February 28, 2002

The flu just sucks.

It's been going around at work recently - both Dave and Philip were dead of it this past weekend - and for some reason I thought that I had avoided it, as I was exposed to the most virulent case of all (that belonging to my friend Kim) and hadn't fallen ill. I think now that I didn't fall ill then out of sheer stubbornness. I avoided being sick through opening because I just didn't have any time and then I postponed it further for the weekend because Walter was in town and I was going to be damned if I didn't get to do some serious drinking and rabble-rousing. As of yesterday I no longer had a good excuse I guess. During my afternoon class (yes - shocker, I know - I am attending classes) I started to feel a little tickle at the back of my throat - could be the beginnings of illness or just too much hanging around smokers. I ignored it. By the time I gave my friend Chris a ride home and headed off towards Norfolk, it had developed into scratchiness and I knew that I would be getting sick in the next few days. I got to work at 6, did my preshow checks and then went up to the office to talk to the Beths (we have two followspot operators, both named Beth.) By the time I had to go actually run the show, I was laying on the couch shaking and shivering, with full-blown fever and everything. I ran the show anyhow, but I was nigh unto useless and I made quite a few stupid board mistakes - on one occasion actually hitting the GO button accidentally because my hand was shaking too much. Finally the show was over and I could go home. Unfortunately for me, my car was parked a few blocks away at the Boush Street Garage. I wasn't able to find street parking and wasn't planning on being dead, so it hadn't seemed all that important to me when I was parking. Boy was that a long miserable walk, with the bitterly cold wind cutting my clothing to shreds and the chills wracking my body. I don't recommend it. Usually that garage closes at ten, which means that if you leave the garage after ten, you don't have to pay, which is why I park there. It has become a matter of pride with me to never pay for parking in Norfolk. (I've gone so far as to go check out books from the library just so that I can get the three free hours at the MacArthur Center Garage.) For some reason, on this particular night, they didn't actually close the little booth until 10:45. So I sat and waited.

When I did manage to get home, (the drive was pretty unbearable - I actually had to stop in Newport News and just sit in the car for a few minutes with my eyes closed) I came upstairs to the computer room, intending to write a "poor sick me" update and study for the midterm I had today in One Acts (a midterm I was not expecting, I might add.) By the time I checked my email I realized that none of that was going to happen. I went and took a very long very hot shower until my temperature had reached a temporary sort of equilibrium - or at least a truce. Then I went to bed. Where I stayed until about 10:30. So much for the studying for the midterm.

By the time I got to school I had about an hour, and I spent maybe half of that cramming with Mikey. The exam itself wasn't as bad as I had feared. It wasn't good, mind you, but just not as bad as I thought it would be. By half an hour before the exam I had expended all of the available energy for the day and could barely stand up unassisted. I was sitting in a chair and leaned forward and almost kept going onto the floor except that Mikey caught me. It was pathetic. I hate being pathetic like that. I'm not a pathetic helpless person and I absolutely detest being forced to be one. After the exam I crapped out on the couch in the student center until it was time to go to work and somehow, by the time I got to work and did my preshow checks, I was feeling considerably better. Not better enough that I was pleased to be standing upright, but at least better enough that I was relatively stable while sitting.

Lauren and Randy both offered to have Katherine run the show for me, which I respectfully declined, mostly out of sheer pigheadedness. But by the time the show went up, I was actually quite lucid and feeling considerably better. And the show was clean - none of this freaky errors shit. That was simply unacceptable last night. So I seem to be on the upswing again. Perhaps I should go out drinking. Alcohol kills germs afterall...

But the flu still sucks.

I hope that if Walter caught it while he was here, it at least waits until he is somewhere rather than just on the road to manifest itself. It would completely suck to feel that way and have many hours of driving ahead of you.

Speaking of driving, I am feeling the most intense wanderlust right now. I haven't really been anywhere in two months and it is making me nuts. I don't even care where I got, I just want to get in the car and go there. Just drive until I happen upon something interesting. Next week is spring break and if I hadn't chosen to run the show at VSC, I would be driving down to Mobile, Alabama for SETC (Southeastern Theatre Conference), and I think that would solve the problem, but as it is, I only have from after the Sunday show to before the Tuesday show free, and I can't get very far in that time. Perhaps a simple day trip will suffice - I could drive up to DC or something. Anyone have any suggestions?