Holiday time

I had a lovely time visiting my family in North Carolina. I made my Mom open one of her presents early because it was a custom puzzle of their hometown centered on their house, and I thought it would be a fun activity to do together. My Mom, having spent most of her life there, was a fount of information on what went where as we assembled it. It was not a particularly easy puzzle so we felt quite a sense of accomplishment when we retrieved the final piece from beneath the couch.We spent a day in Chapel Hill with my sister and new brother-in-law and his daughter, who was performing in "Little Women" with her theatre group. The kids did an excellent job. Prior to the performance, we had a lovely dinner at Piedmont, a new restaurant that specializes in locally grown ingredients.On Christmas Eve, I did my usual gig helping out the choir for the Moravian Lovefeast service. I grew up in that choir and always come back to sing for Christmas Eve. Usually, I have been one of two soloists in a traditional duet, because the choir didn't always have two people who were willing or able to do it at both services. I've always sang for the late service (10:00 p.m.), the less heavily attended of the two, and less risk, I felt, of stepping on the toes of anyone else who might want a shot at the solo. This year, my Mom hadn't mentioned anything about the solo to me, so I wasn't sure if I'd be singing it or not. As it turns out, they have a new tenor this year, so the soprano I sang with last year was singing it with him at both services. The duet is really supposed to be for tenor and soprano, so that worked out great. The director was apparently worried that I'd be offended. Nothing could have been further from the truth! I'm glad to sing the solo when needed to do so, but as an outsider coming in for one service per year, I don't intend to take a spot away from a regular choir member who would like to sing the solo. They sounded lovely. My Mom thought I might want to sit downstairs with the non-singing family members, and I realized that I don't even know how to be a civilian in a religious service. Singing is just what I do. So of course I sang with the choir.We had a wonderful visit with the extended family (such as it is, and not all blood relations), then came back to Indianapolis for our "Christmas" on Friday with Stephan's kids and one significant other. I made my usual hot spiced punch, careful to drink out of a cup that didn't look like the others, because my throat was very sore and I had the sneaking suspicion I was coming down with something and didn't want anyone to drink after me by mistake (I'm famous for leaving cups sitting around). Well, later that night my temperature was 101.6 and I couldn't get warm even under the electric blanket with a flannel nightgown on.The next day, I was scheduled to sing in two weddings in addition to the usual Saturday evening mass. Stephan said I should stay home if my temperature was over 100. I was tempted to agree with him, but I called the organist and there was no one else he could get on short notice. Fortunately, yesterday morning my temperature was 99.something, and the sore throat had stayed up around my tonsils so I could still sing pretty well. I did stop by a "Minute Clinic" in the drug store for a throat culture just in case it was strep, but it came out negative. My blood pressure was somewhat high, though. Hmmm. I usually take Mucinex, an expectorant pill, to get rid of the crud when I have to sing. Well, Stephan has had a cough for a while and had a bottle of Mucinex DM, including a cough supressant. I took two of these in the morning and two again in the evening, the maximum recommended dose. Big mistake, apparently.Last night I came home from all my singing to find that the fever was gone and I really wasn't feeling too bad. Then I went to bed. The clock struck 11:00, 11:30, 12:00, 12:30, 1:00, etc. At 2:30 when I realized I still hadn't slept, I began to suspect that some medication I had taken was interfering. I can't take decongestants at all or anything like a stimulant. I was convinced I must have accidentally not noticed that the Mucinex DM had a decongestant. I lay awake feeling like I had had six cups of coffee and felt my blood pressure rising (or more likely, imagined I could feel it rising).When my alarm went off at 6:00, I thought, no way am I getting up to sing in church, I haven't slept. Then I realized I wasn't going to get any sleep anyway, so I might as well go sing. Well, today I have a bit of a cough and didn't dare take any more pills, so my voice was a little shakier, but I managed ok without any coughing fit in the middle of mass and my voice only cracked once. But after the early mass I was just so woozy feeling I decided to call it a day and go home. I did a little research on dextromethorphan, the cough suppressant. Apparently, "nervousness" and high blood pressure can happen with larger doses. So there goes another evil drug on my sh*t list along with pseudoephedrine, which I would not take if I were dying of snot.So that is the saga of Christmas and the Christmas crud which I will probably get over quicker without helpful drugs.