...the "UN" common cold.

Adults shouldn't get colds, or acne for that matter, but that's another story.
Colds aren't pretty. They don't wear well on grownups. Our bright red noses aren't cute, no one is there with a tissue when we sneeze, or to make us homemade chicken soup. We usually still have to go to work where no one wants to be around us. We're looked at by our co- workers and friends as one big sneezing, coughing, Petri dish. Our desks and phones are victims of hourly Lysol attacks. Even if we do stay home, the trash still needs to be taken out, dishes done, animals fed...hardly any time to curl up under a blanket and watch the cartoon channel.
I've been sick for the past week. Landed on me like a tons of bricks. In the beginning, I always believe in the holistic approach. So out come the Chinese herbs, tinctures, herbal teas, and balms that help you to breath and build up that overworked, stress laden immune system. I go at it full force, every few hours faithfully taking the magic potions that will eventually make me well. That lasts for about a day and a half at best. And than there I am, standing in the cold/flu isle at the local drug store, where I've driven to in an outfit I would normally never step out of the house in. Of course, looking my loveliest I run into 2 people I know. (Ya kind of knew that had to happen) and after what seems like an eternity of choosing between 75 different options of remedies, all containing the same ingredients, each one promising better results than the next, I pick the one that I have to stand in line and show my drivers license for. Who knew those few extra milligrams of what ever it is that helps you breath can also be made into the newest street drug. Do they really think a 48 year old woman that can hardly breath is going to go home and concoct some dance club drug?! As I get ready to leave, armed with my antihistamine arsenal, I remember the most important last resort remedy. The one sure to fix me right up. "The nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever so you can rest medicine"...NYQUIL! Because by the third night those Chinese herbs have been pushed by the wayside and I want anything that's going to knock me right out. That night I crawl into bed, eyes swollen, nose bright red, hair not washed, and in a t-shirt from 1985. As I fill my NyQuil cup with the ruby elixir that will take me to dream land, a thought comes over me that only someone who lives on a major earthquake fault in California would appreciate... "Please God, don't let the big one happen tonight!"