A Crummy Few Days and One Glorious Evening

One of these pictures was taken by Kathy and one was taken by Andrea... see if you can guess which is which. :P

Well, that cough that I've been fighting won on Wednesday. By the time I got home from the hospital I was hacking something fierce. Thursday morning I knew the moment I woke up that I would not be going to the hospital. The first problem was I had no voice (as in no voice at all) and the second was that the simple act of bending down to pick up my socks sent me into a coughing fit. Oh yeah. As a person who never really gets coughs it was kinda novel... for about an hour. Then it was just exhausting. I spend the day in bed, feeling incredibly sorry for myself. Kathy had to go to the hospital in my place because, with every crib full of sick babies, Vera needed all the help she could get. Last week Kathy had bought tickets for her and I to go see the Oradea Philharmonic preform at the nearby symphony house. So I stuffed myself full of antibiotics, we got all dressed up, and off we went. (I'd like to add that Kathy did my hair in french braids around my head and I wore my adorable new shoes... I looked pretty fine, if I do say so myself.) It was absolutely amazing! It was in the restored symphony house at Oradea's school for fine arts and the musicians were very good. The piano concerto was played by a young man my age... wow. Just wow. (Why is it that all pianist, or wannabe pianists, have long-ish crazy hair?) Afterwards, a friend of Kathy's took us downstairs and we met the pianist, the conductor, and a few of the musicians. On our way out, we somehow got talking to this old man in the lobby. He is an adorable, old, Romanian gentleman. He was the conductor of the Oradea philharmonic for 40 years and has been all over Europe with various orchestras. We ended up walking home with him. The three of us walked down the street arm in arm, talking about music. It was amazing. He told us an old Italian saying: 'If you don't have an old person in your home, go out and buy one!'. He says that it's a pity he's old enough to by Kathy's father and my grandfather and that he wishes he was younger. :) Anywho, the evening ended with us intiving him over after dinner the next day (aka today).

This morning I woke up and discovered that my cough had transformed into the worst head cold I can remember having! Yippee. I feel fuzzy and slow and grumpy and sick. The only highlight when said old man (Domnule Raitiu) came over after dinner. He brought chocolate for the girls and flowers for Kathy and me. He really is the sweetest old man. He's going to introduce us to his ex-wife next week. I can't really describe him for you except to say that he is an true European gentleman. Tomorrow Kathy's church is having a picnic day in the country. I would love to go, but we'll see how I feel in the morning.