Cold – 1, Me – 0

OK, I finally let this cold get the best of me and stayed home today from work. The reasons I feel guilty for being sick are 3 fold:

1) I had an executive board meeting this morning at 7:30 that I had to skip. I also have another board breakfast meeting at 7:30 tomorrow.

2) My boss only has 4 days of work left and we have SO much to cover. Luckily, my boss and her boss were so great this morning about me staying home – they know what I have coming up at work with my boss leaving and want me to be healthy and productive.

3) I feel like I have been slacking around the house lately. I was out of town Friday through Sunday and then I get home and basically lay around the house for the past 2 days. I know Brian is hurting and needs some help getting things done and I just don’t feel like doing anything – at all.

I honestly don’t have time off to take for a sick day – I find that utterly amazing since I get 5 weeks vacation a year. Where does it all go? I took a week to go to San Francisco, a week when my mom came for my cousin’s wedding, I have a week off scheduled to go to Florida in October and then 4 days off around Christmastime. A day here and a day there – like a day to do the WomenBuild in September, a day off in July when I first started this job and there wasn’t much going on . . .and here I sit with no time left.

We are supposed to save 5 days of vacation for the 4th quarter, which for us, ends March 31st. I will just have to suck it up and use one of those days to take today off.

And my cold? I feel better sitting around the house but I was miserable at work the past few days. I usually get your run of the mill cold – annoying but not very debiliating. This one? Achy, terrible sore throat on Monday and now, this dry, hacking cough that won’t stop, especially at night. With every breath I take, I feel this tickle and can’t stop myself. It makes my head hurt, my throat hurt, my chest hurt so I am sucking down every liquid I can get my hands on and popping cough drops like crazy.

I tried to get some work from my boss’s to do from home today but both are insistant I do nothing but rest. So – I have my TV regimen for my days off:

7-9am – The Today Show
9-10am – A Baby Story on TLC
10-noon – Reruns of ER on TNT

After that, I will probably pop in a movie because there is jack shit on daytime TV between noon and say 3pm. I also am going to try and get a few things done around the house to help Brian a little and then stay as far away from him as possible so he doesn’t get sick. He really is the sweetest – kept checking on me during the night to make sure I was OK when I coughed, that I didn’t need anything. . .GOD, am I ever lucky to have him!