How I Spent My Halloween
For the first time this year, I was really, truly sick. It’s the kind of illness where I had to be bedridden for days. At first, I thought it was an allergy, that somehow, I developed an insane reaction to my brother’s lasagna. But the doctor who inspected me said what I had was measles and I had to stay in bed for at least five days. The pink polka dots that covered me will be gone in a few days, she said. Just drink plenty of water and don’t get stressed out. The diagnosis was a surprise: I thought I already had measles when I was six or seven. (So maybe that was an allergic reaction.) But I’ll take the measles over the lasagna allergy anytime. I love pasta and just thinking that I wouldn’t be able to eat it anymore distresses me. It’s more than enough that I cannot eat chocolates without breaking into hives and needing an antihistamine injection. I mean, come on, give me a break.
In a related incident, VJ’s reaction upon hearing the news was priceless: “Measles? Oh my God. Weird. I thought the WHO and the UNICEF had wiped it off the planet Earth?” Uh, VJ, I think it was small pox.