I hate being sick. Hate, hate, hate it. But the main reason I hate being sick is not because I feel all icky (although that sucks), it's because I have such a problem actually being sick. I think it's a combination of my years as a competitive athlete, my type-A personality, and my mother's excellent childhood rule that "If you don't have a fever, you don't stay home from school" that has made me so neurotic and guilt-ridden about illness (and injury, really, but that's another story). For me, being sick is less about curling up on the couch and getting on with getting better, and more about driving everyone around me crazy with a constant assessment of whether or not I'm too sick to do...something...anything...fill in the blank (and it usually involves exercise).

Take today, for example. I'm on my way to feeling fairly rotten, and am doing everything I can to feel better: Emergen-c, Echinacea, Zicam, that Oscillococcinum stuff that tastes like little sugar pellets, homemade chicken soup, orange juice, EVERYTHING. Yet, that didn't stop me from agonizing for about 5 hours over whether or not I should go to 12:00 yoga. I mean, I made it to and from Whole Foods this morning, I should be able to go to yoga, right? And wouldn't the sweating be good for me? And what if I feel worse tomorrow and have to miss the Rocket? But what if going today makes me feel worse and I miss the Rocket anyway? And most importantly, why can I not just miss a day without feeling horrible? This isn't work, or school, or even swim practice, you know. Old habits, it seems, die very, very hard.

So no, I didn't go to yoga today, opting instead to hope that 24+ hours of homeopathy (no pun intended) will revive me for my favorite class of the week tomorrow. And now I'm sitting here, sweating (I'll be freezing in just a second...) feeling like a lazy-ass cop-out. No, thank you, I don't need a therapist, just a stupid movie on TV and some of that Tylenol Day stuff that makes me feel all loopy.