i alluded to my sore throat in yesterday's entry. and i woke up this morning and, after a day of improvement, it was worse. considering that i use my voice for a living, i was quite scared. scared enough that, at 7:15 in the morning, i called a co-worker (like me, an 8:20 or so riser) to see if he could cover my (last) school visit this morning. thankfully, for both of us, his phone was off.

so i fought through it. lots of dryness. lots of near-coughs. a fair amount of pain. but i made it through the assembly. when i got home, i dug out my insurance information and began finding out who i could go to in the region. i called the ear/nose/throat specialist (probably should see a general practitioner first, but i'm getting nervous and desperate...by the way, this one was 35 miles away) and, alas, he was gone for the week. so i called another one and he was booked until the middle of april (this one was 40 miles away). so i called the first general practitioner on my list (i'm on a ppo...hence the 35-mile drive for a throat doctor), a doctor at what i thought to be a clinic. "we book three weeks out." crap.

so i go to the extended-hour non-emergency-medical-service-for-the-uninsured-or-poor-planners place. i get there at 10:25 a.m. i'm called in at 10:45. i do a throat culture. i answer basic questions. i return to the waiting room at 10:49. i finish the entire jesus issue of newsweek. (i didn't bring along a current spin or espn, and i'm done with the sports illustrated - having a limited social life has benefits!) i watch hunter on tv land. (what waiting room has tv land!?! not nickelodeon. or cnn. or fox news. or a local network affiliate?! TV LAND!?) i nod off briefly. i stare at the people who come and decide to leave. i make no small talk with my fellow waiters. at 12:25, i get called in. at 12:31, i've left the building.

what's worse than spending two hours in a waiting room and receiving exactly nine minutes of medical care? hearing that "it's not strep, it's some sort of virus... oh, yeah, your throat is red... yeah, here's a perscription for a gargle. it'll ease the pain. call us if it's not better in a week." (or perhaps, the bill i get from the insurance company in three or four weeks. that'll be fairly bad, too, i guess.) so i've gotten my throat spray, although i've not used it yet. we'll gargle before bed.

i finished a fascinating book last night, dave eggers' you shall know our velocity. very on the road in that it's a travelogue - but a travelogue rife with symbolism and metaphor. (note: i don't read much, so my analysis sucks.) anyway, eggers is a fascinating writer, and his stream-of-consciousness stuff makes a very breezy read.

anyway, a heartbreaking work of staggering genius had its "notes to your enjoyment of this book" section. this one's story began on the cover. alas, my cover was faded, so i didn't realize that the book was ultimately leading to the narrator's death shortly after the conclusion of the narrative.

it is a neat read, though, and i think it's worth your time. i covered the last 200 (of 350) over the last two nights. i've had many reading binges in my day, covering da vinci code (shut up, snobs.) in two-hour bursts, but none as long as a pre-great america binge on the firm in about seventh grade.

i gots to say, i'm pretty excited for the baseball season. i'm watching baseball tonight in about 20 minutes, and i plan to watch uninterrupted. no dishes. no magazines. just (i hope) karl and harold and a bit of gammons and some mindless pedro gomezness and some brantley ("all the cubs got to do is take care of things at home"...note: of course they couldn't last september) and, if i have to, some senseless john kruk. i love ravy though.