In May, a lot of plans and ambitions were left by the wayside as I succumbed to sickness. It took me until mid June to start going back to work, and to start again going on walks with my camera and enjoying my environs.

What I’d Been Up To

I have much, much, much less to write about from June than other months. It turns out that it’s a lot easier to do a lot of stuff and write about it before you get sick, instead of after…

Sickness (Part Two)

This section continues the corresponding section in May’s post

In May, I fell ill with mononucleosis. Essentially, I had a high fever for a week, followed by nausea and weird rashes.

At the beginning of June, I was in the third week of being sick. I still had a fever occasionally, but more pressingly had a sore throat that bothered me enough I had trouble sleeping. (And I also had trouble trying to avoid swallowing saliva when trying to fall asleep, because the pain would reawaken me.)

Chelsea graciously took half a day off work so she could take me to a doctor. The whole thing was rather hilarious. Folks heartily recommended that I see an internal medicine doctor, rather than a family medicine doctor. Someone who was really qualified. So I booked basically the only internal medicine doctor that I could get to see…

And what did I find out, but that my doctor wasn’t that familiar with mononucleosis, because it usually happens in patients younger than the ones who visit me.

I got an order for plenty of blood work. And, after the doc took a look at my throat, a prescription for steroids in case naproxen didn’t do enough for my throat pain.

(As a result of this prescription, I was reminded of one of the other hilarious things about the American insurance system. My insurance is “out of network” for the grocery store pharmacy where Chelsea normally picks up prescriptions. Who the hell thinks to check for that?!)

I was still weak and tired, but the soar throat began to dissipate and I started getting my energy back. Since I could work remotely, it was straightforward enough for me to ease back into work.

By the time I returned, I had used up all of my sick days for the year, and a few “discretionary time off” days as well. And my energy levels were still low. Improving, but low.

I was happy a couple weeks later when I felt I had the energy to walk to Optimism Brewing from my house, and even happier when a friend gave me a lift home afterwards. I do not think I had the energy to walk, or that it was a wise idea.

Not long after, I had a few guests visiting from out of town. They had assured me they were fine with a low energy visit, even one consisting of sitting around watching Star Trek: Voyager. They were old enough to be my parents, so I figured they meant it…

Seattle in the Summer

While I was ill, the weather transitioned from gloom to niceness. The Space Needle received a new paint job, its anniversary orange disappearing.

A highlight, of course, was the Fremont Solstice Parade, which I wrote about already in a separate post. So check that out if you want.

Parents Visit

So my parents visited, and we had a pretty good time together, at least, when we weren’t stuck in traffic. I hosted them in Chelsea’s apartment, which was a great plan because mine was anything but clean. Unfortunately, though, Chelsea herself was away visiting her mom, who was having some surgery.

I showed them my neighborhood. We did some chilling.

I decided I was feeling good enough to take them to some parts of Washington that they hadn’t visited before, Leavenworth, Lake Chelan, and the Channelled Scablands. More on that later.

We managed to hit up some typical tourist sites together. We got the combined ticket deal for the Space Needle and the Chihuly Garden and Glass, and we all really enjoyed the Chihuly exhibit. It’s a nice space with some cool installations, though the majority of them are present pretty much anywhere else that has a Chihuly exhibition.

I also whisked them away to Vashon Island, a trip marred by ferry delays, but otherwise super fun.

What I’d Been Enjoying

Television

Having watched plenty of Star Trek: Voyager while ill, I eventually got past a run of good episodes, saw a few stinkers, and took a break from Kathryn, Chakotay, Tuvok, Neelix, Tom, B’Elanna, Harry, Seven, and Naomi. (Except, I did still subject my parents to an episode when they visited.)

Instead, I was eager for the new season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which I will call, “the only current Star Trek series worth giving a damn about (probably.)” The show is a prequel to the original Star Trek, set aboard an Enterprise under Jim Kirk’s predecessor, Captain Christopher Pike. It’s certainly not perfect, but it hits the spot, and successfully combines ongoing character story arcs with episode of the week storytelling. And god, it is nice to have individual stories.

With Chelsea, I re-watched much of Season 1, and it was as good as I remembered.

Music

In the early part of the month, I kept listening to my good relaxing jams. This cut from Jean-Luc Ponty stands out to me, because it also made excellent road trip driving music later in the month.

1. Jean-Luc Ponty - "Infinite Pursuit" (1985)
Youtube	Spotify

I love how the then-futuristic blend of jazz fusion and electronic elements brings to mind the Mario Kart soundtrack, with the addition of soaring, looping violin virtuosity.

I’ve found myself increasingly drawn to MPB, or Música popular brasileira, fusion of local Brazilian styles like bossa nova and samba with international jazz and rock influences. I had been listening to a bunch of Brazilian music in the car around this time.

Chico Buarque’s Construção is a fantastic album, the first of many Brazilian albums rotating around my streaming app. Many of the lyrics are intensely critical of the military dictatorship of the time. This track, a highlight, details the routines of a couple, where the man longs for a way out. A translation of the lyrics can be found here.

2. Chico Buarque - "Cotidiano" (1971)
Youtube	Spotify

Our third song of choice is another from the “trying to fall asleep, yet kept awake by soar throat times.” Haruomi Hosono’s Medicine Compilation from the Quiet Lodge may be my favorite album of his solo career, and has a surprising amount of variety and textures for being labelled as a compilation of ambient music.

This opening track provides a taste:

3. Haruomi Hosono - "Laughter Meditation" (1993)
Youtube	Spotify
Check out the playlist page for all the songs I've highlighted in one place!

What’s Next

July, obviously. 😉