sick leave

Over and over and over again.
Took the day off from work today (Monday as I write). An endless cycle of fever plateaus and sweaty fever breakings, topping out at 104.2 last night. Maybe it’s just me, but it always seems that when I have a high fever – my skin, especially on my scalp, becomes extremely sensitive – sore to the touch even. Anyway, today’s plan was to see the doctor… but I was so tired and drained that I just ended up sleeping and sweating. And now it’s nearly 8pm, and I’m feeling pretty decent having just come off my last high of 102 – but I’ve pretty much already decided that I’ll be staying home tomorrow as well, to really see the doctor this time and give myself one more day to recoup. I’ve got several important meetings that I’ll likely miss… which does make me feel bad… but I almost feel like I deserve it – I’m hardly ever sick to the point where I miss work. So, pay-up work, I’m calling in my unused sick time right now… cough, cough.

One thing about spending an entire 48hr period in alternating asleep and awake states, it gives you a lot of time to think. TV gets old fast, and the headaches that accompanied my fevers the past couple days pretty much ruled out reading, so sometimes I’ll just lie in bed daydreaming, waiting to drift off to sleep. I like “leading” my daydreams, I used to do it sitting at my desk in high school – I’d imagine vivid scenarios (yes, usually sexual, and yes, usually involving the class being “locked in” due to hurricane – my fantasy high school chicks always got so loose when they thought they were about to die). So I did a lot of daydream-seeding today, about all sorts of things. For some reason, my drifting-to-sleep fantasies are often tied to the position I’m sleeping in when they start. What I mean is, if I start laying out some storyline as I’m falling off, and then I change the way I’m lying – I won’t be able to get the fantasy “back” until I’ve re-situated myself. Weird, huh? At least I know it’s not just me, Sharaun was reading my draft of this post and totally agrees.

Again, being couch-ridden for two days does wonders for TiVo housecleaning. Lying there today, flipping around trying to find something to watch in my boredom… I decided that I don’t have enough interesting and/or varied programs set as Season Passes. Now, you know, I hate to talk TV like it’s all-important to me, but over these past couple days… it really has been. I mean, when I wasn’t asleep, the TV was on and I was watching something. So, I set about trying to find some new programs to add to our auto-record stuff. I’m pretty pleased with the results. First off, Gilligan’s Island, the original. I’ve always loved that show. Next, Timmy & Lassie, again, the original. Holy crap that show sucks. I remember it from when I was kid and Nickelodeon was brand new, and, only having only a few items of original programming, would play a whole bunch of strange Canadian stuff and 50s and 60s programming to fill up the time. Watching it now, it’s clear to me that each episode was just a form of mind-control for kids: don’t play by abandoned mines, don’t get too close to road construction, etc. Next, History Detectives on PBS – a show I’ve always loved. SportsCenter may seem out of place, being that I’m not much of a jock. But, I have some really fond memories of tuning in each night to watch it with my roommate in college – and I figure it’ll buy me man-points if I can at least converse intelligently about Palmeiro’s ‘roid problem. Next, Benny Hill – for a dose of that wacky British humor I’m a fan of. A put a few more on there too, the Honeymooners, PBS’s Nature, etc. Seemed like a good idea being home all day, but I’m sure I’ll be deleting most of it once I’m back to work.

Goodnight.


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