I am so tired of being tired and I am so NOT a yuppie

I have chronic fatigue immune deficiency syndrome. How do I know this? Because I was diagnosed by a whole bunch of beard-rubbing medical professionals, including the chief medical officer of the Old Mutual, a whole slew of blood tests and the like, way back in 1999. I was told by all these good men (and one excellent woman) that I was pretty much stuck with this state of affairs and that I'd never be truly well again and as for work - forget it - retire and enjoy starvation while I'm young enough to appreciate it!
Thankfully, there are a few really good medical practitioners in Cape Town who don't have this defeatist attitude and after two long years I was well enough to work again and although I admit that my AA+ personality-type is now more like a C- and I tire easily I can work a 10 to 12 hour day with the best of them.
Now I know that "frankly my dear we don't give a damn" is what you are all thinking and I'm with you on that, but here's what is pissing me off:
The damn disease has recurred (apparently it'll do that if you get too smug about the whole thing) and although I've got it under control (with the wonderful, albeit expensive help of Dr G who is a GP and homeopath) I do some days tend to look and feel a little on deadish side.
OK bear with me now I am getting to the point - slowly - remember I have CFIDS - what really has ticked me off this morning - and in fact ticks me off most days - is how the general public views this horrible, life-ruining, fun-sapping, drink-restricting, food-limiting scourge!
"oh you have yuppie flu" they explain to me, with what appears to be scorn, and then kind of brush me off with a look that says if only you'd be less of a clothes-horse and have ugly hair and wear cheap perfume and stop buying all those shoes, you would recover your health (which is only mildly compromised anyway fool - it's just the flu!). Well, here are a few facts:
NO I am not a yuppie, never have been, don't even like BMW's! I buy my jeans at Woolworths and shop at factory shops.
And for the last time you @#%*$ it is NOT the flu. I have Cytomegalovirus, Epstein Barr Syndrome, Toxoplasmosis and a few other nasty little devils. My liver just ain't what it used to be (and as a wine lover I can promise you this in itself is Hell).
Today I read a post on a very funny blog - the writer said her housemate suggested that because she is always sleepy she probably has CFS - her response was along the lines of "I ain't that cool or that deluded dude".
Well, just for the record - most of us CFIDS sufferers are always exhausted but sleep not only doesn't help, we are almost all insomniacs. To whit, last night I fell asleep on the couch for an hour (we don't concentrate too well so TV will do that to us) woke up and couldn't sleep again till 4.00 am when I managed 2 hours - then I had to get up for work. That just isn't cool and it doesn't help that I am running a low-grade fever, have a headache, upset stomach, sore throat and feel like what I scrape into the poop scoop every other day when I clean up behind my garden after my dogs (ok my mom comes to visit most days and does it before I get home from work - what can I say some mothers are truly angels!) but here I am, behind my desk, lipstick in place, hair all a-gleam (love my new haircut hairdresser angel) and dressed in my best non-designer Woolworths/monsieur price/factory shop best and looking forward to the wine auction I'm attending tonight.
So, next time some poor soul tells you they have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or worse, Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome (that means every bug you bring to work - we catch it - you carry on unscathed) don't brush them off with an attitude that says "your lifestyle, your problem" go fetch them some herbal tea and show a little sympathy - they will love you forever and help out next time you are not coping with YOUR workload.

I have a few questions, maybe even some answers

Now that I think of it, there are a few things that I want to get off my chest, and a few comments/thoughts that I thought I'd share:
My BFF told me the other day that she had read an article that said that guys don't realise when a woman is openly flirting with them and giving them the come-on, that they are supposed to respond in kind, apparently this goes straight over their poor little heads, however, when a woman is friendly and open and natural with a man, this they take to be heavy-duty flirting and think that the poor girl is just dying for their bods. Now how in the world am I supposed to cope with that piece of information.
Then there are the people that say things like: "you should really start dating again/ Why don't you find someone and settle down/Don't you want to be married again?". Now how in hell am I supposed to find this "someone". I'm too old for clubs, too young for bowls and trawling the pubs for alcoholics isn't really all it's cracked up to be. Then, of course, there is the question of my invisibility; Harry Potter isn't the only kid on the block with an invisibility cloak. The difference is that I don't need to put mine on. Apparently it's a permanent fixture on a woman of a certain age. Or is my mirror lying to me and I'm so ugly that they just aren't going to ask me out ever!. Of course, I could find myself a feller on the Internet, except I have met one or two of them - I had to change my name, move to a different town and learn to deal with stalkers - those chaps are, in the main, pretty odd. Or I could date those 26 year-olds who leer at me longingly, who think I will pick up the tab for dinner before I take them home to my bed and ravish the living daylights out of them, all the while giving them tips on technique and such.
Changing the subject, why on earth do people crawl up the centre lane of Eastern Boulevard in the morning at 50km/hr and then when you change to the left hand lane to get past them (the right hand lane being the domain of the crazed Cape Town minibus taxi drivers and not safe for anyone except those chaps with stainless steel balls in their Mercedes Benzes and BMW's) they speed up to 120km/hr and try to cut in front of you in the left hand lane?
Here's a thought, how come smokers get paid the same salary as I do, but they spend 10 to 20 minutes every hour on the balcony smoking whilst I work? How do they get their work done? Why can't I stand on the balcony and gaze into the middle distance for 10 minutes every hour without being challenged by some busybody manager?
Why do I compulsively answer all emails practically as they enter my inbox, whilst the recipients of my emails ignore me for days?
Meh? Should I care about any of this? Should you care?
One last question, why do I always fall asleep during the tv programmes I want to watch but stay awake during those long and boring shows on how the British Army counted grains of sand in the desert during WW2?