Back to the germ factory.

Does anyone else have the typical back-to-school cold? School germs work fast. No one in our house has been sick for at least five months, but a couple weeks into September sees us down with a cold. Although it is a pretty minor cold – the boys have had it and recovered quickly – it’s still annoying. I came down with a headache on Tuesday morning, and I was treating it all naturally and homeopathically, with various salt-water remedies, until I woke up this morning and said, fuck it, I’m going for the big guns. A Sudafed with my third cup of coffee and I feel marginally better, and significantly more jittery.

I don’t like to complain about things like colds, because truly, if no one is barfing, I’m happy. But really, the thing I hate most about a head cold is the whole “me brain no work good”. Like I was completely puzzled as to why the sink wasn’t draining when I rinsed out the teapot, only to find the offending teabag plugging the drain. Or how I became internally belligerent today at the grocery store because I couldn’t find the raisins, which were located exactly where they always are.

But MY WORD, the children. The children are so irritating. My husband says it’s not them, it’s me, which is true I’m sure but “Mom? Mom? Mom? Mom? MOM? Guess what? Mom? Guess what? Mom? Can I tell you something?” is getting to me. Are they honestly always like that and do I just not notice? Answer: probably. They seem to expect a response for every “Mom?” and even when I do respond, they continue to repeat it. “Mom? Mom?” It’s all I can do not to scream “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHAT? WHAT?” Generally by the time they finish their litany of “Mom?”’s, they have forgotten what they were saying in the first place. KILL ME.

The happy news is that the sun is out. After a summer which was, reportedly, one of the coldest on record, and ahead of what is supposed to be one of the coldest winters on record, the sun is actually shining and it is warm enough that I am not wrapped in the gigantic grey sweater my mother-in-law knitted for me ten years ago, as I have been for days. The kids have been happily playing at the school playground and I have been happily soaking up the sun, wearing three layers of sweaters. I am going to be well tomorrow, I just know it. It’s not just the Sudafed talking.

Comments

  1. There’s something going around here (not here here, but close to here) — Angus is sniffly but nothing major, and Eve is rashy, which usually precedes a cold. I really just want to get through my visit with my pregnant friend next week-end before I get all snotty and communicable. And yeah — drugs. Drugs are good.

  2. My kids and I are all sick with the cold. All the fault of effing school of course. MONTHS have passed with no disease and one week in we’re all laid out with it. I said this on Twitter the other day but I’ll say it again. For a non-life threatening virus, the cold really is a SOB.

  3. Sorry to hear you are sick. We haven’t yet had a September cold but I was so sick this summer I think I should be good for another month.

    We are having 30 C today. I will send you some heat.

    LisaDay

  4. Well we homeschool and I’m sick and I’m irritable. But then, I’m always irritable.

  5. This post made me laugh out loud in recognition. So many of my conversations with my kids start like this: Mom? Yes. Mom? Yes. Mom? Yes. Mom? Yes. Mom? WHAT????? Um, I forget.

    GOOD TIMES.

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