Being Sick

I hate being sick.  My head hurts, my body aches, my mind works slower, my skin hurts just to touch it, my eyes swell, my stomach feels like I swallowed an angry porcupine.  NOTHING good comes from this.

What is my body telling me and why couldn't it just tell me nicely?

My wife had the flu the last couple of days.  She shouldn't be in work today, but she is because even though her school district gives all of the teachers plenty of sick days (because you'd think you wouldn't want a sick teacher around kids), they actually get in trouble for taking them.  It's ridiculous, but then again so is the fact that they're working without a contract.  Unbelievable.

She got sick (okay...barfing) on Wednesday night into Thursday, and I had no idea what to do.  It's such a sad time when she gets sick because when she gets sick, she REALLY gets sick and both of us are rendered completely helpless.  She can't control it, and there's absolutely nothing I can do to help.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I usually make things worse by trying too hard.

I barfed on Tuesday night.  Are these incidents related?  If so, where did either one of us catch it?  Most likely it was my wife catching it at the germ factory (school) she works at.  These kids come to school and band practice with fevers.  I guess I did the same when I was in high school too.  It's not like my mother chased me around all the time with a thermometer.  In fact, my parents rarely believed me when I was sick, probably because I lied about it to get out of school from time to time.  For as good a kid as I was, I could really be a little jerk. 

The likely scenario is that one or both of us caught whatever the hell this thing is on Saturday night at the band competition.  We had at least one kid there who was very sick.  We were outside in the cold for a long time, and while cold doesn't give you a cold it certainly doesn't help.  We haven't been getting much sleep lately.  Between marching band (which is over at 9, but we don't leave until 9:30-10 and then have to eat dinner when we get home, digest it, and then try to sleep) and the Phillies games Sunday, Monday, and last night...we're running on empty for sure.  Our collective immune system is on strike, and we're paying the price.

To make matters better, it's going to be a miserable couple of days weather-wise.  Mid 40's and raining.  Wonderful.  Whatever happened to nice, 60 degree October weather.  Boy, Al Gore was right...this global warming...er...climate change stuff really sucks!  I'll definitely watch my carbon footprint by not flying to Europe to lobby on behalf of a corrupt city government that wants to host the Olympics, and I'll definitely not fly to New York for a date night, and I'll definitely not....oh....that's not me, I just pay for it.

So, body...get to work getting well.  I'm tired of your nonsense and it's time you stepped up to the plate.  You're usually pretty good, so I'm disappointed in you.  I expect more from you.  Get your act together and let's get back to being awesome.  Seriously.