Bringing Out the Living

Todd has been done with finals since Tuesday, but I spent the better part of the week lying on the couch sneezing, coughing, sleeping, moaning loudly, and whining.

I have a bad memory for experiences. I forget the plots of my favorite books, I only vaguely remember most of the stories my college buddies love to retell. And sometimes, when I am not sick, I think it would be nice to be sick. Sniffles, headache, sure -- but you get to lie around and drink juice!

But I forget how your nose burns constantly after you've been blowing it for 4 days, or how the ragged pain that accompanies a deep chest cough is always unreachable by water and lozenges. I forget what it's like when every single part of your body hurts, but just a little.

And I forget what it's like to get up the day you're finally feeling better and realize that the world has been going on without you THE WHOLE TIME. That your paper is still due on Thursday. That your friends went to pub trivia without you. That all the stores were open though you didn't leave your house. That the war on terror continues and the Israelis are no longer speaking to the Palestinians.

I feel ghost-like today.