What a week, going on two weeks now. I'm not sure I'm going to recover from my last trip before I set off on my next one.

We flew out of Dulles on a Sunday night. Monday night we arrived in Bamako and went pretty much straight to bed. Tuesday night, I was still on Eastern Daylight Savings Time and found it easy to stay up late watching the election on CNN.

From Wednesday on I suffered from what I like to call "Election Hangover": Depressed, irritable, snapping at my spouse, alternately snarling and despairing. When the Daily Show didn't come on as scheduled I cried myself to sleep. I woke up each morning under a little black cloud.

Tuesday night I dreamed that the Mormons had invented a new kind of TV called "Mormon snow" that one received through one's fillings. Although we are not faithful LDS, even in our dreams, we were tuning it in. My husband was getting great reception. I was not, so I pressed closer and closer to him, hoping in vain to improve the picture. My fillings hurt from the strain.

When I woke up my teeth really did hurt because they were chattering, and I was snuggled up to my husband because I was freezing cold and shivering. I put on sweatpants, a t-shirt, a sweater, and a pilfered Air France blanket and kept on shivering. That was our first clue I might have malaria.

I went for a blood test in the morning and spent the rest of the day on the couch, sleeping, drinking Gatorade, and watching animal programs on my favorite channel, Planete. The lab test results were negative, but the doctor was fairly certain I had it, so she prescribed the cure, and we were pretty certain I had it too, so I started taking it right away. I feel much better today. Now if I can just keep my mind off the election ...

Update: I'm pretty sure I didn't have malaria. The lab results were negative, after all, and there seems to be some kind of 24-hour fever-achiness going around. Oh well, better safe than sorry I suppose.