The Mysterious Length of Days In Which You Are Sick
I am sick today, kind of this head-coldy can't-breathe everything is terrible kind of sick. I skipped church, because I felt awful and because I didn't want to infect anyone, then made it out of doors long enough to have lunch with my in-laws and walk around the Barberton Mum Fest for a bit, then Lucas took me home and I collapsed on the futon for about two hours, motionless except to lift my head and cough feebly. So yeah, it's been a pretty pathetic kind of day.
I'm sitting up now, which is a victory in itself, and semi-well enough to ponder the incredible *length* of days in which you are sick. Days in which you are sick and doing productive things are long, yes, but at least you are doing productive things that make the time go somewhat quickly. It sucks that you're sick, and maybe you're slower at the productive things and it takes your brain longer to figure out what you're doing, which certainly makes for a long day, but at least you have markers to divide up the day into recognizable -- and therefore measurable -- chunks.
Then there are days like today, where you are sick and can't do anything at all, and that kind of day is just interminably long. You can't do anything, so you're just laying around, and you feel like time is passing but when you dredge up the strength to look at a clock it's only been like fifteen minutes. You might sleep a little, but it's never as long as you think it is, and when you wake up you have that typical weirdness that you get when you take a nap in the middle of the day even if you're not sick added on to the weirdness of being sick, so you just have no idea in the world what day it is or how long you've been out or why it's still light outside -- or is it light outside again?
We got home from Mum Fest and I just stood and stared at the clock for a few minutes, unable to believe that it was not yet 4 when to my stuffy head it quite clearly should have been like 6:30 or 7. Now it's not quite 8 and it feels like it should be 10 or 11. If I go to bed too early, though, I know I'll wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning and be just as screwed, so I'm going to be in this bizarre limbo of time until I can finally drag my sorry self off to sleep. Does this call for time wasted looking up weird things on Wikipedia? I think so!
I'm sitting up now, which is a victory in itself, and semi-well enough to ponder the incredible *length* of days in which you are sick. Days in which you are sick and doing productive things are long, yes, but at least you are doing productive things that make the time go somewhat quickly. It sucks that you're sick, and maybe you're slower at the productive things and it takes your brain longer to figure out what you're doing, which certainly makes for a long day, but at least you have markers to divide up the day into recognizable -- and therefore measurable -- chunks.
Then there are days like today, where you are sick and can't do anything at all, and that kind of day is just interminably long. You can't do anything, so you're just laying around, and you feel like time is passing but when you dredge up the strength to look at a clock it's only been like fifteen minutes. You might sleep a little, but it's never as long as you think it is, and when you wake up you have that typical weirdness that you get when you take a nap in the middle of the day even if you're not sick added on to the weirdness of being sick, so you just have no idea in the world what day it is or how long you've been out or why it's still light outside -- or is it light outside again?
We got home from Mum Fest and I just stood and stared at the clock for a few minutes, unable to believe that it was not yet 4 when to my stuffy head it quite clearly should have been like 6:30 or 7. Now it's not quite 8 and it feels like it should be 10 or 11. If I go to bed too early, though, I know I'll wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning and be just as screwed, so I'm going to be in this bizarre limbo of time until I can finally drag my sorry self off to sleep. Does this call for time wasted looking up weird things on Wikipedia? I think so!