Sick

I'm sick at the moment. I'm staying in bed, drinking tons of water and sleeping every few hours.

When I was younger I seem to remember being sick all the time. Indeed nearly every time I return home to where my parents live I become sick again. I've long thought there was something in the atmosphere, or maybe the soil, that I was just plain allergic to. It might sounds strange, but I've gotten sick not long after going home so many times that my body actually has developed a twitch at the thought. It's sort of like Absinthe. I used to drink it frequently (It's not illegal in the Czech Republic, and indeed has made something of a comeback in recent years) until once I had the misfortune of laughing at the very moment I took a drink, blowing the stuff out through my nostrils.

Now, if you've never had Absinthe yourself, suffice it to say, the stuff is nearly pure alcohol. Indeed I can't imagine why when it was first made anyone could have thought that it wasn't just pure poison. Needless to say, blowing it through your nostrils is about the most painful experience possible. The stuff is so pure and evaporates so quickly it is impossible to breath for several minutes. Every breath in you take evaporates further the alcohol already in your nostrils and trachea, so your lungs fill with an explosive alcohol oxygen vapor. Horrible. Simply horrible. It's been years since that happened, but just the sight of the green liquid puts my body on the defensive. It remembers the whole event quite clearly and I doubt it will ever forget.

Anyway,

In Europe I'm sick very infrequently. Perhaps it's just because I am older, but generally I would say I get sick perhaps twice a year. Interestingly, as I get older, I find myself becoming more and more superstitious in a sense about the experience of being 'under the weather'. I rarely take medicine for the flu or a cold. To be honest, I can't say I think they work. They seem to suppress symptoms, but they don't seem to make the 'getting better' part any fast. Indeed I feel like the times I have taking medicine to relieve symptoms, I've actually been more miserable longer.

Now at the first sign of a sniffle or congestion I immediatly start my time-honored and perhaps superstitious routine to warn off illness. I drink lemon juice- I buy a bottle of the stuff and do 'squirts' every couple hours. I eat whole raw garlic, by the clove. I eat a lot. Cranberry juice. Tea. Eggs. A recent addition: KimChi (the Korean delicacy) It seems to help. Combined with sleep and rest and no alcohol (it seems to make me sicker) and no smoky places, keeps my sickness generally to just a couple days. All and all the experience at least FEELS shorter in duration and less miserable than the side effects of antihistamines and such over the counter drugs.

So that's me right now. Sick. I'm on day three so I think I have about three more days till I'm back in shape. I'll stop now and go order Korean Take Out.