The Sh*t L*st

Well, after my heroic efforts to finagle a flu shot three weeks ago, I got the flu! On New Year's Eve! I think I got it from a friend who stayed with me a couple days for the MLA just after he had recovered from what he described as a "24 hour flu." I tried to convince him that what he had was probably food poisoning as his whole family came down with it (and he said they had been served some funky beef stroganoff), but he insisted that it was the 24 hour flu. I admitted that one surefire falsification of my hypothesis would be if I caught what he had. Well, I'm not sure whether what I got was exactly what he had (it has gone on for much more than 24 hours), but it is suspiciously similar. Vomiting, headache, severe denial.

The fact that I had given blood the day before (then surfed that afternoon) may have been aggravating factors. I had planned to spend New Year's Eve at my dad's with my brother for cigars, whiskey, and darts (electronic darts -- brother's Christmas gift). I ended up spending it at my grandparents' house in my grandfather's sweater coughing and hacking (the vomiting started about 7:30pm) in front of the TV while watching VH1's Top 100 One-Hit Wonders hosted by William Shatner. Went to bed at 9pm. A restless night, my mind racing feverishly. I think my fever peaked at midnight, when I was awakened by the sound of fireworks and neighbors cheering. Improved after that and, in a way, I couldn't have had a better New Year's.

Happy New Year!