I am not dead. I am, however, in sad shape.

I'm at work right now, and I really shouldn't be. But if I don't get some work done, I'll be so far behind it won't be funny. Still going to Gina's parents' tonight--that'll be fun. I'll make a great impression on her family, I'm sure. Actually, they know I'm sick, so I'm not worried. I just hope they aren't afraid that I'll get them sick.

I'm just wiped out today. Completely wiped out. I'm going to get as much work done as I can, I think, and get the hell outta here.

Oh yeah...Donna's out of the hospital and staying at Dave's parents' house. You can call her on her cell or email her.

Merry Christmas everyone--don't think I'll have time or energy to post again for a while.

Guess I should update.

I stayed home from work today. Both Gina and my mom said I should, and they were right. I probably would have gotten sicker. I woke up still feeling way off, but not as bad as yesterday. I slept most of the day today, but I had to finish my Christmas shopping, dammit.

So I drove over to Best Buy and Home Depot on North near Clybourn. It was already a madhouse there. But I got my stuff done and got the hell out. It wasn't bad. But for the 30 minutes of shopping I did, I was drained. Amazing what being sick can do to you, ya know?

I'm still not near 100 percent, but there's no way I can miss work again tomorrow. As much as I'd rather do that, I can't. Already I'm going to now be lambasted with work tomorrow and Friday. And tomorrow I have to leave work earlier than normal to get to Gina's parents' house for dinner.

So, evidently I had the flu, but stepped in (actually, Gina stepped in) soon enough to stop it before it got bad. I had no idea I was really sick yesterday (seriously, I'm bad at knowing that...I've never been able to tell if I feel hot or anything). But Gina said that when she got here yesterday, my face and neck were red. I guess it's good that she noticed that when she did, or I might be a ton worse right now.

Well, hopefully this thing continues to dwindle away to nearly nothing by tomorrow evening and Christmas Day. I can live with sniffing and coughing if that's all that's left. But I don't want the lethargic-ness and whatever else. :)

This is what I mean...my body always surprises me.

Apparently, I actually have a minor version of the flu. I don't have a thermometer, but I was running a fever earlier today--it has since broken for now...we'll see how I do overnight. I woke up this morning with my sinuses exploding, a pounding, nauseous headache and general soreness EVERYWHERE. I tried to walk to the bathroom and made it there and back but almost fell down four times. My inner ear gets out of whack when my sinuses fill up.

So I called Gina to cancel our day. She asked if I needed help, and I asked if she could come by and walk Kazak, because there was no way I was going to be able to do that. I had her pick up some soup and juice on the way.

Until about 1pm, I hadn't eaten or drunk anything, but I realized that if I didn't drink SOMEthing, I'd soon be dehydrated and my stomach wouldn't keep anything down. That would mean a hospital visit, probably. So I drank some water. Gina showed up and I drank some Sprite and FINALLY took some Dayquil. I didn't know if you could take it on an empty stomach or not. Apparently, you can. She made soup, and when I was eating it, I started sweating--the fever broke, and I felt a lot better after that.

I was thinking how it's kind of strange that, in three months living here, I've been bedridden twice now, whereas in three years in Bolingbrook, I can't remember a single time that I stayed in bed sick all day long. I don't know what that means, but I know I don't like getting sick this frequently. :)

Now, I'm going to go back to bed and take some Nyquil and go to sleep.

The evolution of an illness in myself always is an intriguing thing to me. Yeah, it sucks to get sick, but to me, it's always a partially interesting study as to how my body reacts to sickness.

Today, I woke up, throat marginally scratchy, but not bad--I thought it was just a "dry house" scratchy throat. It went away very quickly. I think now it was the telltale sign of a cold coming on.

Typically, when I get colds, I know they're coming--I get either a very specific headache or very specific sore throat. I know those pains by heart as indicators that I'm getting a cold. Well, today I went to church (again!) and was fine and went to work and was fine.

Until around 5pm, that is. That's when I started feeling somewhat sluggish. Then, I just started sneezing and coughing every now and then. It hit me about as fast as the food poisoning hits Capt. Oveur in "Airplane!"

But as hard as it hit me at first, it's been a slow decent into the full-fledged cold. I've gotten progressively worse, but at a very slow rate. Only about 15 minutes ago did I start getting the chills.

This really sucks though. Gina and I were gonna go to the Museum of Science and Industry tomorrow to see the Christmas Lights of the World display or whatever it's called. Plus, I want to see the "new" model train layout that is supposed to kick ultimate ass. But now, that's going to be a "game-day decision" when I wake up tomorrow.

I better not get sick for Christmas. I don't want to be sick at Gina's parents' house on Christmas Eve, when I'm going to be hanging out with her family all evening up to Midnight Mass, which I will then attend with them, to listen to the choir sing (and be jealous ;) ).

And, I don't want to be sick for Christmas Day either, obviously. That's my family's day, and I'd hate to ruin it for them. And I can't be sick on Tuesday either, because I'll probably have to do all my present wrapping then. Plus, I have some shopping yet to do...I can't be sick. I can't.

But it seems I will.