Feeling Icky All Over Again

A multiple sclerosis ditty for the icky days

Not going to lie, September has been kicking my butt this year. Which is upsetting in many ways but one of those ways is the added bummer that I usually love September. Me and September used to be best buds! Not the September of 2024 though. Just as the dreaded humidity of the summer started to abate, life chaos ramped up.

Still, I insist on maintaining my humor and it is STILL very helpful in dealing with bad times. So while I may not be up for writing a new blog, I am taking comfort in an old one. A blog about feeling icky for when I, and you, feel kind of down and just, plain old icky…

I wrote this many years ago and the toddlers mentioned here are now happy, healthy preteens. But the ickiness is the same.

Happy autumn my friends.

I hope you don’t feel so icky. But if you do, I’ve got a song for you!

What is with me and show tunes lately? I don’t even really like show tunes yet I can’t seem to get them out of my head.

Just a few weeks ago I posted a blog based on the song A Few of My Favorite Things and now the song I Feel Pretty from West Side Story is lingering around. This is especially weird as  

1. I don’t even like that song and

 2. I really, really don’t feel pretty at all. 

On this family trip my get fit plan has gone right out the window. And, as during the packing for this journey my suitcase was too filled with toys for the little ones to add any of my nicer clothes, I am schlepping around in my least pretty wardrobe possible.

Luckily, kids don’t really notice what you are wearing. And while family may notice what you wear, they aren’t really supposed to care. 

So it doesn’t matter that I don’t feel so pretty.

So why is that stupidly annoying song hanging around my musical brain? You would think the songs that would be lingering might be Rockin Robin or Riding on a Train, both songs that blast frequently from two of the kid’s toys. But no, I Feel Pretty it is, over and over again…..

To help combat this frustrating ordeal, I thought if I actually sang the song, maybe it would go away. But since I don’t feel so pretty, I may have to change the words to be in keeping with how I really feel. So, on a day after one of my blasted shots, where the kids have a prior engagement and I am in a rented home with my mom who isn’t feeling well and my sister who insists on watching bad TV, here is my MS/vacation version of I Feel Pretty.

I feel achy, oh so achy

I feel achy and shaky and uptight

And I pity the person who bugs me tonight

I feel icky, oh so icky

It is sickly how icky I feel

And so icky that I can hardly believe it’s real

(Since the state we are visiting is on the west coast and it is hotter than it should be in December)

I feel sticky, oh so sticky

I feel sticky and sickly and tickly

It is a wonder if I will sleep tonight

(And since the state we are visiting is covered with cottons fields that we all seem to be allergic to)

I feel itchy, oh so itchy

It is witchy how itchy I am

A very itchy and bitchy ma’am

See the grouchy girl in that mirror there,

Who can that crab apple be?

Such an achy body,

Such tired eyes,

Such a lazy gait

In another state I must be.

I feel sleepy, oh so sleepy

So sleepy and weepy, it’s not right

And it isn’t even close to night!

(I actually did some research for my little song parody and it turns out, I don’t even have to change any words of Part 3 of the chorus for it to fit into my own little MS away from home song.)

It must be the heat,

Or some rare disease,

Or too much too eat,

Or maybe its fleas!

I feel icky, oh so icky

It is sickly how icky I feel

And so icky I can hardly believe it’s real!

Don’t worry friends, I just wrote this little ditty to do anything to get rid of this song. If my version didn’t work, the effects of the shot are starting to let up, the MS MonSter is starting to head back into its cave, and the children have time on their dance card to hang tomorrow which will be a straight shot of adrenaline and joy.

I don’t know that after chasing and playing and hanging with them that I will be feeling pretty tomorrow either. 

But I will definitely feel less icky.