Well, it's been a week and a half and I still have heavy congestion and a nasty cough so I finally broke down and did the sensible thing. I went to the doctor. It turns out I have an ear infection and a sinus infection and a chest cold (but not, thankfully, bronchitis). I walked out with a prescription for an antibiotic to clear up the infections and a new bottle of cough syrup. The cough syrup works like a charm but the codeine makes it only good for at night.

I did what I thought any good, thoughtful employee should do and stayed home last week in order to keep my germs to myself. It turns out that I should have come into work because now I have exceeded the number of sick occurrences allowed. I still have sick time available but I was sick 5 times in the last 12 months (this includes my gall bladder surgery which was supposed to be counted as pre-approved time) and that is not allowed. So I got written up. Yep. I got a written warning put in my personnel file. They'll remove the written warning once I give them the documentation from my doctor confirming that I was actually sick because my word is not good enough. Nor, I guess, is the fact that I was coughing up a lung.

Fortunately, my doctor is understanding and we filled out the paperwork. The most galling thing about all of this is that I work for a HEALTH SYSTEM. My supervisors were very apologetic, making sure I knew that they didn't want to do this but they were being compelled. I'm not angry. I'm bemused. It sometimes feels like I've fallen through the looking glass and like Alice, I'm in foreign territory. But, I can be taught. I will bring my sick, sorry ass into work next time and so what if I spread plague all around. At least I won't have an occurence.

Onto less frustrating topics. Kate figured out how to add a knitted edging to the Wildflowers shawl so it might finally see the light of day and get finished. I did two repeats and now I get it. That's only two repeats out of about 100 but I'm ok with that. I like working with the bamboo and the colors are so pretty. I'm almost finished my Garden Path socks. I really like them. The pattern is easy enough to follow. If I weren't in such a haze, they wouldn't have taken so long. I'm also plugging away on Em's sweater and the baby sweater for a coworker's new little girl. The warmer weather makes it easier to work with the thicker yarns and needles. Because I have arthritis in my hands, sometimes it is hard to work with the thicker materials. I'd like to finish the baby sweater soon and get it off the wip list.

I haven't accomplished much else. The congestion in my head has made it difficult to concentrate and I ripped out just as much as I knit all week. I did some spinning, it takes less concentration. I'm at work now and trying to ignore the pounding of my head and the ache in my ear and do some work. I'd rather look out the window and think about spring.....