I am so sick, so sick, so sick...

What's with this? I clean with bleach, I get strep throat. It's like fricking clockwork. I can tell it's strep, 'cos I can feel it crawling up into my ears (and nose, but especially ears). This observation and correlation has been pooh-pooh'd by the medical community (including those in my family) whenever I've stuck it out before, but I'm telling you--I guarantee that I'll swab for strep.

I once bet a doctor at one of those walk-in clinics and won. :-) He insisted I had to get swabbed and wait; I just wanted the antibiotics and to leave, 'cos strep also gives me a raging headache. So I bet him the cost of the swabbing. He was good-natured about it; he just made a joke about how he figured I was one of those who want lay people to have powers of prescription.

Funny you should mention it...

Well, I'd be prudent with it.

But I don't get it: Bleach, cleaning, strep. Where's the connection? Maybe the bleach is simply irritating (much like myself), and the irritation allows an opportunistic and ambitious strep bacterium to get further than it normally would? That's personally what I'm figuring, though that would mean there's strep all over freaking everything practically, 'cos this happens honestly like every other or every third time I clean with bleach. Though it feels like it's every time. Maybe I need to quit licking things, no matter how much joy it brings me. :-) Kidding, kind of. I have a bad habit of sticking things in my mouth. Who in the hell knows why. It's something I've always done, since I was a child, and used to get slapped in the face to knock whatever it was out of my mouth so I wouldn't turn up with so many throat infections. My father's methods may have stunk, but his intentions were just. I guess.

I cleaned out Squoosh's bathroom (it's no longer the hall bathroom, it's Squoosh's bathroom), and completely disinfected everything mercilessly. I let him out a lot more now, but I'm keeping him up for the most part until Romeo's ear infection is gone (I figure another ear infection is the last thing Squoosh needs), and I get Squoosh vaccinated--which I was going to do today, but I just felt too crappy 'cos of this strep throat. And I'm kicking myself for going and putting my fingers in my mouth, and pens, and holding my keys there, and whatever else, because I'd made a mental note not to do that (like I always do), and then promptly forgot (like I always do).

Sigh. I deserve it. I'm going to have to try to find time to go to the doctor tomorrow, somehow. But at least with my regular doctor, he knows me well enough by now that he'll take on faith that I'm disease-ridden and let me off with a few bad jokes. :-) I love my regular doctor, even though I've been avoiding him for a few months now because I'm supposed to go get something done, and I'm dreading it. I'd talk about it, but it's not life-threatening, and I prefer to not think about it.

Damn, my throat hurts. And yes, I've gargled and stuff; no luck. But while I was in the bathroom, I did manage to almost step on Squoosh's head--he darted under my heel just as I was putting it down, and I didn't step much on him, but I screamed and that scared him, I think. Sigh. It's always something.

I hope I don't infect many people at Eviljob tomorrow. I'd call in sick, but it's only for a few hours, and it's not work getting a "demerit" (not their word, but it might as well be) on my "permanent record" (ditto) so that I can get coached about it at the end of the year.

Rock, rock, rock, rock, Rock-N-Roll Eviljob... Just call me Riff Ancodia. My Invisible Coworker can be Kate Rambeau.

Ok, sorry. Had to. This place drives you to it.

This is why everyone comes to work sick--you get penalised for being normal and staying home when you're sick. And freaking *everything* with them is a pattern. I'm not under such tight scrutiny anymore, but I could be again at any minute--it's all about who your manager is, and what they're going to enforce. Mine enforces almost nothing, but that's not the issue; someone I get later could go back to now and enforce things, which is seeming like a more real possibility every day--I am getting the feeling my manager is leaving. I haven't said anything to anyone, but I just have that vibe. This would be a major upheaval in our department, especially seeing as how we don't exactly have a really clear-cut one at this point in time.

But I'll worry about that when it happens. Right now, I'm focusing on not being miserable, and I'll just try to avoid everyone tomorrow and get to the doctor afterwards. And to not fuss at everyone tomorrow who tells me that I sound sexy. WTF is up with that, anyway? Disease-ridden people sound sexy? Psychos.

Especially on the phone, I get the "you have a really nice voice"; "you sound sexy"; "man, you sound hot", etc... It comes in varying degrees of offensive, depending upon how far away physically that person is, and how likely they think it is that I'll complain. Yeah--we all had to sit through two--count 'em, two--separate classes featuring Sexual Harassment Panda. Well, it would have been cooler if Sexual Harassment Panda had been in it ("That makes me a saaaad panda!"). And in person I still get the occasional comment, but I think it's the facelessness of the phone that pushes some people across the line of Things That Are Sane To Do, And Things That Are Just Freaking Nutty. Trying to pick someone up because you like their voice is Freaking Nutty. Particularly so if you haven't ever seen them. But yet, I get it. Sigh. I would think that, from an evolutionary perspective, we would shun the disease-ridden, and be able to pick out diseasled aspects of the voice...but apparently not. Go figure.