursing my throat by drinking a combination of Echinacea tea, honey, and lemon. I regret being the son of a pragmatic woman, sometimes. I never got to experience a bizarre home remedy for a cold. Any of you have weird home remedies? Just curious.

6 comments:

bjanepr said...

o, sorry to hear you're sick :-( boo. anyway, this is maybe not so weird but try: either 1) boiling ginger root in water and drinking that all day. or 2) boiling ginger root, garlic cloves, lemon, and cayenne pepper, and drinking that all day. in the very least, you'll be ...ahem... fragrant. love, barb

Anonymous said...

While this might not be a remedy, it might make you feel a little better: hot water, honey, and whiskey. Always worked for my Irish ancestors, so they tell me. --Sue

Eduardo C. Corral said...

Love.

Oliver de la Paz said...

Awwww, Eduardo. :-D


The chair of my department recommended Scotch with lemon. BLECH.

Anonymous said...

Sake with lemon, Scotch with lemon, Ginger...it's fascinating that all of the remedies are culturally based and suggested, whether they work or not.

Rona Fernandez said...

My 2 tried-and-true remedies for the sickies (esp. flu):

1) Grate 1/2 inch of fresh ginger into a pot of boiling water; squeeze 1 lemon into a cup and put the juiced lemon in the pot. simmer for 20 minutes, strain into cup w/ lemon juice, add cayenne and honey to taste.

2) This one sounds gross but I actually think it tastes good. Heat apple juice until almost boiling. Chop up 3 cloves *raw* (important) garlic and put in cup. Add hot apple juice and let cool a bit before downing the whole thing--yup, garlic and all. Voiks like a chahm.

Feel better!--R.