Mono.

I'm veering way out of bounds here from the "middle-aged-chick-finds-a-veggie-life" blog project I started with. Please stop reading now if you are looking for a vegan food post today. You, my dear readers and fellow-bloggers have become an extended family of sorts. I admire your work and I love keeping up with your ideas and the enlightenment you experience. It's that enlightenment I seek today.

Wynne has been home from school and on antibiotics since Monday for strep throat. I've been on them since Tuesday, and feel much better now. Wynne is not getting better. I brought her back to the GP this morning where we discovered she also has mono. She is highly contagious for at least another week, so she will miss another week of school, if not more. She will also miss singing at a Fall festival this weekend and will miss doing anything fun tomorrow on her 14th birthday or on Halloween."Watch the tonsils," they told us. As soon as they seem back to normal and she can swallow, if she feels like it she can go back to school. She will likely feel exhausted for months, however. Since I caught strep from Wynne, I was told to watch my tonsils too.

Hans has had a migraine for seven days now. Yesterday, day six of this migraine, I gently encouraged him to take some meds and at least try to make it to school for a class or two. He's a senior in high school, and five college applications have already been submitted. Hans pulled it together yesterday to go to school around lunchtime, but was still a little nauseous and didn't want to eat. I asked him if anything at all appealed to him. McDonald's did (sorry vegans!) so I suggested he pick some up and eat it at school since he would be arriving during his lunch period anyway. As he got out of the car with his food, the Assistant Principle spotted him and told him he was caught driving off campus for lunch. He did not believe Hans when he told him he had not yet checked in and had been ill at home. Hans got so upset at the notion he would have a discipline hit on his record that his migraine came back in force and he didn't even walk in to school. He just drove back home and he hasn't been back to school since. I'm wondering what kind of pep talk will now encourage him to give school with a migraine another try.

I am able to put these things into perspective. We will work with the Assistant Principle to clear Hans' record (I had called his illness in to the attendance office that morning) Wynne's illness is not so bad in the grand scheme of things. Still, does all this seem a bit much to you? I have a creepy feeling the universe is trying to tell me something.

Yo, Universe! You got my attention.  . . . WHAT?

Oh, enlightened ones, any wisdom you could convey would be most appreciated. Thanks for bearing with me.