Day 23: Sick Leave

After a wonderful day yesterday, I woke up at 4am. I was thirsty, I was a bit dizzy, and I needed to get out of my room. I headed down to the kitchen to get a drink, and stayed downstairs feeling like the worst was yet to come. Turns out my instinct was right. Shortly after my mum came down to check on me, I got sick.

I can't really plan for being sick. Worse, I can't plan for the feeling of being exhausted and drained and completely unlike myself. Once again, I didn't get to write. I think I need to re-determine what it is I want to accomplish this month in terms of writing. I reckon if I can at least just finish writing The Blood of Leap I will have done something I can be proud of.

As for today... well, once I was free from the great white phone to God, I sat in the living room with a blanket over me and a glass of Sprite on the table, most of the fizz removed. It seems to be the go-to drink when someone gets sick in this house. I watched a short show on BBC about royal babies, and headed back up to bed.

It was after half seven by the time I fell back asleep, and I woke up at half ten to a phone call from my mum asking how I was. Although I was tired - then, and from that point on - I didn't get sick again. It took a long time to get my appetite back, though.

Since I knew it wouldn't be a good idea to sit in my room all day, I stayed downstairs and watched DVDs. My room is both too hot and too far away from a bathroom to be a good resting place when I don't know if I can keep food down.

Anyway, I ended up watching a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'd been watching Season 2 a while back, but one particular episode kept freezing on me. I took a guess at where I'd left off, and started with the next episode. And that's how I spent the day, watching the remainder of Season 2.

I'm hoping that tomorrow I can do some work. Mainly, I just want to feel more like myself again. I'll write some poetry, write some fiction, do some reading, and hope that my stomach doesn't bother me again.

I'll leave you now with a quote from Buffy, one that I thought was worth remembering:

“Bottom line is, even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.”