School & Pneumonia

Lately I've been really busy with soccer and I've also been running at seven in the morning for cross country. The weather here has been insane! One day it's freezing, then it's warm, then it's raining, then it's a foggy mess....anyways, you get the picture. Because I've been outside all the time for over a month now and the crazy weather, I've been getting sick. It was pretty bad on Valentine's Day and yesterday at the soccer game I had a random pain in my back below my left shoulder. When I say random, I mean random. I had no clue what caused it! I hadn't lifted weights in a week, I wasn't hit by a ball, later discovered there was no visible bruise, and the strangest thing, there was no problem in the warm-up right before. I left school a little early today for a Dr.'s appointment that would hopefully clear up the whole mess. After some examination, an X-ray, and some hangman with mom we now know that I have pneumonia. Specifically, Atypical Pneumonia. The symptoms consist of runny/stuffy nose, sore throat, fever, and coughs, most of which I've had. Basically I have a bacterial infection in my lungs. It's not too bad but I can't go to school tomorrow, am on a lot of medicine, and can't play sports until next week which means that I won't be playing in the soccer game on Friday.

That all sucks but that's not all that happened today. It just so happens that today is Ash Wednesday. That means, because of lent, I will not be eating beef, pork, or chicken until Easter Sunday. Technically, we're allowed to take a break on Sundays but I'm still considering whether or not I'm going to. My favorite thing about Lent is seeing if you can do it and keep your promise. The problem though is that because of how active I am, it's really important that I get plenty of protein in my diet. That's pretty hard without meat so I'm going to be researching a lot. I guess that means I'll be eating a lot of fish and beans. I also might start making fruit smoothies with protein powder. I just ate some yogurt, and guess what! It had 5 grams of protein! Also, my mom buys these energy drinks called Boost. It's great just like chocolate milk, and it has 13 grams of protein. Who knows, maybe I'll survive without meat after all.

Also, today I got my first finished ceramic from the kiln. In my art class at school we have been making ceramics (clay figures and such). It's so much fun and we're just finishing up this week. Here's a picture of my penguins ceramic. Hope you like them, I know I do.