winter is coming

And so are all the winter illnesses.

Oh, dear reader, I am fighting (what I figure is) the common cold. I don't know about you, but when I start to get sick, all I want is to be taken care of. Since I've moved away from home, I am the one who has had to take care of me. This has taken a lot of different forms in the past: early in my college career it was drinking absurd amounts of Juicy Juice (100% vitamin C, plus childhood nostalgia) until I moved on to the Odwalla juice that was more readily available on campus, then in Italy it was gallons of Earl Grey and blood oranges (again with the vitamin C, you'll notice a trend).


So when I woke up on Sunday with the sniffles, I knew what had to be done. I got dressed and went out into the gloriously-near-70° weather, trucking myself to the grocery store. Unfortunately, my beloved blood oranges are not as easily found here as they were in Italy, but my 5-lb. box of clementines works just fine. Better, in fact, since I am rarely in the mood for a full-sized orange.


I also got the only kind of soup I really genuinely like and would buy for myself (I know, this might make me some kind of monster), namely, creamy tomato & basil. This might be because it is a nearly perfect vehicle for animal-shaped cheese crackers. I'm pretty sure these are key to feeling better, actually, because treating yourself like a little kid while you're sick seems like a pretty good way to go. Plus, they are delicious.

And so, in lieu of a recipe today, I give you my not-so-secret cough remedy. I don't remember where I heard about this, only that one night when I was coughing so hard I could barely lie down, let alone go to sleep, it was the only thing that helped. And that is: drinking a cup of hot water. Just heat up some water like you're going to make tea, except instead of steeping tea, drink it. It works wonders, I swear it.