Ok, It's Last Friday

So, as I was saying (er, writing)...in the future...on Monday...yea, that's the ticket. Anyhow, I woke up today just feeling terrible: weak and tired, my nose doing its best imitation of Niagara Falls (without those annoying tourists), my head threatening to explode.

I'm supposed to do a video shoot at the park at 10 with Jeff Gentes, a videographer who is putting together our video montage for the Cascade Land Conservancy's Awards Breakfast (where we're getting an award!). I don't feel like the organization's best spokesperson today. I could do a commercial for Kleenex, though. In fact, by nightfall my use of Kleenex will send the company's stock soaring (as a sidenote, I filled up two grocery bags [empty of groceries, of course] with used Kleenex by the end of this medical ordeal. By Sunday, my nose has a tough, leathery feel to it. Anyhow, the video shoot is followed by a 12:30 tour with the Advancing Leadership Youth Class.

I end up canceling the video shoot, but decide to forge ahead with the Hylebos tour. I can't let the kids down. After my own kids leave for school and work, respectively, I go back to be. By the time I wake up, at noon, I'm feeling like I might just be able to do this thing.

The weather cooperates and by the time the school bus pulls into the lot, its sunny and clear, if not a tad too breezy. I'm ok. I'm geared up in like three coats, long johns, and my pocket is full of cough drops.

The tour was pretty nice. It was actually really refreshing to get out into the park again and breathe some cold air into my lungs (take that, you Virus particles! Suck on some Hylebos Air!!). The students seemed to enjoy the park. There were a number of sharp questions from the students about the park and its ecology. And they put up with my virally-numbed rambling discourses.

Two things I took away from the walk. Seeing the plants - like skunk cabbage and false lily-of-the-valley - starting to emerge from the sodden ground and the dew on the different varieties of mossess, well, it was beautiful. And despite being trailed by 25 high school students, I had two encounters with Douglas squirrels (probably my favorite animal to see in the wetlands). That was magical.

Once I got home, I realized I had expended all my energy and I crashed. Later that night, I realized that I was lot sicker than I'd thought.