"Punkish"

Is that a word you use? I'm not referring to a genre of rock music or people who dress like Goths or a bully.

Punkish as I use it is a way to describe how you feel physically. I grew up being asked, "how do you feel?" by over protective, older parents of an only child. The word I would use (it must have been taught to me by those two good folks--Virgil and Cleo, my parents) when I felt kind of achy and foggy and out of sorts was 'punkish'. "I feel punkish," I'd say and I'd get soothing voices and sweet hugs smelling of my parents' scents (tobacco and sweat from my father, lavender and flour from my mother) and be asked if I wanted to go to bed or needed an aspirin or something warm to drink.

Yesterday, from the time I woke up (nearly 10, by the way, something that's sweet about being retired...I only set the clock on Monday night and Saturday night to make it to my 9:30 Tuesday group or church wherever on Sunday) I felt 'punkish' and told Bern enough times that she  gave me a hug and a soothing voice (Bern's scent is of soap and slightly of garlic--I've always been attracted to anyone who smells slightly of garlic) and asked me if I wanted to go to bed and have a nap. Which I did, from 2 pm until 4:15 pm with my Puli dog, snoring beside me. (Bela will take a nap whenever and wherever he can get it. He's sprawled out about five feet behind me as I type this and snores occasionally. Lord, to be able to sleep like a Puli dog! That would be a blessing....)

And when I woke up, I wasn't feeling 'punkish' any more (though I still felt a bit groggy for about an hour). A nap will usually fix a punkish feeling. I don't know why but have learned over the years that sometimes a nap is exactly the right medicine for 'punkishness' (a work my Spell Check hates and  hates).

So, if ever you are achy and foggy and out of sorts, this is what I'd recommend: a two hour nap.

No charge for the advice. It is my purpose in life to blot out the scourge of 'feeling punkish'....