sick day(s)

I've been sick all week long.  I thought yesterday that I was finally feeling better, but when I tried to go to work for the afternoon I was so exhausted and felt like such crap, I turned around and came home after a few hours.  I have a meeting with my pro bono client this afternoon, so I have to go in, but for now I am taking advantage of the silence of my house and doing my work in bed, with coffee and my cat, in my pajamas.  So I can nap intermittently if I want to.  I'm just going to say, I am NOT a person who enjoys being sick.  I cannot run.  I don't like being tired.  I like to do things myself, thank you, and I can't stand looking around at chores that need to be done when I don't have the ability to do them (hello, sink full of dishes).

(Breakfast in bed is one of the few perks of being sick.

Yes, the mug says blogging queen; isn't Kathy cute?

She got it for me shortly after I started this blog.

Note the novel and bottle of Advil just peeking into the frame.)

But this week has been the best sick week I have ever had.  I developed more of the plan I hinted at yesterday.  I'm super-slow at work, so (until today) I could actually take sick time off which is something I haven't been able to do in three years.  Not working from home, off.  And next week, we are going on a family vacation.  Which is, I suspect, when being sick will stop being quite so much fun.

Here is the thing.  Kathy left this morning for a business trip in Boston.  She is flying directly to Orlando, for another business trip.  She is flying directly from Orlando to Pittsburgh, where she will land on Saturday afternoon.  We rented a cute little house outside Pittsburgh and near a ski resort.  But how, you are asking, are the rest of us going to get to Pittsburgh?  We are driving.  Me, three children, a vehicle without a DVD player, and a 7 hour road trip.  Before I got sick, a lot of people commented that I was "brave" for embarking on this little adventure.  Now that I have this horrible chest cold that I can't shake, I am starting to feel like "idiot" might be a better descriptive term.

In general, the kids are really good.  If you add in the fact that they are excited to be going on vacation, excited to be just kids and step-mom, and excited about the fact that I promised them McDonald's and at least a half hour in the disgusting play pen (totally selfish -- I want them to burn up their energy), they are definitely going to be on their best behavior. But I don't even know any adults who can last through a 7 hour car trip without feeling a little "are we there yet?" after, oh, I don't know, hour FIVE. 

So here is my brilliant plan.  I am going to get a book on CD.  Longer than a movie, can be stopped to go into the McDonald's and re-started, not dependent on the length of battery on my laptop.  I know, I'm brilliant.  Specifically, I was going to get them this:

(via)

I know.  Genius.  Even sick people have good ideas. 

One last little parting thought about being sick with kids.  My mom has MS, which is an auto-immune disease.  That means that when she got sick, she was SICK.  And yet.  I never, ever noticed when I was a kid, with one exception (where I attempted to make her dinner in bed but forgot to drain the water out of the macaroni and cheese so it was like soup, and she ate it anyway).  I don't know how she did it.  She must have been so tired!  So thanks, Mom. :-)