The new gig starts tomorrow morning and I’m still not feeling 100%. I caught this cold last weekend and I guess I’m a slow healer, because I’m still a bit congested, coughing a bit and I’ve had an all-day headache. I was supposed to finish off my mini-vacation with a friend and ex-coworker, but I just wasn’t feeling up to it and he was gracious enough to understand, so we postponed to some weekend in the future.
I suppose I should have taken it easier this weekend. Instead, I spent a good chunk of my relaxing and recuperating time cleaning my apartment. It’s amazing how much time it takes to dust, especially when you want to do a thorough job. Personally, I hate all of the filth that collects behind desks that are flush against walls. It’s always a disgusting affair when I have to unplug something from the power strip and have to dig through an inch of dust and dead spiders. Since I had the time, I figured I’d pull everything out from back there and do a nice vacuum job and then reassemble the wires. Everything’s nice and tidy now, but the time investment was atrocious. The same goes for bookshelves since I had to take down all of the books, wipe them down, wipe down the shelves and then put everything back. I understand now why so many people hire weekend maids.
Anyway, all of this work may have put unnecessary strain on my fragile system, because I feel worse today than in the last week. I was probably sicker before, but at least I wasn’t in pain and I wasn’t tired. Today I just feel weak. I took a four-hour nap around three and I don’t feel rested. While I’m excited to start the new job tomorrow, I’m not looking forward to disguising my discomfort all day.
I’m reminded of one of my first full-time steady writing gigs out in Irvine with a small SEO firm that managed Google Pay Per Click campaigns for small sites around the country. The job consisted of coming up with several possible search phrases and then writing the ads you see on the top and right sides of Google’s search engine results pages. It wasn’t the most exciting work, but it afforded me writing experience and the opportunity to visit a bunch of crappy Web sites. One site promoted a self-published book written by an ex-pimp or possibly even a current pimp. I believe the book was his memoir and it presumably detailed the daily rigmarole of being a pimp. He would constantly state “Now dear reader…” as the lead in to most thoughts.
Anyway, the reason I’m remembering this job now is because I was deathly sick when I first started there. As I headed out to lunch I asked one of the managers where the nearest supermarket was so that I could get some Dayquil. When I got back, the Managing Editor sauntered over to my cubicle to send me home so that I could rest up. She even offered to let me work from home over the next few days. That job was one of the few places I’ve worked where the management actually cared about the staff beyond what was legally required.
Well, I’m off to bed to try and get some sleep in my 85-degree apartment. I find that if I turn on the air conditioner I start coughing. It’s going to be a long night.