Snow Day or Sick Day?

There’s a raging blizzard outside. My bed is so warm and comfy. The idea of calling in sick is so tempting. But I can’t. I just can’t. Unless I’m having a relationship with the porcelain god (standing or sitting) or suffering from an intense migraine-the kind where it feels like 200 fraternity boys are having a keg party inside your head- I go to work. I go to work when I have a fever. I go to work when I have a sneezing/coughing/sore throat kind of cold. I go to work when I can’t talk and can barely breath. I won’t come in if I know I’m seriously contagious. That wouldn’t be fair to my colleagues ( I did 3 weeks ago-sorry you guys).

I’ve called in sick so infrequently that sometimes I amaze myself. This is retail for goodness sake. It’s not rocket science. It’s unbelievable the amount of employees that call in sick in a single week. Even when I was teaching full time I didn’t call in sick. It was too much of a bother to explain my lesson plans to a sub. Nobody wanted to sub in music. Too complicated. The only time I ever called in for a sub was when my child was home sick and then the following week I too would be miserable and sick. And working.

Growing up with a nurse for a mom we never were able to fake it. She knew. Even the penny under the tongue didn’t work. Now that I think about it, it’s a wonder I didn’t catch some kind of disease from putting a filthy coin in my mouth. Mom was never one to tell us you’ll catch a cold if you go out in the cold or stand in the rain. She’d hand us an umbrella or an extra sweater and say go. To this day I will argue ‘till I’m hoarse that you catch a cold from germs. Not from 20 degree weather or a monsoon.

I remember once, in third grade, we were scheduled to go on the best field trip: Circle Line boat cruise around Manhattan harbor with a visit to the Statue of Liberty and then the Empire State Building. It was kind of a rite of passage for New York kids. The night before the trip my mother took a concerned look at me and knew I was coming down with something. After confirming that with a good old mercury thermometer, it was decided that I would have to miss the trip. I cried myself to sleep that night. The next summer we went as a family on the field trip that I missed. It was the only time I really remember being so sick as to miss school for several days in a row. Yes, I had chicken pox, mumps, measles, rubella and all that. I was too young to really remember it. And then there was the time I had mono the summer I was 19….but that’s a different story.

And so, there’s a blizzard outside but I’ll set my alarm clock and hit the floor running when it goes off. After all, it may take some time to clear the foot of snow off my car.

Happy Blizzard everyone. Stay warm!