Irritants and Comforts

I find that, when I'm sick, everything in my life starts being filed under two headings: irritants and comforts. And I start making lists in my head like this:

Irritants:

• Flying in an airplane at 7:00 in the morning while sick.
• Needing to be constantly hydrated while sick, but being on a flight where you're not allowed to take on liquids.
• Blowing my nose.
• Coughing.
• Ten-year-old children
• Ten-year old children who sniffle right behind me. No, not sniffle. More like snort. And it's not like they don't have Kleenex. Sometimes I can hear her blow her nose. But mostly she prefers to snort. Over and over and over.
• The most turbulent flight of my life.
• The smell of sickly-sweet gum, being chewed by a snorting ten-year-old girl, just as I'm starting to feel nauseous from the rocky flight.
• People who recline their airplane seats, when they sit in front of me.
• When someone sits in front of you and you can tell that they're just waiting to recline their seat.
• People in general.
• The lack of good broccoli soup in the world.
• Waking up from a nap and discovering that you're feeling worse.
• The realisation that maybe you should have a doctor look at that throat.
• Rain
• The state of not wearing slippers
• Unpacking. Which is for chumps.

Comforts:

• Bringing your own teabags onto the airplane. Hooray for sipping Dry Desert Lime while flying.
• The look of sheer joy on your husband's face when the airplane starts mimicking a rollercoaster.
• Being home
• Discovering that you have all the ingredients to make a good, hot bright green soup for supper
• Garlic
• Hot apple juice
• Deciding to ignore packing and watch a comfort movie
• The combination of a space heater and slippers
• Hugs
• Taking two showers in one day, and the second one being after a long flight
• Arriving home on payday, and discovering that you made your money last properly and there was always enough money for the automatic deductions and the cheques while you were gone. (Also known as: the discovery that you stayed on budget, even on vacation.)
• My own bed and pillow.
• Not needing to talk.

That's the sum of my life right now.