I remember when being sick used to be a lot more fun. You’d wake up with a sore throat or even the flu. Mom would be there to make sure you had enough snacks throughout the day to fortify your weakened body. Stray coloring books and crayons would find their way into your bed and the portable TV got wheeled into your room so you could watch the cartoons that were strictly forbidden on school mornings. During the winter, those days were a rare treat. Snuggled into your cocoon of bedcovers, you could look out the window at the trudging through the snow toward their history tests and laugh.
But summer sickness was never any fun. Then you watched out the window as your friends rode their bikes off on some adventure that would never be as good in the telling as it would have been in the doing. Then you whined that you were all right, it was just a little cold. You wouldn’t die from it, mom. Just let me go out for a half hour, pleeeeeeeeeze…
Having been hit by some kind of a flu-like bug yesterday, I discovered that summer sickness is a lot less fun than it even used to be. Not only wasn’t there a mom around (yeah, I know, I’m a mom but that doesn’t count), there were still dishes that needed washing. I found that I was too tired to do much, and having to sit in the living room, looking at the mounds of sorting that needed to be done on my dislocated office supplies was less than enticing. I went back to bed.
I didn’t feel up to writing or editing. My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton that had been soaked in something greasy. Yuck. A book kept me occupied for several hours until the need for water drove me out of my nest and back through the dreaded office supplies. So I filled up a water bottle and took it back to the bedroom with me. Another hour with the book and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I though great, this day is almost over.
It was noon. By four o’clock, I was feeling well enough to be that kid again, looking out the window, whining that he really wasn’t all that sick and couldn’t he go out for a half hour, pleeeeeeeeeeze.
I’ll be really glad to get back to work this morning. Worst thing about all of this was, I couldn’t find my coloring book and crayons in that mound of supplies. I really need to clean that mess up. Maybe next weekend….
Mica Flecks 