what if you find your soul mate... at the wrong time?

    I'm watching The Simpsons, season 8, and stumbled upon "El Viaje Misterioso De Nuestro Jomer." It's a strange, funny, romantic, bittersweet episode that never fails to get to me. This is the best part:

    It's been five days since my tonsils were removed. Monday is mostly a blur, though I was with it enough to send and receive a lot of messages--I ran the battery on my phone all the way down. (My parents drove me to the clinic and back, and I stayed over at their place Monday night.) Tuesday, I started to feel a little more of the actual soreness, as the surgical anesthesia had worn off and the reality of my inability to take anything stronger than Tylenol or Advil was kicking in. I returned to my house and was apparently feeling well enough to talk a bit; I had five phone calls that day. I recall the shower that I had on Tuesday being one of the best I've ever had.
     Wednesday was the best day of the week. The post-surgical pain had abated, for the most part, and the recovery pain hadn't yet really kicked in. I even had company for a few hours. It's been verified: my voice is definitely different. A little lower, a lot quieter (that aspect may be temporary), and maybe somewhat 'smoother'?
     The next day was the hardest so far. Sore, aching, crabby as heck, exhausted but sleepless: it was a very long day. Lots of messages and a couple of phone calls, and an after-work visit (bringing homemade soup!) made it somewhat better.
     Yesterday was pretty rough again. I guess the theme is that anyone who thinks this is no big deal is deluding themselves--this recovery is contingent on breathing, talking, drinking, eating, smiling, sneezing, and otherwise moving one's mouth as rarely as possible...while also keeping it from remaining too still. I know that I'm rushing it to expect to be feeling better already, but I've definitely had enough of feeling this bad.
     I think I'm going back to work on Monday. Maybe not full time for the full week, but as much as I can get away with. This past week was sick leave, but anything beyond it is vacation time, and I'd prefer to use that for something good rather than to sit around feeling sorry for myself. If I'm going to do that, I may as well be at work (like usual). Unless something changes dramatically, I'll go back on Monday.

[the title quotation is by Lauren Kate, from Passion]