I Have a Code in My Node

Started Friday night with sore throat and headache. Gradually began sneezing and sniffling. Full blown snorting, slurping, sneezing, coughing by Monday.

People in my office are refusing to come into my office and are instead  throwing papers at me that have to be signed. I bring something over to an admin to work on and she begins fanning the air with a file folder. Scuse me? Do I smell? Germs!

Then my boss, who will come to work on a stretcher, tells me to go home after I sneeze ten times in the middle of the file room. I tell them I'll do a deposition midday tomorrow but not come in beforehand.

By 8:00 a.m. I am phoning the office to tell them to find someone else to do it.

Gawd, I HATE taking a sick day to be sick! Do you know how many days this summer I will want to stay on Cape Cod??

But I'm home. Ready to stay in bed with the TV tuned to On Demand. Maybe The Teen will bring me a cup of tea when she's home on her free period.

What?

Dogs go away! Take a nice nap on mommy's bed.

OK, I know you've been napping for an hour but mommy's not done.

I hoist my achey, sneezy self out of bed, put on my robe with the hood, get my laptop, work laptop, books, journal, and giant bag of work and trudge downstairs. Make a fire. Open door to porch. Prop open outdoor door to porch. Throw out a handful of Cheerios. Grab an afghan.

Take a water bottle from the porch out of Cucch's mouth and give him a treat. Take top of bottle out of his mouth before he swallows it and give him a treat. Make Bella Sera come inside cause she's barking at the neighbor.Give her a treat.

There's a large wet spot on the sofa. WTFoolhardy? Both dogs look at me and shrug.

The Teen comes home with two friends. Oh, this is my mom's sick get-up. I pull my pink polka dot robe closer around me and hide the red nose with my hood. She's a pink smurf. In all their healthy youth they barely acknowledge me and go to the diner for breakfast. Seniors!

Bella Sera is sleeping in front of the fire. And Cucch - Cucch? Cucch! I thought he was on the landing, but certain girls left the door to the third floor open. I run up the two flights of stairs, gasping for breath. Please, please, please, I am praying. The Princess has beautiful curtains from Anthropology instead of doors on her large closet. That means that her massive array of shoes is exposed to a young dog's teeth, his specialty.

It's good. He's only eaten a Tootsie roll lollipop she got in her Easter basket and pulled her cosmetic bag onto the floor and scattered it everywhere. Oh, and gone through her garbage, but it's benign.

Herd both dogs down two flights of steps, give more treats. Settle into recliner.

Cucch comes flying in from the backyard with a big stick in his mouth. Oh, how cute! he wants me to throw it. I put down all my work and tighten the robe and go out on the chilly porch to throw the stick and soon as I hit the porch Cucch makes a U-turn, flies back into the living room, onto my chair and eats all my dirty tissues that are on the table.

Right now Bella Sera is voluntarily sitting in her crate. Cuch is laying on the sofa with his head on my toile pillows. JayLo is on Regis in a sparkly dress. The Sudafed has stopped the sneezing and runny  nose but now I can't breathe at all through my nose.

No sign of The Teen with my triple venti skim cap.  The living room is freezing with the porch door open. There's no food in the house.

I shoulda gone to work. Breathed all over the client for the depo. And not cancelled my hair appointment - again.

I rattle the dog crate doors in a warning to The Cucch. He ignores me and goes to sleep on the sofa.

 It's only 9:30 a.m. I have a ton of work to keep me occupied.

I nap a little and then the sound of pans crashing in the kitchen wakes me. 

Cucch!

Only 10 hours till Mr. Pom gets home.