Homesick

Welcome to sick bay. I have a heavy cold, the one that The Little One, Stan, and my Mom had. Stan has bronchitis, a complication from his cold. And The Little One has the flu.

Last night we played shuffle the beds. The Little One is enconsed in my bed, with the remote controls, juice, kleenex, and Motrin next to her.  Normally when she's that sick, I'll sleep with her, but I would prefer NOT to get the flu,  so I stayed with her until it was bedtime, asked her not to breathe in my direction and I obsessively am washing my hands every time I hand her something. I fell asleep in the bed, on Stan's side (which you all know is just like not even being in your own bed if you are on the wrong side!), because she wanted to watch the final to The Biggest Loser. When I woke up, the show was over and she had slept through it. I went to find my husband, who was sleeping in Julia's bed (probably not a great idea either from a germ point of view.)

I was dithering on about having nowhere to sleep when chivalry came to my rescue and Mystery Man offered his bed. Hmm. Germs or just plain crud? He agreed to pick up the dirty laundry land mines, and I grabbed a sleeping bag and threw it on top of the bare mattress (kid hasn't been able to keep sheets from falling off his bed since he was 5). I actually like sleeping in his room because he has a window right next to his bed and fresh air streams across your face all night if you leave it open a crack.

Things were fine until 5:00 a.m. when bumps in the night over my head woke me up. Mystery  Man was sleeping on the third floor - or not sleeping, obviously. Two hours later when Stan and I got up for work at 7:00, Mystery Man popped his head into the bedroom and greeted us all heartily. Why are you up so early and what've you been doing since 5?? Oh, no, I'm not up early, I never went to bed. I slept so late yesterday that I just stayed up all night. The banging noises? I was looking for the Yankee hat in the attic because I haven't found it since I left for school.

Right. I always look for articles of clothing at 5:00 above MY SLEEPING SICK MOTHER'S HEAD.

Four more days, folks, four more days and he's back in the world of college and kids who never sleep because they are addicted to X-Box and Halo. i swear I"m going to send his tuition bill right to the makers of X-Box.

And now I'm going to court to sneeze on everybody because no matter how sick you are at our office, you get up and cover court. Most people then go to work where they make certain they blow their nose in front of you and sneeze loudly and look as crappy as possible so they can win The Attorney Martyr of the Year Award.  I, however, have long given up on pretending to be more than I am and I'm coming home to take care of my daughter and share the kleenex. If you see me coming, give me wide berth and I promise to cover my mouth when I sneeze.