AUSTIN!

So I got some kind of CON bonus while I was sleeping, and I feel healthy enough to come see you this weekend. I’m not 100%, but I think I’m close to about 85%, which is good enough for me. I’ll just take it easy, stay hydrated, and save my action points for healing surges as necessary over the weekend.

I sincerely appreciate all the kindness from a whole lot of people who were understanding about my health. It’s pretty horrible how many people can’t or won’t see me as a person, and are more like, “SHUT UP AND DANCE FOR ME MONKEY” … hardly seeing that at all yesterday restored some of my faith in humanity.

So I’m planning to be in Austin this weekend for the comic convention with the rest of the cast of TNG, but I picked up something when I went to Seattle on Friday and it’s kicking my ass.

I have the stupid Epstein-Barr virus, and it gave me terrible mono a few years ago. My doctor told me that my immune system is weaker than average as a result, and probably will be for the rest of my life. I live with it by being cautious and practicing good hygiene, but all it can take is an errant rubbing of my eyes or nose with dirty hands for it to wake up and make me miserable.I think that’s what’s going on with me right now, because I’ve felt pretty lousy for the last four days.

I woke up Sunday night with a scratchy throat and stuffy nose. As Sunday turned into Monday, I got worse and worse, until Anne had to drive me down to OC for the FireFallFest thing I did.

Tuesday was a bit better, but I was still so weak and tired, I stayed home while Anne went to Book of Mormon last night without me (a real shame; I’ve been looking forward to it for months) so I could try to just rest and get better.

I woke up this morning feeling about 60% or so of normal, and I hoped that I was on the mend, as they say, but after a couple hours went by, I felt as lousy as I did yesterday afternoon.

For about the last three hours, I start to feel better for a little bit, and then I feel worse than I did before.

My flight doesn’t leave until 6 tomorrow night, so I have almost 24 full hours to see if I can kick this sinus/chest/cough/sneezing thing in the balls. I’m doing my best to get well in time for the convention in Austin this weekend, but it isn’t looking good.

If I were to list all the things I love about my wife, it would probably break the Internet. This post is about just one of them: her sense of humor, and the joy and whimsy she brings to our lives.

Anne loves to put googly eyes on things. About a year ago, she started this thing on Twitter called #VandalEyes, which is pretty much what it sounds like. You can see some of her favourites at her website, VandalEyes.net.

Until this week, I’ve managed to avoid being VandalEyes’d myself, but that all changed on Sunday when she looked at my awesome Captain Kirk shirt, and declared, “I have to put googly eyes on that!”

“Okay, but I’m going to be McKayla Maroney about the whole thing,” I said.

I don’t think she heard me over her excitement to make this happen:

After she took this, I remembered that I have an original series Star Trek phaser in my office, and, well, one thing lead to another:

I love that picture so much, I’m having a few prints of it made today to take to the Austin Comic Convention this weekend.

This is, in my humble opinion, further evidence to support my theory that being easily amused is what’s best in life.