And so it finally happened (maybe)

 It's 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, the doves are cooing outside my window and I am lying in my sweaty bed, having changed my nightgown twice. Can't smell worth a darn, joints hurt, coughing sporadically, temperature is currently normal after spiking last night at 101.7. My COVID home test came back negative but, regardless, I am sick and won't be mixing with people until the symptoms go away. 

I started feeling sick on Friday night in Phoenix. Daughter Laurie had paid for tickets for me to go with her and granddaughter Mercy to see "Stars on Ice," the traveling ice show that features US championship figure skating. She'd bought them at Christmas and one of the reasons our vacation trip was planned during April and early May was so that I could get back in time for it. 

I have a long history of going to ice shows. When I was quite young my parents used to take me to the Ice Capades in Montreal; it was an annual outing. My dad was a Mason and he was closely involved with a lot of Shriners activities although he belonged to a different lodge in Montreal. He would buy the tickets from the Shriners. Whenever there was a Shriners event in Montreal, be it the Shriners Circus or the Ice Capades, he would take me and my mom. It was always an exciting evening out which usually involved dinner at Ben's Restaurant for smoked meat.

When I was older, my friends and I also went to ice shows; my memories are hazy although Toller Cranston was one of my favorites and I know that I went to see him perform at the Forum. Memories are tricky things. Trying to bring back memories of figure skating, I get flashes, almost like still photos, of sitting with a friend at the Forum, or of talking about skating, of my being envious that friends were taking skating lessons, but, try as I might to remember more, anything else is obscured in a grey mist. I know the memories are there but they are just not surfacing. 

Anyway, back to Friday. Laurie drove her big red truck the three hours to Phoenix. I was sneezing and my nose was running but everyone has allergies here; sneezing, nose running, coughing happens year round. I had taken the precaution of checking my temperature Friday morning--okay, maybe I sound obsessed with this but I guess precautions have become rooted in me now--and my temperature was normal. 

The show was great. My favorite part was when the skaters performed a salute to Elton John's music--ahh, my generation! A lot of the skating music in the rest of the show had been pounding and electronic: still mesmerizing, the skating wonderful, but not something I really relate to. Elton John though--I was clapping and cheering. I managed to snap a few photos of the show; so grateful for digital photos that help me with my memory books:

After the show was over, my contribution to Mercy's Christmas present had been a pass for the "Meet and Greet the Stars" session. 

She was thrilled, I've almost never seen her so happy. Mercy rarely shows emotion. This is a kid who has gone through surgery for scoliosis and during recovery would just say "It's a bit uncomfortable." She has had blood draws all her life for a congenital autosomal recessive disorder that, thankfully, was caught very early. She is graduating from high school this week, will be attending the Nursing program at University of Arizona in the Fall. She's had her share of challenging things happening in her life, particularly in the last few months, but has had the support of a loving family and, I sometimes think, is blessed with amazing survival genes. Anyway, I love her to bits and I was so happy to see her happy Friday night.

When we returned to the hotel I felt shivery. Thought that maybe it was just because it was the change from being in the warmth outside to the a/c inside. But all through the night I had dreams of being cold. When I woke up Saturday morning I was very shivery. So I took some Tylenol, stopped at WalMart for a box of tissues and some Flonase and we started traveling back to Sierra Vista. I was glad that Laurie did the driving because I kept falling asleep. And then when I arrived home I took my temperature--100.7.

Took the COVID test, which was negative. I went to bed and drifted in and out of sleep. Woke up in the night drenched in sweat. As I wrote at the start, my temperature is now back to normal and I have been able to smell my lemon ginger herbal tea. So it's probably just flu rather than the dreaded COVID. But I am still wasted and had I been feeling like this on my trip it would have been nightmarish. 

So for today I am grateful that it didn't happen when I was traveling, that I was able to go to "Stars on Ice" with Laurie and Mercy and that I am now able to rest in bed, drink plenty of fluids and take cold medication.