2003-12-11 - 9:10 p.m.

Call me Typhoid Mary

It�s hard to believe that this could possibly be true�.but yes, I am sick�AGAIN. It all started Tuesday afternoon � goodness, I seem to have some problems with my asthma today. Must be because it�s so cold out.

WHAM. Tuesday and Wednesday are both spent awake all night in flu misery. I guess I was getting cocky about being healthy again, and so I dared both to drink Julia�s homemade Hungarian Gluehwein (and I remember very little after that), but also to visit my friend Jo at the Kinderklinik (Children�s Hospital). Her baby Woody arrived in J*na and promptly came down with pneumonia and has been forced to eat German hospital food with an IV stuck in his head. (in spite of the food, he�s much improved now, by the way). So after 3-4 visits, TADA! I am here at home with my head under a towel breathing camomille tea and trying to poison myself with repeated doses of the most disgusting German healthy herbal tea money can buy (it was a gift � and I�m serious about the poisoning part � I can�t read what�s in it, maybe you�re only supposed to have one cup per day.) The good thing is, in my current state I can�t taste a thing.

This all comes at a great time. Today was the test for my video conference scheduled for 16 December. It was also the planned date for decking the halls of the institute with the millions of strands of decorations we had collected. And I lay on a short uncomfortable sofa in the reading room just wishing that I could fall into a coma. But of course, my mind went whizzing in circles about work deadlines, the fact that my entire office has to be packed by tomorrow afternoon, that the moving vans are coming on Monday, there are two parties and concerts in between..and I have to give a �very important talk� on Tuesday that could heavily influence my future. A talk for which I have no time to prepare, obviously. Yikes.

My mother says, one thing at a time. First bring in laundry. Second, breathe steam. Third, make another pot of unbearable tea. Fourth, back into bed. I think that�s as far as I can get at the moment.