10 Things on a Sick Day

I took a sick day on Wednesday, fighting a summer cold. In two years, this was my second sick day (not counting my knee surgery). Here are 10 things to do on a sick day when no one else is home:

• SLEEP. Ah, precious sleep. I slept until 11am. I also took an afternoon nap. Thank goodness for Tylenol cold.
• Take long, hot bubble baths. Granted, the water isn’t hot for long, you don’t fit all of your body in the bathtub, and you notice the dirt on the ceiling, but it’s still a not-often-enough treat.
• Eat and drink anything you want – without sharing it. I didn’t have much to eat, but what I did have was ALL MINE. And I even ate it on the carpet (don’t tell my kids or mother).
• Invade “Daddy’s Space” (i.e. the “good” computer). I got in a few hours of decent surfing, email reading and catching up on blogs with no interruptions.
• Watch “I Love Lucy” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” My husband makes fun of me for watching them. So I watched them ALL DAY.
• Not do any housework. Ok, so I folded some laundry. But I didn’t do anything else. That’s a very rare occurrence.
• Say nothing. No kids or husband to give instructions to, no breaking up fights, compromising for things. Just silence. It’s a beautiful thing. Sometimes it takes laryngitis to appreciate it.
• Catch up with an old friend on email and talk about things that shouldn’t appear on work email history.
• Not make dinner. Yep, it was a KFC kind of night. I didn’t feel good and my husband was in “what am I supposed to do?” mode. He figured it out.
• Realize that once in a while, even if you probably could make it through the day at work, it’s ok to take a sick day for yourself. You don’t always have to use them for sick kids or ailing parents. It’s ok to take care of yourself, too.