pop pop, fizz fizz.

It started out, on Friday afternoon, as a novelty: a bit of congestion in the head, a sense of the teensiest fever. I awoke Saturday morning with enough of a head cold to preclude me from diving for the day and hence, from going to work, but not enough of one that I shouldn't enjoy my unexpected freedom just a touch. I spent some time in the drafting lab at school, ran errands, and browsed at some shops, but by mid-afternoon I was feeling pretty abysmal, and so returned home. Upon returning, and finding no cold meds in my keeping, I scurried up the street to the CVS to get some Alka Seltzer Cold & Flu, and some of that terribly flavored antiseptic spray for the scratchy throat, and then a bit further up the street to Ralph's for some soup (Ralph's is not the small neighborhood grocery it sounds, but rather a chain, formerly Safeway, somewhere between a Byerly's and a Rainbow in MN) before shuffling back home.

I spent the rest of that day and the next in bed. I happily slept through most of my Sunday. By Monday morning, I was beginning to feel a bit better, but was suffering the effects of a cold-med hangover during my early classes. It cleared off eventually, and the rest of the day was standard. The following morning I was feeling alright, but still had some congestion in my ears, and so took another day off from diving. I slept most of that day too, following the rationale (which was later echoed by my most sagest of friends, MZZ) that I wouldn't be sleeping so much if my body didn't need it. I also hoped that the added sleep would clear away any remaining cobwebs of sick that might be hiding in the furthest reaches of my sinuses.

But I heard it the other day, in the hallway, and only now can I grasp its full weight: the cough of one with whom I share the bathroom.

I can only make sense of it this way, that I actually recovered from what I had this weekend, but somehow, in the midst of the almost-recovery, I contracted cough-y sister's cough-y germs, and now I'm stricken with week's cold #2. And I'm not pleased with it. It's bad enough was sick all weekend and have sacrificed 2 days of work, and that I have to go for a whole weekend without delicious coffee in the morning, but now into the week as well. And I really must forgo the coffee because now, with the cough-y congested irritated-red-chapped-5-year-old-nose cold, the coffee actually makes my throat hurt. So now, not only am I grumpy because I'm sick, but also because I can't partake of a normal morning routine, and because I have to keep blowing my nose, and seriously, it really hurts, and because I have a scratchy throat, and because I feel like I shouldn't go to the gym at night, and because finals are coming up and because I'm still trying to figure out easy/cheap/handmade gifts to give all my beloveds.

I'm going to bed now. And hoping some other germ doesn't sneak in my window overnight.