In which the author realizes that flu shots may be worth $15 after all.

This is a significant blog post for me. It is my 300th, and it comes not much more than a year after my 200th, which means I was quite a prolific writer in 2008. It seems appropriate to do something special for my 300th blog post, and I actually had something special planned. But it turns out that the Something Special involves scanning a particular image into my computer, and it also turns out that the scanner is located on the desk in my bedroom, and I am located on the couch in my living room, and at this very moment that distance seems pretty much insurmountable.

I really did not see this coming. I actually started getting sick way back on Thursday. I felt achy during the day, and then developed a splitting headache in the evening, but I was up and about all evening, and by the time I got home I had taken some Advil and was feeling mostly okay. That night I didn't get much sleep because I was coughing. But I saw that as a positive development because my sicknesses always end up in my chest, and if it was already there then it meant I was on the upside. Friday I felt a little tired and a little achy and had a little bit of a cough and not much appetite, but I didn't think a lot of it because it didn't interfere with any of my normal activities.

Even this morning I had no reason to believe anything was wrong. I got up and ate breakfast and made a grocery list and went to Kroger before the storm hit. I went to the fitness center to do my run, and that was when I started to realize something was not right. I thought it was just that I still had a cough, and that the cough was affecting my breathing. I cut my run a little short, came home, got in the shower, stayed in for about 20 minutes, and by the time I got out, I was done for.

I have barely moved from the couch since then. My face and my pillow are burning hot, but if I take off my quilt I get cold. I had two movies from the library that I'd gotten in anticipation of spring break, but after the first one I realized that remote controls are still woefully primitive technology, and if I wanted to watch the second one I would have to actually get up and switch the discs. I haven't gotten there yet. I might have been able to, except I also had a dog who had not been out for 7 or 8 hours, and I used up my reserves to walk him around our apartment building. Jin is so bored that he actually went and began playing with his toy completely on his own initiative.

I keep thinking that I'm being melodramatic about it. But the truth is, being sick never floors me like this. I honestly can't remember the last time being sick had me sprawled out on the couch for more than an hour nap. I think maybe I have the flu. Or possibly the black death. I don't know because I haven't googled the symptoms yet.

While I was resting on the couch, it suddenly occurred to me that living alone and being sick is one of the saddest things in the world. I have never been sick and completely alone before. What do people do when they live by themselves? I don't live alone, technically, but with my roommate gone for spring break, I realized that I would have no human contact for the entire day. No one to ask if they could do anything for me. No one to take my dog outside. No one to retrieve my Tylenol Cold and Flu from my medicine cabinet. No one to switch my DVD discs. It's not that I wanted someone who could wait on me, really. It just seemed really sad to have absolutely no one to even say, "Oh, I'm sorry you're sick. I hope you feel better soon!"

About an hour after thinking all these thoughts, I got a call from Nina, who was seeing if I was up to anything tonight. "Is there anything I can do for you?" she asked when I said I was feeling really sick, and I paused and said, "No, actually. Just being able to say 'I'm feeling really miserable' to someone helps a lot." And I really meant it. Then we chatted for a few minutes, and she sympathized with my being sick, and I just felt grateful that sometimes when someone picks up the phone, they manage to call exactly the person who needed to be called.