Monday, January 26, 2009

Sweet Diversion

I know that people have varying opinions on the flu shot.  Some say it is the equivalent of immortality.  Others believe it is death in a vial and the end of civilization as we know it.  I can understand both points of view and deny no one their right to tend to their health as they see fit.

That said, I just don't get as sick as I used to now that I submit my arm to the spike each year.  I can't say for certain that this magical injection fends off everything that comes at me while I slog my way through each school day.  In fact, I tend to think that this is me giving the shot superpowers that it doesn't possess.  I don't really care.  I just like not getting so sick all the time.  That is what we call, "the up side."

The down side is that, while I don't get horribly ill, I do get little bits and pieces of whatever is going around.  It used to be that I could predict the path that my illnesses would take.  First, I'd feel a general sense of malaise.  Next, the actual symptoms would arrive, typically in the form of snot.  Lots of it.  Finally, there would be great, whooping coughs which would startle all in my path and cause them to give me a very wide berth.  They would also start gently suggesting that I just go home before I spread the plague any further.

Now I have no idea what is going to happen.  Mostly, I find myself in the General Sense Of Malaise category and can only wait to see if it is going to get to the I Guess I'd Better Go Home phase.  It generally doesn't.  I usually just get better after that.  However, the GSOM is a rather tiresome thing and I miss being sent home sometimes.

I've been fiddling around with the idea of getting a cold lately.  But it just won't seem to bloom.  I'm tired and achy.  Sometimes I work up a sneeze.  My ears popped this morning when I was blowing my nose.  My throat is all itchy.  But, as of yet, no one has told me to go home.  Of course, this might be due to the fact that we only just picked up the pieces from the day I was out teaching a workshop last week.  However I can usually count on at least one of the more "motherly" types to step up to the plate when I am looking sickly and that hasn't happened.  Guess I'm looking just fine, darn it.

But I still think I might be sick.  A little bit, anyway.  Normally I am pretty jazzed about getting home.  Even if it is the day where I have to spend 45 minutes on the little exercise bike, I still prefer home to sitting in the car or being at work.  I don't tarry.  I wrap up the teaching day, point the car north and make haste.  I can knit upon the Happy Pink Sock while I ride the little bike, right?  Home is a good place and a one I'd like to see sooner rather than later.

Except today, I opted to stay behind a big truck rather than pass it.  I liked being behind this truck and liked the idea of telling people that I was behind this truck.  Further, I was hoping that this truck was going to my house and thought that I could cause it to do so through sheer force of will.  To do that, I needed to stay behind it. All thoughts of Happy Pink Socks and other home-based comforts were banished from my mind.  I was wholly absorbed with driving ten miles below the posted speed limit in order that I might remain right behind the truck.

It was a Lindt Chocolate truck.  And it did not go to my house.  Nor did it hit a bump and suddenly drop its load which would have fit nicely with the back-up scenario I developed during my extra long drive home today.  

Not rational.  Not reasonable.  Not conducive to getting those socks finished in a timely fashion.  Not the sort of thing that gets me back home and on the exercise bike like I'm supposed to be.

But I certainly think this pattern of sluggish logic fits nicely with the idea that I might be coming down with something.  If the sneezing and General Malaise don't make people send me home, perhaps my belief that I can cause chocolate to fly free from secured vehicles is enough to buy me a sick day.

I should really stop at the store tomorrow for some chocolate.  I'd hate to be stuck home sick without some of that and it's not like the trucks are cooperating...

SA

16 comments:

MathIsBeauty said...

Too bad you have a new car. You could have 'accidentally' rear-ended the truck and demanded much chocolate in liu of a nasty lawsuit because of course it was the fault of the chocolate.

GiM said...

Ah, Lindt. GW and I used to go to the Stratham, NH, shop for irregular truffels. All one could get in a bag for a very low price. They stopped selling the rejects, we stopped going.

sheep#100 said...

Feel better, Sheepie. Or failing that, get good and sick and share it with those around you! ;o)

(I am so laughing at GiM's comment)

yarnslinger said...

I've never had a flu shot. Ever. The last 3 years, I have not had a single cold. Not one. I think what happens is that as we get older, and especially if we work somewhere that exposes us to everything (you-schools, me - doctors offices) that our immune systems get built up naturally.

Anne P said...

I hope you don't get whatever bug D's been fighting this week. It's a brutal one. I have washed my hands so much, I have no skin left on them. (Ew - TMI?)

Stay well. I hear chocolate and lots of it cures many ills.

Kath said...

You know, I'm classic Hershey's kind of gal, but truthfully, there is no such thing as bad chocolate. Which makes it one of the more perfect foods!

Anonymous said...

So sorry about the selfish truck that didn't share its load. What a bonanza that would have been!

Now, I'm not a doctor nor do I play one on the innertubes, but I have had most excellent results with vitamin C as a cold-snuffer. It must be taken IMMEDIATELY upon noticing the very first symptom of the cold, whatever that might be, and taken again every hour until the dreaded plague is truly gone. For me this usually takes ~8 hours. The treatment requires that I carry a bottle of 100mg vitamin C tablets in my purse all winter, but that is a small price to pay.

I have been using this method for about 10 years since a co-worker told me about it, and no cold that I preempted with vitamin C has laid me low. The only colds I have had were ones that got hold of me when I didn't have any vitamin C handy.

There is no research to support this, and what research that has been done has been inconclusive. But it works for me. And that's all I care about.

mehitabel said...

Flu shot is always on my list of good things to get. I had a nasty case of the Snots which lasted until I was finally able to get a refill on the allergy meds--and after a week on them, guess what, no more hacking cough! Quite a lesson. Do not go without the meds! I also take the vitamin C and the calcium with D and the iron pills and... well, I think I'm turning into a pill.

Anonymous said...

I hate being sick but not sick enough for people to notice. If they don't notice, you can't get all that needed sympathy.
No sympathy AND no chocolate is just unacceptable. Get yourself to the store where they call you sweetie (or honey or whatever it is) and you kind of like it and get yourself some chocolate!

Anonymous said...

I think you're holding up quite well considering that petri dish you work in. My mother swears that when she gets a flu shot she doesn't get sick for 5 years. I hope you feel better but buy some chocolate just in case. It's like tissues, you should always have a supply on hand just in case.

Mia said...

Well ya know - in our area they are predicting a pretty big storm for tomorrow.. make your *illness* will coincide with a snow day - now wouldn't that be a happy thing!

PS - I don't know how you don't have monkey pox every single day hangin' out all day with all those little germ filled kids *grin*

Donna Lee said...

I used to get a flu shot every year. They kinda push it on us, working in healthcare and all. I got the flu every year despite the shot. Full blown flu. I stopped getting the shot a few years ago and haven't had even a really bad cold since then. I think part of it is getting older and having more immunity and part of it is better drugs.

I am normally a dark chocolate kind of girl but Lindt white chocolate truffles are my absolute favorite.

Knitting Linguist said...

Ah, yes. The stalking of the chocolate truck. I've been known to follow a truck of See's candy far out of my way in hopes of a small, non-life-threatening, but chocolate-liberating accident. It never seems to happen; those things must be armored..

Yarnhog said...

I'd have stayed behind the truck, too.

Of course, in the days before GPS, my standard method of navigation was to pick a vehicle that "looked like it was going my way"--even if it wasn't bearing chocolate--and follow it, so I may not be the best person to listen to.

Cursing Mama said...

I have discovered that the shot prevents getting really sick - but not kinda sick. really sick sends you home, kinda sick forces you to stay at work and cover for those who are really sick. I can't decide if I'd rather be really sick or kinda sick....

also, because it is so telling - my word verification is urool. I'm taking it as a compliment.

Jeanne said...

I'll take the flu over the flu shot any day! My Dad always got them, but then the shot would GIVE him the flu. Stay well!