Regan White's Ranting and Raving

Quote of the day

"It seems like if you plan ahead you should always win. But it doesn’t always work out that way."

~ Marisa Bass

Deep thoughts under H1N1 duress

It's a good thing that babies can't cry, giggle or otherwise emit sounds in utero, isn't it? If babies could make noise in the womb I have to think everyone would carefully rethink reproducing.

Best picture of me ever

Well, it's official. I have the flu and likely some kind of bronchitis on top of it. Yay!

When I'm well, I always forget just how much it blows being sick. My skin hurts and I pretty much slept all day from noon until 5:30 or so. Thus, I'm finding it hard to nod off now. I just watched one of my favorite movies, "Some Kind of Wonderful." God, why did the '80s have to end?

After the movie ended I spent more time on Facebook than I have in months. In the course of flipping through friends' photo albums, I came across what happens to be the all-time best photo of me. What follows are photos from my recent 10-year reunion in October. Both during the event and after, around 4 a.m., at a friend's sister's house where a kid I had gone to school with put his ass through a wall during the course of a handstand contest. You read that correctly, a handstand contest.

Notice the stark before and after looks when it comes to fair Regan. I began the night decently together and end it looking as if I spent all night with Courtney Love. The candy cigarette really makes the look, I think.

 
 

 
 

I was saddened to find that while I was in Boston for Halloween, upstart people cleared out Wal-Mart of all the rest of the "candy sticks." My supply of candy cigarettes is dwindling. I'll have to cut back and conserve.

Also, the boots you see a portion of above are my new favorite boots. I paid full price for them at Nordstrom which nearly killed me but I was in love with them, having looked for gray boots for a while. They're Frye boots and I was told repeatedly by the Nordstrom salesgirl not to treat them with anything. I know better than to not treat them, but I figured I'd listen to her. It was kind of a mistake. Some drops of water fell on the boots and gave them water marks immediately. It wasn't even raining out. The water was from a water bottle I was drinking from. That should have been sign enough for me to treat the damn things but I refused and went to the reunion where no less than three rum and Cokes were sloshed on me at Andrew Blair's once the dance floor was opened up to the non-Charlotte Latin reunion crowd. (You know, because Charlotte Latin alums wouldn't spill drinks. It's all the other riffraff.)

So apparently Frye leather doesn't like rum ... or Coke. Or any other liquid for that mater because the boots were permanently mottled afterward. Badly. I admit the rum and Coke was my fault for wearing them to the reunion in the first place. But the rain outside had been an act of God entirely. At my family's insistence I brought them back to Nordstrom where the kind salesgirl who sold me the boots told me how frustrating it is for her since this was the second or third pair of those boots being brought back and Frye specifically tells salespeople to tell customers not to treat the boots. I know she's not lying. The insert that comes with the boots informs customers to wipe soiled boots with a dry cloth.

I don't think a dry cloth can get out sticky stains of rum and Coke. And rain.

A new pair was shipped to me from a Nordstrom store in Michigan. They arrived yesterday. They will be treated before I wear them anywhere. I'm so excited. I feel bad for the marred boots I gave up. What will be done with them? How sad! We went to my 10-year reunion together! We took this oh-so flattering photo together. So, so sad.

Stay healthy everyone. By that I mean, wash your hands, take your vitamins and stay far away from me. xo

Oh, no.

Illness has me in its clammy grasp. It's not full blown yet. But I can tell the end is nigh. I've had congested lungs for two days. The past two days when I've awoken I've been full of snot and hotness (not in a good way), though I've lacked a full-blown fever. This morning was the worst so far. I awoke at 5:30 and didn't go back to sleep. Very un-Regan. Instead of showering, I got in the bathtub and sank down until I was nearly entirely submerged - knees sticking out of the water, hair submerged and fanned around me like a mermaid. A sick, snotty mermaid. I took to checking my work e-mail on my Crackberry in the bathtub. I have no idea just how long I was in there but it was a while.

Hooray!

Out of the illnesses swirling around our office, so far it could be: H1N1, bronchitis, strep with a cold, a viral infection or shingles. I've had some kind of weird itchiness on my chest that's coming and going but it's more lingering allergy to my laundry detergent I think. (I know I'll skim over this post and really wonder how it is that I could still be single. It's a puzzlement, really. What with the plague I have and all.) So shingles is out. Plus I had shingles in second grade at the same time as chicken pox. Those were some good times.

Bronchitis is a strong contender at this point as my chest is getting quite congested but I don't have a TON of head congestion yet. The chest bit is throwing me off the scent of H1N1 but my skin also is starting to really hurt. So it's anyone's guess, really.

My head is pounding so I can't really think straight and yet I'm trying to do what I can to get work done, fearing that come Monday I'll be even worse off than I am now. That's always a fun conversation to have with yourself: "I feel like shit."

"I know you do, Regan."

"No, I really feel like shit."

"I know."

"And I'm afraid it's going to get worse. I'm afraid I'm going to feel 100 times worse than I already do when it gets worse."

"I know. Buck up, do your best to think clearly and truck on through because you ARE going to feel 200 times worse in two days."

I don't give good pep talks to myself it seems.

Must run. It feels like my arms are on fire and there is work to be done!

Quote of the day

"I wish I could hug you over this thing! (Sent over a Blackberry) The Blackberry Hug. When you touch the screen it wraps around your finger ... like the Pillsbury Doughboy's tummy."

~ Tricia Prestopino

Quote of the day

"I wonder what David Bowie looks like these days ... probably like a skeleton."

~ Marisa Bass

South Charlotte Weekly Halloween

Not only am I remiss in posting generally speaking, but I didn't post this carved pumpkin before I left for Boston for Halloween. I'm a jerk. This is the only pumpkin I carved this year.

On gin gimlets

A haiku composed and sent to me this afternoon by a dear friend who's addicted to the tangy, fresh taste of gin gimlets:

Ever fleeting joy

  Will weakens thinking of you

     My lips taste of gin

   ~ Pete "Gimlet" Trontis

 

He's not a ninja ...

but that didn't stop New Jersey resident and Johns Hopkins University student John Pontolillo, 20, from killing a home intruder with a replica samurai sword. Pontolillo's off-campus house had been robbed hours earlier of two laptops and a video game console. When he heard noises in the garage after midnight, he grabbed his samurai and went to investigate. He wound up confronted by 49-year-old repeat offender Donald Rice, who had just been released from prison on Saturday. Pontolillo struck twice in what any jury in America will have to find as self defense. Rice's hand was severed and his abdomen severely lacerated, according to reports.

Some might argue that this puts my sister's alma mater far ahead of my own. Whereas in the New Haven neck of the woods we students might be caught unawares, in the wilds of Baltimore those kids are prepared. With swords.

My two favorite quotes from coverage of this story come from the Baltimore Sun. The first, from a guy who lived in the house with Pontolillo this summer: "You don't expect to hear that someone you know killed a guy with a samurai sword," said Diego Ardila, 19. "From what little I know of him, he wasn't some guy going out to kill."

The second quote comes from the Baltimore police spokesman: :The police spokesman said the student who wielded the weapon had no advanced sword training. "He wasn't a ninja," Guglielmi said. 

That, my friends, is some very, very fine journalism. People dream of quotes like that just falling into their laps - and recorders. Occasionally it happens. But rarely does one get the long-sought-after ninja quote.

Sleep well - xo

Who has a shady alma mater?

That's, right! Regan does!

My thoughts go out to Yale graduate student Annie Le, her family and fiancee.

Happy Monday, everyone!