While on CIPRO longing for a handmade strawberry daiquiri and mojito

I find myself a bit ill today and as a matter of fact for the last four days.  Unfortunately, despite my ever-constant travel vigilance, I got a parasite while traveling down under.  I will spare you the details of what the parasite did to my body. All I can say is that it hasn’t been pretty nor has it been fun. I was in an extreme amount of fear for about 12 hours. That fear has subsided since I got my diagnosis of a colon infection. It’s “icky” but could have been worse. Those are sometimes the best diagnoses one can hope for.

While in the hospital emergency room waiting for my CAT scan, I had to drink a not-so-pleasant liquid concoction that would produce a “contrast” for the scan. Yum. I knew I had to do it. So, bottoms up. While I was drinking it, I went to my mental happy place.  I visualized myself on Waikiki beach sipping a Mai Tai. Then I thought of the wonderful strawberry daiquiris I had in New Orleans in the Marigny section where they handmade the drinks. They pounded the strawberries and whipped up the drink. Something about that process just made the drink even tastier. There were also the beautiful and delicious mojitos I got in Cuba.  Such care and pride went into those drinks and into my belly during my Cuba stay. Ah, to dream of such drinks while in a hospital bed.  I was able to finish the “contrast” concoction.

These days so many things are automated and no longer handmade. Don’t get me wrong, I am not about to “poo-poo” technological advances. The microwave is the best invention ever in my eyes. I also love the washing machine. I remember seeing my mom hand wash clothes because we were too poor to have a washing machine at home. Hand washing is quite rough on the hands. Fortunately for me, I developed an allergy to Ivory soap. Thus, I couldn’t really help out. My poor mom and what she put up with because she loved me. I love the “out-of-office” reply function that automatically sends out emails to people letting them know you are away. Of course, many people ignore those messages and still get quite fussy when they do not receive an immediate response despite one being 10,000 miles away and 14 hours in the future. Automation can be alright.

Yet, my body under heavy medication is craving a nice handmade cocktail.  Besides Cipro, I am also on flagyl and its bottle very clearly notes I am to not drink alcohol. My doctor warned me twice. I just had to shake my head in wonder. Why tell me twice? Dude, I get it.  Anyway. I recall fondly the Mai Tai drink I got on board Hawaiian Airlines. I had a few of them to get me through the ten hour flight. It wasn’t hand made. Obviously, it was made from a mix. Yet, when my nerves were frayed it did the job.

Today, I have about 200 interviews to start coding for a project, while I am battling this inner parasite.  Yes, that does sound like a metaphor for my life at the moment.  I am old school and prefer to handcode the interviews but there are software programs these days that are supposed to help fine tune the process. Somehow, the joy of reading and the intellectual interaction with the interviewees is diluted by that software coding process. Yet again, there are 200 such interviews to code in two weeks. I suppose the software will be a blessing.

Hawaii

While I am coding away trying to find themes, I still will be dreaming of those handmade cocktails. Some things just should not be automated or pre-mixed. Handmade strawberry mojitos —ten days from now, I hope.