It's all over. And I'm sick...AGAIN!

It's really over...for now.  I have a feeling I will be having to take that stupid test (at least a part of it) over again.  After studying for 4.5 hours on Friday afternoon, boy and I drove the 3 hours east to our hotel.  I really needed a run or to move my body because I had been sitting and staring at my book/computer all afternoon.  My nose was starting to stuff up and it was 10pm, but I went to the "fitness center" to get a short 30 minutes or so in.  Well, the "fitness center" was literally 2 treadmills, a stationary bike, and an elliptical.  To my dismay BOTH of the treamills were being used.  I wasn't about to give in and go back to the room, so I got on the elliptical.  I haven't been on one of those probably in about 4 years.  I don't even really know how to use one.  I just put the resistance on and went for 25 minutes, barely breaking a sweat and it said I had only gone 1.5 miles?!  Finally the women using the treadmills left and I pumped out another 1.5 miles to finish off my workout.  Went back to my room and was out by 11:30, making sure I had at least 3 alarms set.

My study station.

Definition of sick and tired.

Too.  Much.  Studying.

I woke up at 6:20, to absolutely no alarms.  I was so nervous, I couldn't sleep.  I got up, studied a little bit more before waking the boy up to go to breakfast with me.  I found out that the testing center was literally around the corner, so I felt a lot less stressed about time at that point.  I got to the testing center at 7:30 and started my test around 7:40.  I was super nervous and guessed on approximately half of them.  I tried to overcompensate for the poorly done multiple choice section by trying to write okay essays for the essay portions of the test.  I have a feeling I am going to have to redo the English/History portion of the test again because I seriously know nothing about history.  There was a written response question that I literally knew absolutely nothing about, but instead of writing nothing, I chose to write something so maybe they will take pity on me?  I was done with 49 minutes left to go.  My head was pounding and I could not breathe out of my nose.  I thought about taking those 49 minutes and going over the multiple choice questions or trying to make my essays better.  But I realized that would be a terrible idea because I would second guess myself and only make things worse.  So, I have to wait about 2 weeks or so to find out if I passed any of the tests (there were three).  I am seriously hoping I passed at least 2?  If not, it's not the end of the world and I can retake them while I am, hopefully, healthy.

Boy spent his time waiting for me at the hotel watching movies and then went to In-N-Out, which he knows I'm not a fan of (I know, probably the only person on the planet).  He came and picked me up and we were out of there, driving home.  I couldn't even think my head hurt so badly at that point.  We stopped at the store on the way home and got stuff for chicken soup.  Boy made me soup when we got home.  I ate and then tried to do a workout with my kettlebells.  That lasted all of 20 minutes.  I was so exhausted.  I stretched and used the foam roller, but I was even too tired to do that for too long.  Boy put on a movie and we laid on the couch.  We ended up watching 2 movies before I took NyQuil and passed out at 9:30.  I woke up this morning at 10!  I haven't slept until 10 in months.  Literally, I cannot remember the last time I slept past 8.  I was astonished when I looked at the clock.

We went to boy's mom's house, ate breakfast and watched V for Vendetta.  I only had to get off the couch about 60 times to blow my nose.  I was supposed to come home and run with my partner, but we both decided to reschedule as we both had somewhere to be later and no energy.  Or so I thought.  I told her I would probably only do about 2 or 3 easy miles (meaning slowly) and I told myself that too.  Until I got started.  I got on my dad's treadmill because it's super windy and cold outside and I didn't want to have to stop and blow my nose 9000 times.  I felt like I was on top of the world.  My body NEEDED to move.  At about 40 minutes, I felt a little bit tired and unable to breathe correctly.  At 50 minutes I knew I really needed to stop.  So I ended up doing 6.5 miles.  I got off and started wheezing because I was trying to catch my breath but couldn't get any air through my nose.  Bad, bad, bad Rachel.  I know.  But I do really feel so much better now that I've sweat.  Hopefully I sweat out some of these germs.

Making me some soup.

My entire family was at my mom's cousin's wedding, so I sent them this as a hello.

So I seriously have not gotten sick like this in years.  It seems I've gone a month without being sick and then I get sick again.  And it's not knock-down-dragged-out sick.  It's I-can't-breathe-out-of-my-nose-and-have-to-blow-it-9000-times-a-day sick.  That's much more annoying.  If I'm going to get sick, I want to be knocked down on my butt sick so that I can just deal with it and be better and that's that.  Because I have been sick so much this year, starting with that really bad sore throat in October or November.  I got tested for mono because I had all of symptoms, but it came back negative.  Now that I keep getting sick (and it's pretty much the same thing every single time), I am wondering if the test came back as a false negative as it often does with mono and I really did have it.  According to the Internet (which I'm sure is ALWAYS right), it weakens the immune system and makes you get colds more easily, even after the initial mono is gone.  That and working out a lot probably doesn't help.  Who knows.  It would be nice just to get a really good sickness that knocks me down so that I don't feel badly about laying around all day and then get better for the next 7 years.