Yes, Athens does have a museum! It's never open, but at least it's there. I love driving from Petersburg to Athens because along the road you see these HUGE white wooden signs with painted letters that say: "A. LINCOLN SITE 4 MILES," then "A. LINCOLN SITE 2.5 MILES," then "A. LINCOLN SITE 1 MILE." Then you finally arrive in Athens at said "A. LINCOLN SITE" aka the Long Nine Museum. But it's not open. Abraham Lincoln also surveyed some of the roads in town, and there is an old house here that used to be a tavern where supposedly Abraham Lincoln would stay when he came to town. One of the ladies Greg works with claims to have a potty chair that Lincoln used, but that sounds a little fishy to me. I have two new jobs. Unfortunately I won't get paid for either of them, but supposedly they will build my character and my resume. I am now officially a member of the Athens Public Library Board of Trustees! So I will be attending the monthly board meetings, making decisions about the library, and probably volunteering in the local history research room at the library. My second job is the editor of the Historical Administration Program Association newsletter. Basically the HAPA is the EIU Historical Administration alumni club. In March the annual HAPA symposium will take place in Charleston which will surely mean good times for all. So these things should keep me out of trouble until I find a job that pays real money.
The historic House session is officially underway this morning to finally impeach Blago. A House committee voted 21-0 last night to impeach the governor, and today the entire House is going to vote on the matter. If the vote passes, which it should, then the Senate will vote on it, and it will be a done deal. Then hopefully he will be removed from office for real--since being arrested by the FBI didn't seem to do the trick. There is waaaaaaaaay too much drama here in Illinois! There is a funny article in the paper this morning about what it's really like to stay at the vacant Governor's Mansion in Springfield. One of Blago's Chicago lawyers said he was "insulted" to have to stay at the executive mansion when he came to Springfield for business. Said lawyer complained that he was forced to sleep in a "2 x 4 bed" in a "small, drafty room." What treachery! So one of the State Journal-Register columnists went to the mansion to investigate.
This is the "small, drafty room," also known as the Lincoln Room, and the "2 x 4 bed" is actually a 4' 8" x 6' 7" antique bed that was owned by Abraham Lincoln. He purchased it to use when he returned to Springfield from Washington. The columnist described the bed as "lush" and "comfortable." Basically, the attitude of Blago's lawyer perfectly illustrates how Blago and his people perceive their state capital. They don't like it, and they don't care about its history. They will probably like Springfield even less after Blago is impeached!!! Hahahahahahahaha!
Well, it could have been worse--if it was 1918 during the infamous flu pandemic, it would have definitely been worse. But it was pretty bad. I felt like I was going to die. I have never ever ever ever been that sick before. On Saturday morning I woke up at about 4:00 with a bit of a stomach ache. At 6:00 a.m. the first bout of nausea hit, and I threw up. It quickly went downhill from there. I was getting very sick about every 20 minutes. Greg went to get me some Gatorade and medicine, but unfortunately everything I put into my mouth came back out one way or another. I have honestly never felt that gross before. Greg took me into Springfield to the insta-care clinic, but insta-care wasn't so "insta" that morning. They said it would be a three hour wait, and I told Greg that I couldn't survive for another three hours. So we went to the Memorial Hospital ER. We had to wait for a little while there, but not for three hours. While we were waiting, I told the nurse that I needed to go to the bathroom, so she sent another nurse with me to get a sample of my bowels. All I can say is that I feel really, really, really, really sorry for that poor nurse. I bet that was her worst day of work ever. I went back out to the waiting area, but then I started feeling really nauseous, so I took my little garbage bag and stepped outside to throw up. I was soooooo thirsty, and I asked the nurse if I could please have just a little sip of water. She said they didn't want me to drink anything yet, but she would see if she could bring me a little something. But she never brought me anything :-( They finally called us back, and they had me get into a hospital gown and told me that they were going to draw some blood and hook me up to an IV--two of my least favorite things. I told them that the last time I had blood drawn I passed out, so they had me lay down, and I didn't pass out. They told me that they had to hook me up to an IV to get me re-hydrated and to give me some anti-nausea medicine. Even the thought of an IV makes me nauseous, but I couldn't have been more nauseous than I already was, so even though I didn't like it, I survived the IV. I asked the doctor if I could have something to drink and she said she would bring me some Sierra Mist. That sounded good, but it was about two hours before I got my Sierra Mist :-( The anti-nausea medicine was making me really loopy, and I kept asking Greg the same questions over and over again. The first IV bag finally emptied itself, and I thought we could go home, but then they took my blood pressure, determined it was too low, and hooked up another IV bag. Then I fell asleep for a while. At one point the records man came in to get our insurance information. He said, "Are you Tiffany Bowels?" Greg said, "No, it's Bowles." The guy said, "Oh, I'm so sorry." I said, "Whatever, it might as well be Bowels today." We were finally able to leave the hospital at 4:00 after being there for about six hours.
