Yes, I'm dying. Of what? The common cold.
"The common cold?!" you say.
I say "Yes. The common cold."
Allow me to explain.
As far as I know I don't have any immune system depressors like AIDS or the flu or anything, it's just the way things go.
(BTW: This blog post assumes I have passed chemistry and there will be no problems having the credit applied to my Algoma University transcript in time for me to get bridged in at work without loosing my benefits for the next six months. If that doesn't happen, then don't worry. I'll survive. I'll be here for quite some time.)
When I was five years old my mother put me on a big yellow bus and sent me off to school. That was 23 years ago. And ever since then there has never been a time when I did not have school to look forward to. For the next twelve years I looked forward to graduating from high school. Then I went to college. But then I failed out and had to start college over again. Meanwhile I took a year off and did manual labour in Toronto. Then I returned to college and have been in school ever since.
Mind you, only the first four years after my year off was I a full time student. I tried my hand at aviation for another year. Then I switched into Computer Engineering Technology. That was a three year program. After that I started working at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. While working there I decided to get my university degree. So I started going to school part time.
Ever since then I have not had very few moments where I have asked myself "What should I do now?" and the answer comes back "Andrew, anything you want!" In fact, in the past four and a half years I have only had that privilege for two days.
Last week, on Thrusday, I wrote my final exam in chemistry. If I did well on that, and the midterm which I wrote on Tuesday, then I should have had that priviledge ever since then.
Fat chance! Long story, which I won't go into here, but sleep was rare on the weekend, but disease was abundant. Both Robin and Bruce have been suffering with terrible colds. I somehow managed to stay healthy for exam time. But the day after I wrote the exam I got the cold. And let me tell you, it's a doosey. I have never missed work or school because of a cold before, except for one time. But here I am, at home instead of work for the second day in a row. (Did I mention I don't get sick days at work, so I either have to loose a day's pay, or make up the time.)
One time in university, when I was no longer working at MNR, the end of the semester was approaching. At the time I was doing some private contracting work for someone. But due to exams, assignments, etc. I wasn't able to do that much work for him. But I wasn't too worried because soon the semester woud be over and I would have a couple of weeks before the next semester started. The up coming semester was mostly a discrete math class. Up until this point I had been a math whiz, discrete, calculus, you name it, I was one of the best Sault College had. So, an easy discrete math class wouldn't be much to worry about, right?
Wrong. First, as exam week set in I got a cold. That should have been gone by the end of the week. Colds generally stick around for a week. After the first week instead of going away it got worse. Much worse. I got a sinus infection. I had never had a sinus infection before. It was brutal. It was incapacitating. I could only look at a computer monitor for so long. (About five minutes max.)
By the time the sinus infection cleared up and I could get down to work, the semester started and that math class turned out to be the third hardest class I have ever taken. Mostly due to a text book that wasn't worth the paper it was written on, and a professor who's such a bad teacher he probably couldn't teach his kids to tie their shoes. To do well in math I need either a good teacher or a good text book. I had neither. Class was three hours a day Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Normally you do three hours a week for a university class. So, needless to say I was very busy. Once that was over I moved to Ottawa for the first time. Life in Ottawa is always busy.
So, what does that have to do with me dying? Well, I think the universe was so intricately designed so that I could never have productive free time without having to think about returning to school. If I did, nuclei would start flying apart. Black holes would start spewing stuff instead of sucking stuff in. The laws of physics would reverse and the universe would simply end.
The only way around it is to kill me off. So, I love you all (except for my looser math prof in university and the dean of my university who made me take chemistry by correspondence through Athabasca. I don't love you.)
Yes, I know this is a whiny pity party and I'm just feeling sorry for myself and I'm being way over-dramatic, but if there's one time you can do that, it's when you're sick.
UPDATE: I got my chemistry test results back and I did quite well. Better than I thought. Much. And here I am, over a week since I started feeling sick, still feeling sick. So it's official. I'm dying.
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