so far

• 21 hours from Edinburgh door to Schaumberg hotel door
• Jet lagging with a cold

things I am already grateful for

• the offer of rye as a toast option at the breakfast buffet
• pickles in my virgin bloody mary with lunch
• a cheerful attitude so eager and nice that you would think it fake if you didn't know better from customer service
• Nice Polish immigrant taxi driver who won a Green Card lottery in his 60s
• cold that hurts your teeth and makes your eyes water
• the immediate and plentiful water on the table as soon as you sit down
• the cute young French bellman who just drove me to Target so I could stock up on cold
• supplies, kleenex with lotion and a few sale tops
• the flat screen TV in my room, where I am going to retire now with my Target goods and my jam jams... only to resurface for my coaching class tomorrow morning

Good night America

tasteless

I've had the mack daddy of all colds since Boxing Day (that's Dec 26 for all Americans).

And I have totally lost my sense of smell. And taste.

All of my special post Christmas meals have been lost on me. The scent of the Scotch pine Christmas tree... missing. The world feels bland without it. My sense of hunger is weird. I am not craving anything. Nothing is exciting to me. But the wet wool smell of the bus or Mark's feet is no longer offending either.

It is strange to have 2 such powerful senses removed. And being a girl driven by nice smells and flavours, I don't quite feel myself.