Ill

I'm ill!

I was ill over Christmas too, when I was home with my family. My brother said to me in Chinese, "I'll take care of you! I'll cook you congee, and tuck you in. I'll sing songs to you, and tell you stories."

I was excited.

"That sounds great!" I exclaimed.

The next day, at 5pm, after I'd been in a feverish stupor all day, I finally heard sounds of movement from his room that implied he was awake. I walked in to find him playing Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball.

"What happened to the congee and the storytelling?" I asked.

"Oh," he said. "I got lazy."

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Times when I'm ill are when I really want someone around to take care of me. When I got ill as a kid, my mother would cook me congee and put in a spoonful of sugar. That's what I want to eat when I'm ill. Today I ate a bunch of rice at work, for both lunch and dinner.

Not quite the same.

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My coworker Dave stopped by my desk yesterday.

"I'm going to make tea for myself," he said. "I know you're not feeling well. Would you like me to make you a cup?"

Awwwww.

My cold stone heart melted. It was so sweet. I lavishly praised Dave for how sweet he was.

He seemed happy with the lavish praise.

Today I praised Dave to all of our other coworkers. Several of them offered on the spot to make me tea as well. Hehe.

Work

In the morning I run my first 10k race.

I'm happy with work.

There is a quote from Julia Roberts in which she says, "After 'Erin Brokovich', I can never work again. I'll never find this script, this director, this character." I have similar feelings about my current group at work. I'm working 12 hours a day, occasionally 15, but only for a few hours on weekends.

Last Wednesday I worked for 24 hours straight, with a short nap from 4:30am to 7:30am in the massage room at work, in order to win a bet over whether I can fix all my bugs in 24 hours. It was like Caltech. It was the happiest 24 hours I've ever spent at work.

Someday I will look back fondly on these times. I'm in the honeymoon phase.