Horrific Realisations, Tremendous Glee, and More Horror!

So about 4 days ago I realised that in attending Dress Rehearsal on the 31st of January, 2008, I would be missing the season premiere of Lost. This was a horrible horrible comeuppance. I had been so excited, so enamoured of the whole thing, that I had completely forgotten about this *most* important show. We'd just gotten the disc set for the previous season, watched it feverishly, and were anxiously awaiting The Return (of the show and of the Lost-ees to civilisation--see what I did there?).

So I moaned about that for a few days and yesterday completely forgot about it again in my gleeful bouncing as I watched Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers THREE TIMES. Oh Dress Rehearsals how I love thee. All the excitement of the actual show, with very little of the stress. We finally got to run our cable in sort of real time and my, how the addition of 1600 people storming the field for the concert sort of puts some kinks in *that* process! But we got it done, and quite well, I'd say, for never having done it before. We were denied ninja hoods, much to my chagrin, but that just means that I have to get to the costume shop for some glow-in-the dark hair dye or something. I warned them!

**Oh, so here's about where you'll see me, if they show any of the prep. Right at the end of the second quarter, we'll start walking out onto the field. My group will be among the first ones out, if we are not very first. We'll enter from the Giants side, and hug the back wall behind the goal posts (Which, incidentally, are MUCH smaller in real life than they look on tv. If you are like me and have ever said "How did he *miss* that!?", lemme tell you...now I know.), cross to the Patriots side and walk up to about the 35-40 yard line. Our cable starts about there, and we'll run it to the opposite end of the field, crossing the field just past the 50 yard line. We've been told explicitly that the cable must not touch the Pat's logo, so it's likely that I'll be in that area keeping it off. Cord goes out, cord moves around, cord comes back as the aforementioned 1600 come rushing in. We coil it up again, and hit the field. I'm kind of standing back from the crowd, by the speakers on about the 35 yard line, dancing and cheering my head off (of course, we're warned that there will be hundreds more people just standing around on Sunday, so there may not be that much extra room there--I'll try be in that general area though, in case you're lookin for me). Afterwards we're hoping to linger on the sidelines for a bit longer as the stage comes down. They will be racing to get everything cleared off, and since our cable is already done we won't have much to do but wait.**

So, the final horror of this story, besides hearing that we *won't* all be getting ninja caps? As we stood around getting our final pep talk last night, my right eye was super itchy, and blurry, like I had a wad of translucent gum in it or something. When I got home, I checked it out again and found (stop right here if you're eating or weak stomached cos it's gonna get gross) a big ole glob of...mucous? pus? It was pretty nasty, and it was accompanied by a bit more that had sort of congealed in the corner of my eye, although I know I had "cleaned" that corner out during the pep talk. So my immediate thought is that somehow I've contracted Pink Eye. Dear lord. It would figure that three days before one of the most exciting moments of my life I find myself with a highly contagious and (more importantly!!) highly *unsightly* ailment.

I quickly got online and did some reading and my symptoms sure sound like Pink Eye. Itchy, red eyes, blurry vision, yellow to green mucous-y discharge. Great. Everything says "Treat It Immediately!" But hey, guess what? It's 11:30 at night, and besides that, I have no insurance at the moment. I was looking for free clinics online, but only finding those that are "urgent care"--they are open all the time, but still want insurance. I figured I'd resume my search in the morning, and resorted to looking up home remedies in the meantime. I found that chamomile tea bags used as compresses is one method, and I happen to have some, so I decided to run with that until I can figure out the doctor situation.

I scrubbed my face down really well, and washed my hands about every five minutes. Meanwhile, R was busy with the alcohol, wiping down every surface I might have touched. I was relegated to the spare room last night--just in case--so I got my bed ready while he disinfected light switches, the snooze on the alarm, and anything in between. I didn't sleep very well--a combination of being in a strange bed and the feeling of having a fully developed porcupine in my eye that I just had to let be. When R got ready to leave for work, though, he came in to check on me and said it didn't look so bad. I was dubious, but too tired to get up and look for myself. I went back to sleep for a little while and oh-so-carefully opened my eyes when I finally had enough. The eye(s) were *not* sealed shut, which was my biggest fear. In the bathroom, I checked them out and, while red and a bit "sleepy", they really *don't* look so bad.

So maybe I was just allergic to something yesterday? I'm keeping a close eye (AHAHA) on it today, and I have the chamomile tea bags at the ready--and I'll probably use them just because it sounds soothing. I'm also continuing to check out clinics and other remedies, in case it flares up again. I'll take any prayers or well-wishes I can get as well. It's a silly thing to ask for, but it would really stink to miss the Superbowl at this point--especially on account of a Pink Eye scare.