Week 4: In Which I Am Either Sick or Social or Sleeping.

On Saturday I started noticing a sore throat. On Sunday it was worse, plus I developed a cough. I didn't leave my apartment again until Thursday afternoon. Was it the flu? We'll never know. I don't own a thermometer, but I did feel like my apartment was absurdly warm, and I kept my bedroom window open the entire time. But I'm no longer sick and my window is still open. So whether or not I had a fever is up for debate. Either way it wasn't fun.

sick 

However, as an introvert, I wasn't miserable, either. The Enneagram of Personality tells me the worst version of myself is essentially a crazy cat lady: a recluse who's scarily obsessed with a single intellectual topic. Reading that is what made me an Enneagram believer. Because I know in my bones it's true. The dark part of my soul felt gratified by those four days of sickness making it socially acceptable for me not to leave the house.

At one point during those four days, I watched the entire first season of HBO's show Girls. The next night I watched most of the second season. I'm ruminating on a forthcoming essay about whether shows like that reflect or determine culture.

Highlights of the week:
I finished furnishing my room Sunday, which was totally serendipitous as I spent the following four days without leaving it.
My friend Mo came over for dinner Sunday evening, which was also serendipitous as she helped me carry my new mini-dresser home from a Craigslist seller's apartment two blocks away. The mini-dresser (listed on Craigslist as a bedside table) now lives in my closet and houses my undergarments.
I FaceTimed my friend Jo on Monday. We talked about the intentionality required in the most meaningful friendships. A big part of why we're close is because we're both loyal, intentional friends. More than similarity in lifestyle or personality. I appreciate that about her.
I finished my training at Txikito! I also poured txakoli for the first time. It was scary but I did it without spilling!

I like this a lot more than the Southern Baptist church signs I'm used to. 

I appreciate how this cat seems to be appreciating these flowers.

Friday was a terrible day, emotionally. But I have my healthy coping mechanisms down pat: go running, eat chocolate, listen to Carly Rae Jepsen, find friends to distract me. I got drinks and dinner with a friend in town from SF along with his friends, and it ended up really turning my day around. I spent most of Saturday with my friend Kemper, who was in the city on a six-hour layover between Reykjavik and Raleigh. That afternoon/night I worked at the restaurant. I had friends over for pancakes this morning, then I met up with another friend at the Brooklyn Museum (which currently has an exhibit called Infinite Blue with all kinds of art with the theme being the color blue, and there were these gorgeous porcelain vases, and blue beading from ancient Egypt, and paintings including Monet whom I've been obsessed with since Paris).

We did not intentionally match with our wolf shirts.

Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party" at the Brooklyn Museum: always an inspiration.

Then I came home and took a three-hour nap, exhausted from all the post-sickness socializing. I am starting to understand why they call it the city that never sleeps. I still sleep, just irregularly. Also I've been eating hella irregularly. The City That Fully Disrupts Caroline's Circadian Rhythms.