(let the reader observe that this harks from the Fall of 2014)  

Maybe it’s the pollution or maybe it’s just being in a new environment with a host of new bacteria to sample. Either way, I certainly seem to be ill more often than I was in the States (except for that time when my multivitamins grew mold). I’ll talk about pollution someday in a fascinating, fact-filled, post but my brain’s a little too foggy for that today.  For yes, I’m sick for the second time this fall.

Last year was worse. It felt like I was in a wearisome cycle of either struggling out of being sick or tumbling back into it. Our first apartment was covered in a layer of dust so thick that when we moved in, it was like walking through a dusting of snow. Another year unoccupied and we would’ve needed a moon rover. Before moving into that apartment, I thought dust bunnies were a myth meant to scare children into chores. But now we use a backhoe just to shovel them up (don’t be deceived. The one pictured is just a baby dust bunny).   

Air filters don’t come standard so I thought that that was the problem. We bought an air purifier, summer came, and I was feeling fine. But now it’s autumn, yesterday it snowed, and I have a fever. James seems to be somehow immune to my germs, which doesn’t seem fair. But I have to be a good wife and remember that he is more prone to digestive afflictions. We just have different weaknesses; we’re a team that way.  

I suspect that my students, while grieved for me, are secretly happy because my illness means that I will probably forget something important in class…for instance, the quizzes, which I did totally forget to bring to class yesterday. I also forgot the attendance sheet for the class of 50. But the fun didn’t end in class. Tonight I found myself congratulating James on his “srouble tooting” after he’d figured out how to get an app to work again on his Mac. Of course I meant “trouble shooting.” It was pretty funny though and I laughed to myself as I tried to microwave my oatmeal in the refrigerator. Just kidding, I didn’t do that… it was a near miss. But I wouldn’t put it past myself.

Is this what it’s like to be blond – I mean, have dementia? because if it is I have more sympathy for those afflicted.  I mean, when I have a fever I honestly think that everything’s normal: I just have no memory of where my keys are…or my phone…and I’m a little sketchy about what I’m supposed to be doing. This morning I was walking to class, listening to a podcast through my earbuds, and I suddenly realized that my earbuds were not plugged into my iphone…but I could still hear the podcast through my earbuds. For a few very, very long seconds I fingered the phone in my pocket, making sure that no cord was attached. My brain was so foggy that I was seriously considering the possibility that somehow my earbuds were still out putting sound while not plugged into my phone, like how sometimes a printer will retain the data for an old project and print it out first thing when you’re in a hurry and you try to print out a totally different project.

Well, I was trying to figure out if sound could get lodged into the wiring and continue to play even after being disconnected…when I suddenly realized that there was also a phone in my back pocket and that the phone in my hand was actually James’ iphone. I had, with absolute innocence and confidence, taken James’ phone as well as my own. Simultaneously, I had neglected to pick up my just-in-case pack of tylenol and expectorant. I couldn’t return James’ phone without being late to class so, like a good wife, I just made sure to answer all his messages for him and hope that I didn’t type any improprieties in my present condition.

The upside to being struck down with illness is that it provides hours of guilt free napping and laziness, which I’ve fully taken advantage of these past two days. Funny how being sick makes the dishes and grading quizzes seem unimportant. Kind of resets priorities. The physical weakness is also a little humbling which is probably good for the soul. Maybe that’s one reason why God allows sicknesses: lest we think that we are invincible in brain or body.

Hm, I wonder what He uses to teach blonds?