I briefly had the plague, but am starting to come back to life now. It swept through our office, taking us out in phases. I was phase two because I covered the class visits, storytimes, and craft programs that the others were too sick for and then the germy, germy children got me and took me down.

Colds always start the same way for me: a throat tickle. The moment I feel that discomfort in the back of my throat, I know I’m gonna look over and that canary is going to be dead. After the tickle comes the sore throat and then I lose my voice. This all happened over the Thanksgiving holiday which was kind of convenient because I had to take two days off instead of, say, five.

I always get a day between losing my voice and what comes next where I don’t feel that bad and THAT DAY is always my downfall. Because I think, I don’t feel that bad, I can go to work. And then the next day, I think, well I went to work yesterday, I can go today. Except for the day after the day I feel a little better is the day when the snot comes.

I genuinely feel bad for the people I worked with that Wednesday when I was at my absolutely most snottiest. I should not have been there. But because I live in America and because I’m chronically ill, I’m forever flirting with not having enough sick time, so I soldiered through that day, going through an entire box of tissues and being absolutely disgusting and useless. The next day I woke up early, did a little last minute accruals math and decided I could call one more day and did so for the good of the people I work with, because they didn’t deserve to have to co-exist with me.

Through it all, I tested negative for Covid, so that was something, at least. I’m at the end now. Stuffy, but not snotty. For the last two days, my ears have been so clogged that I was not hearing well, so yesterday I slept with a humidifier and that helped a lot. Hopefully I can make it through the rest of the year without collapse.

Even sickness can’t dim my excitement for a new book launch. Two is a Pattern‘s release day is just over a month away and I am genuinely just so excited for people to read it. I remember writing the first chapter so clearly, I remember making the playlist and how the core songs of it captured that moment time so starkly for me. Both the playlist and story have changed over the years as I’ve reworked it for publication, adding and changing things, but the bones remain the same and it’s a story I’ve always really loved.

I hope you love it as much as I do. I don’t usually get excited about new years, but I am much more excited for January when it includes pub day. See you then!