So, in brief, you are spared hearing about how sick I was. In retrospect, not that much but I’m a lousy sick person.

However, you will not be spared hearing about how I had written a post about being sick and then didn’t post it, but then wrote about not writing about it. Oooo – I’m all meta right now!

I will say this about being sick: it did afford me lots of time to do nothing but sit around, knit and watch movies. Normally when I try to take a day off to do something like this, a nagging little voice in my head compels me to do productive things, like doing the dishes, doing laundry, sweeping the floors, dusting, reorganizing something, etc. and before I know it I’ve spent the day being productive instead of relaxing. ² Whenever I tried to do any of the above while sick, I’d quickly realize I just didn’t have the energy, and didn’t my couch look like a great place for a nap, and oh – is there *another* episode of Criminal Minds on? Bring on the nap!

(It also afforded me the opportunity to clean a big chunk of unwatched shows off my PVR. I was waaaaay behind on Stargate: Universe, Bones and Fringe.)

Resolution update:

I’m not much further along on anything. I’m working on a striped scarf and have added over a foot to it, and even though I should be working on something else, I’m still adding inches to my cardigan (ideally, I want it done by Easter). No more wine has been consumed, but I did consume a lovely mocha porter from Lake of Bays Brewing Company.

1. I was ranting about children, water bottles and germs. None of it made sense.
2. Don’t get me wrong – sometimes all of these things help me focus my energy and it’s a good thing.

However, I still ended up with a cold. Actually, I’ve been under the weather since Sunday, and by Tuesday it had turned into a full-fledged bug. I went home early, stayed home yesterday and today was my day off (but I wouldn’t have gone in anyways.) Normally I’m a lousy patient because I hate not being able to do anything. I feel like that, if I’m off for that long, I should at least get some work done. And yes, that’s counterproductive, as I’ve learned. On Tuesday, there was some work done on the network at the library, and since then there have been several major issues. Knowing about them is one thing, and being able to do anything about it is a whole other matter. I did what I could from here, armed only with my work laptop and Blackberry, and actually snuck in yesterday afternoon because I couldn’t find the instructions to talk someone through a certain procedure [1. Which ended up not working anyways. ] However, there were many things I couldn’t do, and the emails and phone calls are backing up. Even if I needed another sick day, I would feel like I had to go in and fix things.

The other thing stressing me out is that I’ve been trying to set up a test server for a new system at work for almost three months, and have had nothing but bad luck with it. Last week I was at a conference for other libraries who use the system, and had success installing it on a virtual machine on my laptop [2. Translation: a pretend computer on my computer. ] and am itching to actually get it up and running. The operating system is installed, but I couldn’t access it from home, which only increased my frustration yesterday.

However, it hasn’t been all stress and frustration, which are not conducive to recovery.

• I reread the three books in The Losers, the graphic novels on which the movie is based. I really, really want to see it!
• I wrote a blog post here and one for Toronto Thumbs.
• I finally got to see the movies Gamer (expectedly crappy and unexpectedly amusing) and Terminator Salvation (crappy and loud but with lots of shiny machines!). I also watched Gangster Exchange, which was surprisingly charming and reminded me of Bon Cop, Bad Cop if it had been about Japanese and Serbian gangsters.
• I was also able to get caught up on several blogs I’d been neglecting in my feed reader.
• Much quality time was spent as a human pillow for the cat.
• And, of course, naps whenever I wanted!

A few weeks ago, I announced my intention of participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. What I hadn’t mentioned were all the misgivings I had about starting something that I wasn’t certain I could fully commit to. See, I was going to be in Ottawa for a full weekend for Dave’s Movie Marathon (which was a blast, as usual), plus I knew I would be going home for a few days to see my new niece (she’s adorable!). While I knew I would do what I could to work on the story while I was away, I knew it was going to be difficult, there would be major distractions, and I would fall way behind. But hey, I’m no stranger to that having done this a few times before.

What I was not counting on at all was getting sick. And no, it wasn’t H1N1, but it was almost as bad: a cold that kept coming and going for almost two weeks, starting the day after the movie marathon and lasting until this past Thursday. One day, I’d feel fine and the next I’d be out cold. On top of that, I was stressed out about work, so I never really let myself take the time to get better and I’d keep relapsing from something which I should have recovered from in a few days.

At no point in there did I get much chance to work on my story. Over the course of two weeks, I wrote less than 2000 words, which is, as you can guess, not good. I needed a marathon writing session to get me over the hump.

Fortunately, this weekend was free from work obligations, and I vowed to write at least 10,000 words or I was going to pronounce this attempt DOtS [1]. I’ll spare you the suspense and come right out and tell you that I did manage to make my goal, and the finishing line is well within my cramped, writerly grasp now.

In other stuff: I haven’t been to the gym in almost three weeks, what with the travel and the sick. Last week while I was home sick [2], I was watching a program where people were running, and it made me sad. Suffice to say, I’m going to make it in at least twice this week, but I’m not going to overdo it.

In other other stuff: Crazy Off-Key Singing Guy Who Walks With Purpose, a fixture of my neighborhood but who has been missing for the past year, is back. I’m not sure that I can honestly say I missed him.

[1] Dead on the screen. As opposed to the printed page.
[2] I sucked it up for a day and a half and stayed home sick. It was what I should have done from the very beginning.