No Sleep...

I began washing dishes on Friday afternoon, and my nose began to "stuff up".  Thinking it was allergies, I  just brushed it off.  I continued on with my plans of having Olga come over that evening and help me with one of my Russian lessons.  I tried to assure her that I only had allergies, and it certainly wasn't a cold (at least, that's what I had convinced myself of at that point), but I'm not sure if she believed me or not.  I tend to resort to saying I have allergies everytime I get a little sniffle or cough going on.  If you tell anyone you have a cold or may have a cold, they automatically give you that SARS look and want to toss you into quarantine.  I find that you don't create a 50 foot radius around you if you just say it's allergies...even if you know it not to be true.

Friday night, however, I wasn't able to sleep.  I would guess that I had about one hour of sleep that night, and I had to be up at 7:00 for work Saturday morning.  Not only was I sick, but I was stressed out about a few things going on.  I was tempted to call in sick to work, but I knew that calling off on Saturdays just doesn't fly, and I really didn't feel like getting yelled at.  Therefore, I sucked it up and went to work only to find that about a quarter of our morning crew had called off sick.  Yes, folks, 95% of our coworkers are sick; hence (probably) why I'm sick right now.  This is my fourth time since the end of November that I've been sick.  Burlington must be a warehouse for bugs.  I think I need to be thrown in a bubble.

All day Saturday, I felt like I needed to go home, but I stuck through the whole eight hours and finished out my day.  I came home, and I tried to relax by watching some episodes of Party of Five in between attempting to sleep (the sleep part didn't happen).  Meanwhile, Jon and Ron played Warcraft III and Neverwinter Nights 2 in the other room.  During quiet parts of my show, I could faintly hear the sounds of towers and farms being destroyed.

That night I got about another hour or two of sleep, so collectively, I had about 2-3 hours of sleep between those two nights.  I knew I had to try to stick it out for last night.  After all, it was my idea, so I needed to show up:

A couple weeks ago, I asked Olga if she'd like to go out to dinner for her birthday, and our department would treat.  She obliged, so we set up a date for February 11th.  Little did I know I'd be sick as a dog on this day.
We went to Golden Corral and were sat next to 3 or 4 tables (long tables) of very obnoxious, black folks (I apologize for bringing race into it, but it gives you an idea of the noise level we were dealing with).  I was battling an oncoming fever and headache as it was, so that didn't help.  I leaned over to Roni and said, "It must be fried chicken night," where she jokingly scolded me and told me to be nice.  In all seriousness though, I think it really was fried chicken night.  That's about all they had up there for meat besides fish (neither of which I like).

Other than the food situation, the obnoxious table neighbors, and being sick, I had a good time.  I asked the staff to make an announcement for Olga's birthday (which, in reality, is the 18th, but she's planning on relaxing all day at home), and she actually didn't get upset over it like I thought she would.  At least they didn't come over to the table, sing to her, and throw a sombrero on her head.
Sue picked up a card for her at Hallmark, and we all signed it.  I added my own Russian touch to it for her by writing "Happy Birthday" in Russian for her (which is s'dnyom razhdyeneeyah, by the way).  I'm not sure if she could read my writing (she didn't mention it), but I tried to make it big enough.

After dropping Roni off, I came home, barely made it through a trip to Wegman's with Jonathan, and then I crashed.  I got a few more hours of sleep last night, which was a relief compared to the past two.  However, I still felt too wiped out to come into work today, so for the first time since I've been there, I called in sick, and thankfully Christine was the manager to answer the phone, so I didn't have to hear an earful when I called (amen for that).

I'm thinking a little more sleep, some hot chocolate (the only kind of chocolate I'll consume), and some more Party of Five or King of Queens box sets are in my future.  That's some good R&R...