I'm getting sick.
I can just feel it - the itchy throat that feels like I swallowed a tube of chapstick, the runny nose, the sinus pressure. No mistake, I'm coming down with a cold.
May I make a confession? I am so happy to be getting sick!
I know it sounds completely crazy, but there is reason behind my madness. Since moving to Mozambique a year ago, the only times I've gotten a cold have been at HOME. Be it in the Casa Rosa in Rio or my mom's house in San Francisco, something in me knows that I'm safe and that there is somebody to take care of me if I let down my guard and get sick. Home is a place where you are allowed to be vulnerable, and where the world won't end if you are unable to travel or work or drive the car because you feel so terrible. Home is a place where being sick means you lie in bed all day, have some soup or some tea, watch DVDs and have somebody to cover you with a blanket and listen to you complain about your sore throat or your splitting headache.
Until now, some primal part of my body didn't feel safe enough here to let down the defenses and get a cold. But now - in our new flat in Maputo where I've been giving in to all urges to put down roots - something has changed. My mind and now my body feel at home. Safe. This is my space.
So I am happy to be getting a cold. The only thing better would be if I could weasel a sick day out of the whole thing and stay home from work. Unfortunately, when you work from home staying home from work loses all appeal!
Being sick has also provided an excellent excuse for me to skip out on dinner tonight with a client that I particularly dislike being around. Rico is out right now at one of Maputo's best Italian restaurants with the guy and has promised to bring me back freshly made tortelloni.
While I wait for my gourmet delivery dinner, I am using the internet at my brand new wooden work desk!! We had 2 desks custom-made and they were finally ready today. Just having a proper office space has made a tremendous difference in our productivity. I think Rico and I worked more today than we have in a long, long time given that we don't have any deadlines looming. The sheer excitement of having a real, honest to God home office gave us some much-needed motivation and we worked a full day.
Well, we took a break in the afternoon to go to the gym, but in my book that still counts as a full day's work. Today was leg-day on the weight machines and I can already feel that I am going to be a very sore girl tomorrow. It's only been 2 days, but the satisfaction of making it to the gym and being disciplined about our workouts makes me grin from ear to ear!
All things considered, not a bad day at all!
1 comment:
Wow -- that's such a positive way to look at what would normally be sort of a bummer -- coming down with a head cold.
Hope you managed to avoid it!
I use those Emergen-Cs, too...the packets you dissolve in water? They make me feel a little hyperactive, but they certainly seem to have superhero powers!
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