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06-15-2000 Back to all Archives Back to 2000: April - June Archives Back to Current Entry list |
I left work early today because I am sick. In fact, I've been doing this all week - going home early because I'm sick. This thing started last Friday as a cold, which was mildly annoying but not so bad except for the whole snuffly thing. Unfortunately it turned into something nastier by Monday, complete with fever and aches and a lovely sore throat. A sane person with a less hectic job might have taken a day or two off to recuperate, but my job is of the 'more hectic' variety (and we just won't go into the whole sanity issue), which this week has translated into meetings every day for project planning. And considering that two factions of the project have not been playing nicely, I felt a distinct need to be there, if only to try to present my particular niche of this happy little family in as positive a light as possible, and to prevent any waves or snarls from the more testosterone-enhanced members of the crowd. You see, when it comes to this project I'm the only female on the development side, and one of only 2 in the entire group, not counting the extra-sweet lady who is unfortunate enough to be the admin to all the people who run this project. She does an admirable job considering they run her ragged on a daily basis. So this can often be an interesting concern of mine. I'm not so sure my male coworkers would necessarily agree, but then they don't see things quite the way I see them (being less testosterone-enhanced). Butting heads has never been my style and I make it a point to try to avoid letting people on my team do it either. Yes, yes. Mean ol' boss lady - I think we established that earlier. But anyway, I felt the need to be there at the meetings, and thankfully they went relatively smoothly. At the end of each day I would stagger off to my car, drive home, down some cold medicine, and then curl into bed with a box of tissues. My fiancé has been incredibly sweet, worrying about me and checking on me - something that is a bit odd to handle - considering I've been taking care of myself all alone for the better part of ten years. You see, I hate being really sick. I hate feeling helpless, being completely exhausted just walking to the car, not being able to rest because I can't breathe, and this constant coughing. I know I have to rest and when it's as bad as it's been I have no choice. But then I start to feel better - that false bravado that ends a bout with the flu - and I want to *do* things instead of lying in bed sniffling pitifully. Except I still don't have enough energy and then it only makes me cranky. I have a greater tendency to snap at people when in reality my frustration is at myself and not them. It seems to be going away though - finally. I'm hesitant to get too excited yet, since this stupid virus relapsed on Monday when I was thinking I was over the darn thing. But so far so good. Besides, the timing couldn't be better. I have no meetings scheduled for tomorrow. I could quite easily take tomorrow off and stay home to recuperate. It wouldn't inconvenience me at all. Can you think of a better time to get healthy than that? |