I woke up about 5am and thought, “Oh. The scratchy throat. The stuffy nose. Yay!” The cold that seems to be infecting the universe (or at least my students and the people I know on Twitter) has struck me. All the stuff I read tells me I should stay home, read a good book and rest. I will, however, not be doing that. I have classes to teach, and while I know my students would not be heart-broken to miss a class, I feel a responsibility to teach as much as I can. So I’ll be sanitizing my hands, coughing into my sleeve, and pushing through to 4:30 today. Then, I’ll be going home, climbing onto the couch with a blanket, some hot tea, chile leftovers, and whatever Netflix can entertain me with for a few hours. I can’t wait.
Sometimes the best thing about illness is that it knocks us off our feet, even if it’s just for an evening. For the past few weeks, I’ve been pushing hard – moving, grading, dealing with the sufferings of life – and this is life’s way of pushing me onto a cushion with some really soft socks on my feet.