Down with the Sickness

Being under the weather really sucks.

This one is a simple bug I think I picked up at the recent wedding I attended.  So many people, so much hugging and close talking, something's bound to have been transferred.  I chose to attend, and it was a calculated risk.  So be it.

I live a cloistered life.  Yes, the quarters at the sweatshop are somewhat cramped, with my 30 square feet (think about it) of office space and sharing the air with an airplane-load of people, but I usually only interact with a few people at a time, and thus I like to think it's not a monster vector, there.  With the deadlines on the second job tugging me along after them I usually don't get out very much.  Yes, I miss socializing terribly, even as I abhor the thought, but it's just a life I can't have too much of at this point.  If the first job keeps the lights on, the second one keeps me sane enough to keep going to the first.

I have two jobs, and the one that keeps me sane is the one victimized the most in all this.  It's the only one with a future, and it's the one I need to be the sharpest for;  it just doesn't pay so much if I don't deliver on it.  Social events, "popping over" (ha!  60 hours cratered) to see a friend next month, it all adds up, and I'm already overextended so it all gets taken away from the job I want to keep.  Add in the reduced performance while I'm a mucky cranky mess and it's comical.

It's nothing new, and it's far from unique.  I think the biggest bummer is that I can't put off being sick for a time when I'm sure I'll have relief from the deadlines.  Or maybe I can be sick, but only three nights during the week until my penance is paid.  Do they have a suspended sentence for illness?  If I'm losing time, I think I'm already in the Bargaining stage.

Thank god my second job isn't driving a cab or something, working for some guy like Louie in the old TV show.  I think I'd not be even as social as I am now.