bloodyrosemccoy | Fell Off The Treadmill

Yesterday I was busy as all hell for thirteen solid hours.

After my class, I went to the bookstore to inquire whether they wanted me at 11 or 11:30. “Eleven would be good,” said the harried manager. “We’ve had a lot of people call in sick.”

I looked at the clock. It was 10. “How about if I start now?” I asked.

That made her very happy.

For some reason, yesterday seemed to be ESL Day there. At least half of the students buying books were buying books on how to speak English, and therefore could not speak it well. I found this to be awesome. I started practicing my spiel in Japanese and Spanish, although I couldn’t do it in Arabic. It was fun.

Then there was a three-hour class, and then home, where I read 23 pages of gender and linguistics, wrote two pages on the article I’d just read, and collapsed into bed. I felt very accomplished, but unfortunately that cold that’s been chasing me for a couple of days* finally pounced last night when I was asleep and unsuspecting, so now I’m sitting around feeling cruddy and guilty for staying home.** But after such a week as last one, and a day like yesterday, I suppose collapsing isn’t such a bad thing to do.

*How I know it’s not allergies: colds tend to send goo up into my ears. While food sensitivity can make my ears itch, I have never had my ear pressure change from allergies.

**Although on the plus side, V8 doesn’t taste quite as bad when you’ve got a cold. Which reminds me of one of my foolproof litmus tests for how sick you are: open the refrigerator. Now look at the drinks. If you are not very sick, then the milk should not raise any objections for you, and the grapefruit juice should be neutral or possibly slightly repellent. However, if the milk seems like it’s growling at you and the grapefruit juice is standing under a beam of light, then you’re sick.