Skip to main content

Sick Days 2

I've mentioned before that getting sick is a source of amusement for me, largely because of the kids and the reactions I get from people at work. Well, it looks like I underestimated just how much laughter illness can cause. Yup, the whole process of getting sick managed to generate some (mild) amusement.

First of all, my brother got a pretty bad case of strep throat, so he had to miss some time at work. He is also around kids quite a bit, so it's not uncommon for one of those "vectors of infection" he works with to get him sick in some way, shape, or form. In this case, he managed to contract a case of strep throat. His supervisor, however, was far more concerned about the work schedule than the fact that he had a really high fever and could not keep himself out of bed. She said she was going to make him come in later that day (to which he roughly said, "you're not understanding. I cannot come in to work today."), and then she insisted on a doctor's note when he did come back. Since this was all a legitimate illness, my brother did as he was told. So, when he showed up to work a day before the doctor said he should be at work, he handed his supervisor the doctor's note. The note had one slight modification: the return date was highlighted, as a gentle reminder that he was, in fact, legitimately sick.

Not too long after, I got really sick myself. I'm not entirely sure what I got, but late one morning at work, I realized I had a high fever accompanied with chills. This was not good. So, for the first time that I can remember, I came home early. I felt a little bit like a slacker, but there really wasn't much I could do about the situation other than rest up. Of course, the little kids were around at that time, so they immediately questioned my presence when I got home. I told them I felt sick, and that I needed to rest. However, since kids will be kids, they kept hounding me and they wanted to generally be around me. Well, since I couldn't get them to lower their own risk of infection, I figured I'd teach them something. I explained that I had a fever, then I let them touch my forehead so they could understand what that meant (I also figured it'd be useful for them to be able to recognize this in themselves later on). They thought it was a game more than anything else, since they were rubbing my forehead. I definitely chuckled that I managed to turn "man, I feel horrible" into a game for some munchkins. In hindsight, it was a really good thing I went home early, since it took me all weekend to recover.

Of course, when I went back to work I had a couple of people ask me how I was feeling. Luckily, I was much better by then. One coworker actually remarked that despite occasionally having to call in sick due to munchkin cooties, I didn't actually miss all that much time from work (take that, "I used to get one day colds on test days" guy). In fact, she went on to contrast my situation with one of the guys on her team, whose immune system is apparently on strike. She said that not only did he get sick, but when his kid got sick, the entire family got sick, quickly. It was like they all had non-functional immune systems, so they were constantly passing around viruses and bacteria to each other. Her description cracked me up, and I was glad to see that at the very least, I wasn't the worst apple in the bunch.

All in all, this whole getting sick thing can be pretty funny. I've also decided that I'm going to keep a highlighter handy, so that I can teach some munchkins how to rib your boss with a doctor's note. It might come in handy some day.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All Good Things ...

August 8, 2009. Over twelve years ago, I started blogging with this simple post . I didn't really have a great reason for starting the blog, other than I wanted to try it out. I wanted to try writing and putting it where others could read it. I don't know, it just seemed like a new adventure to try. Along the way, there have been all sorts of posts and all sorts of life events, but through it all, I kept writing. It just became a part of what I do at some point. It wasn't a matter of whether I was going to write a blog post, it was a matter of when. The Mild Wife has described it as a "writing practice," and it was one of the reasons why I kept writing. Honestly, it's good practice, and it gives me an opportunity to hone my craft. I'm no professional author, but we all have to write stuff in our everyday lives. Why not give yourself reps to get better at it? However, I think it's time for that practice to change. My weekly anecdotes sure kept me amused...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dreams

Normally, I don't eat very many sweets. I tend to eat pretty generous portions, but I generally prefer savory food over sweet. In fact, I usually prefer things half as sweet when possible. My preference doesn't have anything to do with health reasons, it's just one of those things that I've always liked better. That said, I do inevitably eat dessert, particularly if I'm out with other people. My stance towards dessert is roughly equivalent to those who are social drinkers . If other people want to munch on something for dessert, I'm not about to cross my arms and refuse. That'd be just a tad gauche. So, I do eat some dessert. I even have a few standby favorites that I'll usually order when presented with them (brownies, creme brulee, and apple pie). But left to my own devices, I'm not about to go hunting for dessert. Apparently, this means that the sugar can really mess with my system under the right circumstances. As I've discovered, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

New York City Trip (Day 1)

After my crappy flight , I was now in Newark, New Jersey at 7AM on a Friday morning. I had done a little bit of reading up, so I knew which bus I needed to take and where I was going to get off. All in all, getting into the city was surprisingly easy. I suppose speaking the language does make things simpler. Through no real planning of mine (a theme of the trip, at least on my part), I picked one of the later bus stops at which to get off, Grand Central. I actually just figured that getting off at Grand Central would give me options, and heck, it's called Grand Central. That just screamed "decent place to disembark that might be close to some stuff" to me, so that's where I got off. However, it also meant that we drove down 42 nd St to get to my bus stop. That just happens to be a big street, and it gave me a glimpse of Times Square as we drove by. My bus stop choice had accidentally given me a rough layout of the city. Go me. I had about 6 hours to kill...
1 comment
Read more