I'm back...I think

I've finished my capstone!!! I am still wrestling with the page numbering, but my fellow author, Elaine, tells me that putting in section breaks IS difficult, and that I'm not a nutter for not being able to figure out how to do this. I'm going to my friend Cindy's tonight to get her to help me...and tomorrow I have to teach fellow capstone writer Jessica how to page number with both Roman and Arabic numerals.

Now it is time to get back to work on my "Sherry" novel. Hey, if I've ever met you, there's a chance I will borrow your name for a character...but I won't borrow you. The character in the young adult novel-in-progress that I call "My Sherry Novel" and my college friend Sherry could not be more different. But I find it fun to pay homage to old friends this way. (I think Sherry works for Google now. I worked with her at the UCLA bowling alley. She kept trying to teach me how to bowl, but I was hopeless. Shout out to ya!)

But it is so hard to write if I'm sick. And I've been really sick lately. Eight days ago, I thought I had a cold. It got bad fast. Cough & chest congestion. Then head and sinus congestion. Pardon the gross details--I couldn't sleep on my stomach because my sinuses would pour snot out. I could feel the congestion build up in my ears. I touched my ear and nearly cried in pain. I knew that this wasn't gonna be good--but I was taking the maximum dosage of the over the counter cough syrup and decongestant that I had on hand (and pain reliever too). I should have risked my liver! The congestion in my sinuses and ears built up so much that my eardrum ruptured when I coughed--sometime between midnight and two in the morning. The pain in the ear, believe it or not, actually lessened. But my hearing is gone in my right ear. And it's ringing continually. I had not wanted to go to the doctor--I don't believe in going for every last cold, and flu is viral, which means that antibiotics don't work on flu...but sinus infections....I should have gone sooner. I finally went to the doctor and now am on a kick-butt antibiotic pill and also have antibiotic drops for my ears. I'm praying that as the hole in my head heals, I'll get my hearing back.

And now I can sit up again and write. And I'm getting really good about getting up early in the morning to have time to do it!