Home Sick
The only thing that ruins a workday at home because I'm sick, is being sick. Otherwise, I can totally dig being at home on a workday.

But, despite being sick (as I am today), there is a certain amount of fun to be had, and a certain few challenges to be faced on a sick day. Through the coughing and sneezing and aching, one can enjoy the freedom of a day with no responsibilities. I am supposed to be resting, doing nothing, getting well.

That, my friends, is something I do very well. Nothing.

There was a time in my life when I felt like I constantly needed to be doing something. It was hard to sit still. It was hard to take a sick day from work, let alone be home resting like one is supposed to do when home sick. I felt like I needed a project or an activity, or to move to the next thing. Always to be accomplishing something. On occasion, I still get that way. But overall, not so much anymore.

I am totally fine doing little to nothing. I can rest with the best of them. Wasting time is not a problem.

To me, wasting time is a matter of perspective. I've learned the value in doing nothing. Because in doing 'nothing', I am preparing myself to later better be able to do 'something', even if that 'something' is a long time in coming. If I'm constantly tapped out from always doing something, I'm never doing anything to the best of my abilities. My abilities are stretched too thin.

So, I have no problem justifying a day of nothing. If I'm sick, I have no problem about calling in to work and taking a day to recuperate. I'm much better off here at home, alone, with a day to fill on my own, rather than suffering through illness, feeling guilty for possibly infecting everyone else at work, and not really being there in mind, body, and spirit anyway.

Best to 'suffer' through a day at home, than to force a day of work out of my sick self. I always say.

However, being at home alone today has not been without it's challenges. First, there was the 'call in' phone call. I set my alarm to get up as usual, then called my boss to leave a message that I wouldn't be in today. I find this seems more 'real', rather than calling in late the night before. Even though I am legitimately sick, I always worry this call will not come off as sincere. There is a fine line between trying to sound convincingly sick, and over-doing sounding too ill to come to work. I find it best just to talk, as I am without 'playing' sick, saying as little as possible, giving as few details as possible, with the promise that I'll try to be in tomorrow. I find the less I say, yet the more legitimately non-awake I sound, the less room there is for error or speculation as to the validity of my illness. I don't call in sick very often, as I'm not sick very often. But when I do, I want my boss to feel like it was justified.

Next, there is the 'when to get out of bed' issue. When I'm too sick to even think about getting out of bed, this is not a problem. I just stay in bed. But when my illness is a cold or cough or combination (as I have today), eventually I need to get out of bed to take more medicine. The thought of getting up and out of my bed was hard today. I didn't sleep well, spending much of my night coughing with an itchy throat. Having finally gotten some sleep, this made it hard to get up this morning to get more medicine to prevent further coughing, and to progress my healing process. However, the phone call from my mom this morning to check on me immediately prompted me to get up. Talking to someone woke me up a bit, and since it was late in the morning, I decided to get up then, so I can be good and tired for a nap later this afternoon.

Then, there was the coffee issue. My rule is no coffee during workdays. I only drink coffee on the weekend. But, since I am at home and not at work, and I am sick, I decided to pamper myself and forego the rule. I made coffee, and I truly believe it helped my healing for the day. Coffee is sometimes the best medicine.

While I drank my coffee came the quandry of what to watch on Monday morning television. Daytime TV is not a luxury I normally have, so this opened up a world of exciting possibilities for me. It came down to a choice between The Price is Right (an old favorite), or Dawson's Creek in syndication. Ultimately, Price is Right won, since it was the 6,000th show, and the girl who won ended up being the highest all-time winner ever. Maybe I was sick today for a reason, to see this show. I can't be sure. But my illness was worth it (despite the lack of Plinko today), just to have the privilege of witnessing this historic television event. Next time I play Trivial Pursuit, I will be the only one who knows anything about this momentous occasion, as all of my friends are at work right now and didn't get to watch the show.

As for the rest of my day so far, I had breakfast at 11:30, took a shower after that (even being sick, I feel better being clean), and now it may be time for that nap I mentioned earlier.

I've also blown my nose 108 times, and coughed up at least three lungs.

It ain't all fun and games, being home sick today. But it'll do.

C.T.