Back into the Fire
March 5, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
So Jim drives me into work in a downpour and I go into classrooms with students saying “Dr. Chew, where were you?” (revealing that, despite frequent reminders, they did not check online for my message that class was canceled on Monday). Due to the lingering effects of laryngitis, instruction in the perfect passive system of Latin verbs and in the interrogative pronoun of ancient Greek is short; two students ask to watch a DVD of “Decisive Battles,” the revolt of Spartacus recreated with videogame effects, courtesy of the History Channel. I go to hear the tail end of two guest speakers on autism genetics (why, the one day that the speakers on this topic come to campus, do I have to be sick and on a back-to-back schedule?). Then I go to explain to a colleague why I won’t be able to make a 4 p.m. reception and am told that if I’m not there, we should just cancel the reception—-and there are alumni/ae invited and students have been looking forward to it. So it looks like I’ll be driving home to get Charlie and then driving back to Jersey City with him and hosting the reception, with a rather scratchy voice, and (I hope) a head that’s only somewhat woozy. (And no babysitter—but that’s par for the course today.)
If there’s one thing raising Charlie has taught me, it’s that you gotta be flexible, spontaneous, and ready to bend where the wind blows.
Sorry your sick
Oh Kristina, that’s a busy day! I hope you are okay and have a chance to rest/pace yourself. Whatever this bug is, it seems to hang in there.
“Then I go to explain to a colleague why I won’t be able to make a 4 p.m. reception and am told that if I’m not there, we should just cancel the reception—-and there are alumni/ae invited and students have been looking forward to it.”
Kind of a compliment as long as you aren’t contagious (a little bit of snark).
Get well soon.
Would it be in bad form to recommend breathing on colleague? Yeah, probably.
Hope that you feel better, and that someone that he likes can sit with Charlie during the reception while he does something fun.
Oh, my sympathies. Days like this are tough. I hope you have a chance to rest and recover soon.
Oooh… my sympathies, really. I can’t stand days like that, though that’s gotten a whole lot better in terms of personal life management.
Cliff
Well, if I breathed on my colleague, then I might find myself with even more to do when I got back…… It all worked out, with a few extra coughs and the help of a water bottle. Charlie was too good: He got right in the car (with his laptop, backpack, and blankets) and we drove back to Jersey City, only to find a car (with an NY license plate) blocking the parking place right in front of the building where I was in, so I found myself driving my car backwards up a fairly steep one-way street with cars parked on both sides and traffic coming down…… Charlie had a soda and looked at photos and was very patient (and the event went really well, with me only coughing a few times).
Jim took Charlie out to McDonald’s and was I glad to just be home!
Thanks for so much good will!