Because I'm Tough, People!

I woke up this morning far too early, like, say 7-ish. Sure, for those of you with "jobs", that might seem timely, or even late. But my work consists of finding excuses not to clean the apartment, thinking of clever things to tweet, and coming up with blog topics.

So I dragged myself up off the sofa/bed and took my daily Claritin and calcium pills. (Aside: Do NOT buy the tropical fruit-flavored generic Tums if you don't like the taste of coconut.) I fed the cat and wandered back to bed for light napping and watching TV.

About 10-ish, I came more to life. Enough so to notice that my throat hurt. This was a different pain than the one from Saturday morning, where, during an unusually large yawn, I managed to dislocate my jaw. (The joke's too easy, people, so I won't condescend to you like that.)

This pain is more of a soreness each time I swallow. (Yeah.) It's the kind of pain that wants 3-liter bottles of ice-cold Diet Mt. Dew poured over it, because the burning dulls the soreness. Like covering a wound with Merthiolate or iodine. (Can you tell how old I am now?)

Then the coughing kicked in, and then the runny nose. Damn, people, I haven't been sick since right after the bar. But here I am, another proud owner of what Southerners lovingly refer to as "the crud".

Yet, YET, in fact, almost in spite of this dastardly condition, I dragged my sorry self over the gym and coughed my way through thirty minutes of the "Fatburn" setting on the cardio bike. And coughed and almost fainted my way through a shower directly after.

See, lesser mortals would have stayed on the sofa/bed, entranced by the knowledge that they somehow are currently the proud owners of HBO. They would not have gone out in the 20-degree day to improve themselves.

I am tough.