Pummeled By A Cold

Hack, cough, gasp, sneeze. 

Yup, that's me, at least for the last 24 hours. I had a slight headache Tuesday night which I attributed to the excitement of the competition. But I woke up Wednesday morning (yesterday) with a cold that had grown to full-fledged strength in the night. Wednesday is my busy day in town, so I hauled a box of tissues around with me in the morning and cancelled my afternoon appointments to come home and go to bed.

Last night was unpleasant. I woke up every hour with nausea. This morning is better. I slept in (still in bed, as a matter of fact, as I type this) and am probably going to nap again in a few minutes. The nausea seems to have passed but now my ears are completely clogged up. I have an interview in High Point I'm conducting this afternoon at 2:30 so I'm hoping if I take it easy until then, I'll get through it without too much difficulty.

I'm a wimpy sick person. I head to bed at the first sign of a sniffle. But my body just craves sleep when I'm sick. Allow me 48 hours in bed and I'll be back as good as new.

Only I don't really have 48 hours. The only outing I have today is my 2:30 meeting, which is good. But starting tomorrow, the race is on. My friend Ed Schubert and I are teaching two 45-minute classes at a local high school. They're creative writing courses and the teacher wanted to bring in "real" writers to talk about their work, how they stay motivated, the writing process, the publishing process, etc. It should be a lot of fun although I find myself reverting to high school attitudes and calling Ed to ask, "So what are you going to wear?"

Then tomorrow night, Ed, myself, and another friend Pam are among some writers reading our work at The Green Bean, the same downtown cafe where I held my book launch. It will be short - each writer is reading two 3-minute non-fiction pieces. But I have no idea what I'll be reading and so need to spend today combing my files for something appropriate.

Then Saturday I'm teaching a creative writing course through UNCG and I need to prep for that.  Assuming I make it through all this, I believe I will collapse on Sunday. But not for long, as the speed-dating book signing event is Monday. That's quite a lot for someone who is off the charts on the Myers-Brigg test as an introvert.

But for now....I must nap. (Just threw that in there to make all you working stiffs jealous). <grin>.