Sunday Salon: Sickly Apologies

Well, it finally happened.  I've gone four months with students suffering from H1N1, severe bronchitis, regular bronchitis, upper respiratory tract infections, pneumonia, influenza, and the plain old cold.  With only three weeks remaining in the semester, I thought I was home free.  Then it happened: the tickle in the throat, the tightness in the chest.  I tried to ward it off by drinking inordinate amounts of orange juice, taking vitamin pills, and concentrating really really hard.  Alas, no luck.  Last Monday, the sickness took me.

And I've been down ever since. I have developed an actual cocoon in my basement that I no longer leave. I went three days without ever seeing sunlight.  My car has not moved in six days, and I may have forgotten how to drive. On the plus side, I'm thinking I may come out of this with a better waistline - not for the normal reason.  My stomach muscles have been getting a serious workout with all the coughing.

You would think that with six days of staying at home I would get some reading done, but no luck.  I tried and I tried again, but my ability to focus has been seriously limited by coughing, sneezing, and some sort of inner ear problem that makes movement and sitting up straight difficult.  Sitting up, looking at all of those words swimming across the page, was a rather surreal activity that made me wonder if my medication shares any characteristics with LSD or PCP or well, acid in general.

So in the last week, I haven't read a single book.  Nor have I read your blogs, and for that I sincerely apologize.  My Google Reader has been overloaded, and I may have to just hit Mark All as Read.  I, in my sickliness, apologize.

Thanks to Iman Maleki for the wonderful image.