I l I live on chocolate. I could live on chocolate. It's its own food group. Welcome to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life? That you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulting while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. Today, I want to update you on my progress with my COVID recovery and also talk about an only child topic that I've been thinking about this week being gullible, which I think is something that a lot of only children might struggle with. First, let's talk about COVID. Now, if you listened last week, you know that I did come down with COVID. And for the most part, um it's been kind of frustrating. I didn't think that I had it. I went to urgent care, I was pretty sick. Went to urgent care, they did a swab, and they came in and said that I had COVID. And um I I consider myself lucky that I was able to get a prescription for Paxlovid. Uh, and then I pulled the trigger on the whole, you know, going to urgent care uh pretty quickly in my um illness uh arc, if you will. And so I think the Paxlovid really helped me to recover to a point that was not where I felt like I was gonna die. But the cough and the phlegm in my um chest, I guess, my throat, not my throat, but really my lungs, I guess, continues to linger. Uh my appetite is kind of non-existent. I f I kind of reckon it to when I was on Fen-phen many, many years ago, decades ago. Um Fen-phen was a diet drug combination that uh was short-lived, but it was the only time in my life when I didn't feel controlled by food, and which was wonderful. And I had to remind myself to eat. And the first week or so I was only eating 600 calories a day, which obviously wasn't enough, but I was also amped up because let's face it, it was amphetamines. So it gave you a lot of energy. Um, I don't I don't have the energy part now, but I don't really food doesn't seem attractive to me. I also, this is mind-blowing to me. I also haven't had chocolate in like two weeks because I just I haven't felt like it, which I question, am I still myself? Because, you know, I love chocolate. Usually I I live on chocolate. I could live on chocolate. Um, it's its own food group. I would laugh at that last statement. I would laugh through this whole thing, but if I laugh, then I'm gonna start coughing again. So it's I can't really watch anything really funny yet because I'll start laughing and then I'll start coughing and I can't breathe. And not because I my throat is clogged up or because I'm having like an asthma attack, but just because I'm coughing so much that it's uncomfortable. So I try not to laugh, which is also really frustrating. Anyway, so no chocolate for two weeks because I'm not craving it, I'm not thinking about it. And you'll say, well, because it's been two weeks since you've had it, and yes, it is a legal drug, chocolate, but and sugar, just in general, I haven't really had any sugar. I've had a little bit of fruit, which obviously is sugar, but um I I just like I'm thinking, well, maybe I don't want to have any chocolate. Like I know I need to lose weight, so maybe this is a good thing. Um, I've been eating minimally. I just I just wait until I'm hungry, and then I eat something. Um we've my husband and I have basically been eating the same thing. Um, no, no dairy, no cheese. You know, um, we've been eating like chicken wonton soup. Been eating a lot of soup, and we've been eating basically Chinese food. Um, there's this Chinese restaurant that's in the neighborhood, and they'll make stuff without salt, and it's very healthy, and they deliver, it's very, they're very sweet. We love them. So that's basically what we've both been eating. Um, not that he's sick, he feels better, but we still both have like this chest congestion, and our voices both sound weird. Anyway, so that's where I am with that. And my energy level is not up to par. Um, the dog, our dog is very disappointed in me because I I can now take her out for a walk, but it's not anywhere near the length of time or the distance that she's happy with. And we get to a certain point, like down at the corner, and I want to turn around, and she looks at me like, are you kidding? Like, we're not going any further, we're going home, and then we get up to the front door and she's ready to go back out. And I it's heartbreaking because I just don't feel like I can really, you know, take her out that long, also because my body has been used to resting more, and so everything hurts. So there's that. Um, and maybe that's part of just having COVID. I don't know. I I haven't lost my sense of smell, and I haven't lost my sense of taste. Um I but maybe things taste different. I've heard that there's a um some people get a a side effect from Paxlovid that everything tastes like metal, and I don't think that that's what I have, but I'll just say that things do taste maybe not exactly the same. I I don't know. Um, but I've been off of it for a week now, so I anyway, that's that's where I'm at. So reminder if you haven't gotten it, go out and get your COVID vaccine because this is serious. Like if I wasn't um, if I had like a secondary or a chronic condition, I think that this would have been a lot more serious for me. Um and I've really been trying to take care of myself. So anyway, that's where that's where we're at. Um, but I did want to talk about gullibility and just a little bit today, because I was thinking about this. Um, I know when I was growing up, I was more gullible, I think, than some kids my age. And that's because I didn't have a sibling to kind of watch, or an old older sibling, maybe a younger sibling wouldn't have helped me, but I didn't have a sibling to watch and observe and learn from, and I was kind of sheltered. I had friends and I interacted with my friends, but my friends, we were good girls, let's say. Um, but I did have some friends who maybe weren't like my best friends, but um did sometimes take advantage of me in smaller ways, um, because they saw that they could get away with things or they could um lie to me. I guess that's the right word. Like, like case in point. And it's kind of embarrassing, but I was a kid, and maybe I was ten or so, um, and this girl up the street, um, we I went over to her house to play, and whatever that meant, I don't know what that meant. And I can't even really remember her name, although I think I remember it, but um anyway. And I went over to her house, and for some reason I had taken like my purse with me. Now, does a 10-year-old need to carry a purse? I don't know. But um, or maybe we were just talking about it and I went back another time, but I was telling her that my grandmother, when I was over at my grandmother's house, she would give me her spare change, and that I really liked my grandmother at that time because I didn't know any better. Um, that's another story. And so my friend, quote unquote friend, um, told me that she didn't have a grandmother, and so nobody gave her spare change. And I felt sorry for her, and she said it in a way that made me feel sorry for her. And so I gave her some of my spare change. I said, Well, here's a quarter, and oh, do you have a dime? Here's a dime, and here's a nickel, and here's a penny, so that she had one of everything. And she was like, Oh, oh, okay, oh, oh, you have a half dollar. Oh, can I have one of those too? And I remember that she was looking at me with this kind of glint in her eye, and I thought I was doing something really nice for her, but I went back home and I told my mom what I did, thinking that my mom would say, Oh, that was so nice of you. And my mom my mom saw right through it and she called my my friend's mom and she told her what had happened, and um I got my change back, and that was the last time I went over to her house. Um so I always remember that as like a point in time where I should have known better, but nobody ever told me, and I never had any experiences like that, right? So fast forward to being an adult, and I think sometimes, and I'm sure that this isn't just an only child thing, but sometimes you will come into contact with somebody, maybe you have a relationship with somebody, maybe you are friends with them, maybe you are in a relationship, like a like a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship, where you'll trust them to a certain extent, right? You'll trust them about what they say about themselves or their families or their situations. And I think this is where I tell myself that it's really important to really listen. And sometimes that means listening between the lines, listening to the cues, like does the story make complete sense? Because sometimes people who should we say the word lie um will tell stories, but they are stories, right? They're not truth. And so all the points of the story don't always add up, and I think that's when you have to really look at what is the truth? Is this person telling me the truth? And so sometimes that's when I'll ask questions. I'll ask, like, well, what about this? Or how do you do this, or how do you take care of this? And if the answers don't always make complete sense, then I start to get suspicious. Now, does that mean that the person's always lying? No, maybe the person's lying to themselves, maybe the person isn't a good communicator, but I know that then at that point I would put that person on um sort of a reserve list and say to myself, you know, I have to just be careful with this person and not take everything that they say to heart and not take everything that they say um as truth. I have to take it with a grain of sand or a grain of salt, whatever that phrase is, right? Because everything that they're saying isn't adding up. If people are being truthful, and if people are being honest with you, their story is always gonna make sense. And their story is always gonna be the same, right? Now, there's also people who are incredibly private about their situations, and maybe they don't want to tell you the whole story about a certain circumstance or certain situation, right? And that's when I put them under the category of they're telling me what they think I want to hear. Now, this is a this is a difficult category of a kind of a person to deal with because um, and I and I can tell you that I've had somebody in my life like this for a long time. Um not somebody that I deal with all the time, but somebody that is definitely in my life. Um and it's challenging sometimes to deal with this person because in the beginning I took everything that they said to heart and I believed everything that they said, and and I know that part of it is that they don't want to disappoint me, but I'm the kind of person who is I want to be straight with everybody, I want to be honest, and I want to be straight, and I wanna I want to tell it like it is, even if it's not the most comfortable scenario, I want to be transparent because I think to be transparent is to be kind. And and it's only when you're you know uh lying, not lying, but it it's only when you kind of fluff things up, when you kind of um exaggerate the truth or minimize the truth, that you're not really being fair to the other pre person. And so I would prefer that people be straight with me, but that doesn't always happen because some people just can't be straight with you for whatever reason. I haven't figured out what those reasons are, I'm gonna be honest. So those are some of my thoughts about being gullible and being real and being honest, being transparent. I just hope that all of you look for the truth in all of your relationships and look for transparency and work towards transparency because again, every day is a gift and life is too short um to live in in a world that's not it's not reality. So it's kind of a heavy topic, but um for today. But next week, well, we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me. If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries Podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on. And consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page, Only Child Diaries, or Facebook, Only Child Diaries Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace, and these are the Only Child Diaries.