Nope, it is not a title of a movie (though it could be one of the chapters of "Life of Bryan") but rather the feeling that I have every time I catch cold.
All through last fall, especially when the weather got quite cold in Frankfurt, I went out of my way to stay healthy, eat right, exercise, and avoid getting sick. This proved a little tricky over Christmas break during my stateside trip, as my sister, my father, and my nephew all experienced some cold like symptoms during my visit.
Fortunately, I stayed healthy over the next weeks and months. There were a couple of nervous moments in January when I thought I was about to come down with something, but I fought my way through it. Life has been a bit quiet during this first part of 2017, and I am not out and about quite as much as I am used to. There are lots of reasons for this, but I will save that for a later topic. I can simply summarize it by saying I haven't recently felt like singing "If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands" at the top of my lungs each day.
At any rate, with my regular trips to the gym and my efforts to stay healthy, I have been feeling pretty lucky to stay out of the sick bay.
Until two days ago.
Late last week, I got up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water, and somehow managed to squeeze the plastic bottle in a way that splashed me right in the face. Normally, I would find this rather humorous, but at 2am in the dark kitchen, I was more bemused than anything else. And wet.
The next morning, I did manage to chuckle about the experience, putting it into the category of (sort of) funny things that can happen to oneself, like inadvertently spraying yourself in the eye with an aerosol can or tripping on an invisible step while walking down the street.
My mental note to try and avoid repeating the water splashing in the future paid off, as I got through the weekend without further incident, until Monday morning when I sneezed three times in quick succession.
Shit, I am coming down with a cold.
Sure enough, the rest of the day just went downhill. Nonstop sneezing, drippy nose, the works. I had hoped that things would quickly progress into the simply congested stage, but I am still in drippy sneezy mode right now. That basically means that I have gone through several boxes of tissue so far.
This morning, my nose is finally red, so I am not looking forward to the trip to the grocery store to pick up more tissue; Christmas was two months ago so the time for Rudolph is past us.
For some reason, I always think of the 7 Dwarfs when I catch cold. Sneezy and Grumpy, for obvious reasons, but I somehow connect with the other 5 for the duration. Happy comes at the end, when I finally feel like I am returning to the land of the living.
Over the past several years, I have begun to tire of working "home office." However, it is weeks like this one where I am almost overjoyed to endure my misery in the solitude of my kitchen.
Here's hoping that the cold passes quickly and I am back on the beat very soon.
keep the faith
bryan
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