Kid, You Better Look Around, How Long You Think That You Can Run That Body Down?

So, I was going to try and write every day this week, but then I did this really stupid thing. I started reading "David Copperfield", and now it's hard for me to do anything else. It's so damn good.

I am on the precipice of a three day weekend. Monday is Martin Luther King JR Day, and it's the last holiday I get off before Memorial Day in May. Sigh.

Last year I decided I was going to try and start painting the laundry room. I had already painted the door a nice light gray color on Saturday, and I was going to start painting the walls a bright white on Monday. They were a dingy, dirty, off-white color that looked like depression would, if it were a color. I washed the hell out of the one section of wall, and started painting. I felt fine at first, but then I started getting a headache and I was really exhausted. I took migraine meds, hoping that would do it, but they didn't do anything at all for me, so I figured it wasn't a migraine.

I also was losing my appetite. I thought maybe if I got some ice cream that would make me want to eat, but that didn't even sound good - which is when I was sure I was coming down with something serious. It's not unusual at all for me to get sick toward the end of January. We get a lot of international students coming into our office with their official documents a week or two before classes start up again, so I get exposed to a lot of different germs. I wasn't at all surprised that I was sick. It was just how weird/bad I felt.

At first it was mostly just a headache and exhaustion. At one point while I was trying to paint, I had to sit on the ground and then use both hands to hold the brush. Don't worry. I finally stopped at that point. Even I'M not that stubborn. 

Then by the time John came home from work, I told him to go out and get whatever he wanted for dinner, because I was too sick to eat. I figured I'd lie on the couch and just rest. Then I got these weird body aches. I was literally writhing around on the couch. I almost couldn't stand to be in my own skin. I got sick to my stomach a few times, and was finally able to sleep. I slept a LOT.

Whatever the bad juju was, it lasted about a week. I lost about 7 pounds, and even for however many months after that, I had very little appetite. It was so unlike me. There were a couple of different kinds of flu going around back then, and it was too early for me to have caught Covid, so who knows what I had. I guess the good thing about Covid for me this year, is that when we go back to the office in the next couple of weeks, we'll be a lot more careful. We have plexi-glass between us and the students, and we're all wearing masks. I'm hoping those kinds of precautions will keep me from getting the flu or even a cold. I guess there are a few benefits of Covid...

The "funny" thing is, I never finished painting the laundry room. I also feel like I can't try it this long weekend without tempting fate. I guess any excuse not to do it, works for me. If it keeps snowing like they say it might, I want to cross-country ski as much as possible this weekend. Since I'll have extra time on Monday, I told John I'd try to make eggplant parmesan for dinner that night. That is, of course, if I don't come down with anything.