Ow.

Being sick is no fun

July 7, 2008: Maybe there really is such a thing as Murphy’s Law. Last week I went to a cousin’s wedding out of state and I missed 2 days of work, thinking I can pull in extra hours this week. And then yesterday, when I was biking over to Borders to join two of my friends in a jogging/walking workout, my throat felt like it was tightening or something. At first I didn’t think anything of it. I could still talk, right?

Well, five minutes into walking (me and Kelly stopped jogging after several minutes, while Edith, ever the athlete, continued down the bikepath as if jogging was like doing a few pushups), swallowing hurt. A lot. As I listened to Kelly talk about what I had missed when I was away, that little pain in my throat grew into a lets-annoy-Tamara pounding. I felt a little better when we reached the university’s horse ranch, because there was a really, really cute baby horse that was nuzzling against us and who wouldn’t feel better if a super cute baby horse was being all cuddly? After feeding it some hay, we continued down the bikepath, and I wondered if Kelly thought it was weird that I was just nodding my head and smiling and saying “oh wow” or “oh my gosh” when neccessary, rather than chipping in like I usually do. I told her about my sore throat, and she said it was probably just the smoke from all the fires in California, and that I would get used to it. She had felt the same thing last weekend, and her grandma had told her that smoke can do that to people. Relieved that it wasn’t some cold bug, we continued on, and now I even joined in with actual sentences.

That is, until we reached Borders again and my throat felt like it needed a tranquilizer. Tommy and Chris joined us for dinner, but I could barely swallow the food from Pluto’s, and so I stuck to my nodding and smiling, which sucked because I hadn’t talked to them in a while and I wanted to know how they’d been. After dinner everyone went to get ice cream, but I figured I should probably head home. After the goodbyes, I got on my bike and, in my foggy state, went in the wrong direction. I realized this once I reached the train station. I doubled back and, after several zig zags through downtown, I somehow made it back home. I thought maybe if I go to sleep early I would wake up refreshed, but instead, here I am, typing on the computer and missing yet another day of work.

As much as I want this to be the smoke like Kelly thought, I think that I have to face the fact it really might be a cold. Bleh. Someone find a cure already!