Living the Dream with Joyce: April 12th

Thursday - my birthday! Julia left me an audio message Wednesday evening, singing Happy Birthday to me! She and Leon are in England, where she says it's midnight her time, therefore my birthday . . . Spent most of the day chatting with Bobby, Gregory & Anna (pretty awesome having those two sing the birthday song!), and Cheryl - great to talk to friends and family on this day! This evening was our dress rehearsal (upcoming NICS concerts this weekend) - and Kathy got the whole choral society to sing Happy Birthday to me - pretty sweet! Laurie drove me home, and she took me to her house first for a piece of birthday cake, complete with candle, and a glass of wine!! Her house is absolutely awesome - massive wooden doors and posts (I`m sure there`s a better name for these), open concept, second floor balcony area open to the first floor - Laurie`s husband designed and built it - so impressive!!
Friday I felt just a bit off - but the concert seemed to go fine - we got a standing ovation and lots of good comments from the audiences, which pretty much filled the Courtenay United Church.
Saturday I woke up with a scratchy throat and ended up mouthing a number of notes during the afternoon concert.
Sunday I woke up with literally no voice at all - but by church time, I had enough voice to get through the service. Went to bed for the afternoon, running a temperature and feeling like crap - had to contact Helen and Judy to cancel tomorrow`s excursion to Powell River. Had it all organized: Barb was going to drive me to the 9:30 a.m. ferry and they were going to meet me on the other side at 11:00 - Judy had booked a hotel for us for the night, then back Tuesday morning. Besides the fact that I feel terrible, I really couldn`t expose the two of them to this bug - especially since I`m running a fever and am undoubtedly contagious! What a disappointment!
Monday I spent in bed - Helen and Judy phoned, which was awesome! They did some hiking and had a good time in Powell River anyway. Tuesday - also in bed.
Wednesday, I took my rig in to Courtenay for my 10:00 a.m. appointment with Sunwest RV Repair place - while changing a bulb in the back a few weeks ago, a guy found a lot of moisture, so this was my appointment to have that examined! Turns out, all the seals around the windows and frame are old, dry, cracked, and need to be redone. That required an overnight stay for drying purposes - so I ended up spending the night in a nearby Best Western - too bad I didn`t do some research - $150 for one night! It was a good time, though - since I felt so crappy, I just lay in bed, watched tv, and soaked in a hot bath! Picked up my rig the next day at noon, in plenty of time to go grocery shopping at Walmart and get home in time to be picked up for choir practice. Not much volume to my voice tonight, but at least I could get the notes out! Sunday is walk-to-church day, so since Barb is sick and Doug is riding his bicycle to church, Paul is going to come pick me up. I`m looking forward to the opportunity to talk to him.
Friday - another day inside feeling quite miserable.
Saturday - today - actually walked over to the ocean for an hour or so this afternoon - first time in a week that I`ve felt like doing that! Hopefully, this bug is on the way out, finally!