Tuesday, December 11, 2007

They Call It Paranoia

For the past few days, it's been sneaking up on me.

I've been feeling it. A little twinge. A slight scratchiness at the back of my throat. A sneeze here. A sneeze there.

Christmas is exactly two weeks away, and I'm terribly afraid that I'm going to catch a cold, or some kind of foreign sickness. It's one of the busiest times of the year, and I have absolutely no time to be sick!!

I think it's a fear that was instilled in me as a child. There were several Christmases in a row where my family was unable to take part in any holiday cheer because one or more of us were ill. Fortunately, none of us have been sick for Christmas for years, but I'm still paranoid. Just around the time when I'm ready to dive head-first into the festive jolly-ness of the season, I start worrying about the pesky cold. Or the flu. Or typhoid fever. Or malaria.

So I've been pumping the Cold FX, the Echinicea, the Vitamin C. Everything I can possibly think of to ward off any germs or bugs that are trying to eat away at my immune system.

This morning, my awareness of catching an infectious disease was heightened when I arrived at work to find everyone fussing over Holly. She's got a cold, of course. And decided to come to work and infect me. Everyone's been telling her she needs to go home and rest, pop some pills, fight the cold, take it easy, poor wee thing.

Know what I said to her?

"Holly. If I end up sick...I'm going to kill you."

I kid not. Literally, that's what I said. She just laughed. She clearly did not take me seriously. But she should have.

Not only is Christmas fast-approaching, but I'm smack-dab in the middle of crazy-hectic-holiday-activity time. The Christmas house tour was last night. Tomorrow night is my craft group's pot-luck. Friday night is Keith Urban. Christmas parties, family gatherings, and so on...

NO TIME TO GET SICK!!!

So right now I'm sucking on a Halls Vitamin C lozenge and trying not to breathe in her germs, wishing I had one of those hospital masks to wear over my face.

Some might call it paranoia. I just call it being preventative & prepared!!