Pips & Spitz & Choo, Choo!

What a blur October was! Following our fantastic week away and kitty-filled homecoming party, we had a quick week at work, a weekend, and then BAM! Enter swine flu.

My poor sister and her husband came down for a visit and a trip the ever-awesome Maryland Renaissance Festival, an annual tradition for more years than I care to count. She wasn't feeling great, and by Sunday, she was getting pretty sick. We didn't know what she had, but Monday, Cam, two of our friends who we'd spent the weekend with, and my Dad all dropped like flies. It was kind of nuts how fast the H1N1 came on, but now that we've seen it through, I can report a couple things. First of all, it's pretty yuck. Across the 5 sickies, the worst symptoms were significant fevers, extremely sore throats, coughs and congestion, and torso and back pain, which seems to be this bug's hallmark. Most of them kicked it in about 4 days, though my sister and my Dad are having a bit of a harder time with it. And, then, my Mom got sick too, after most everyone was on the other side.

What's weirdest to me is that I haven't gotten it. I nursed Cam, working from home, I shared food with my sister before we knew the score, and did everything all the sickies did last weekend. But now, it *seems* I'm out of the woods. I was paranoid as all get out last week, of course, particularly because I had plans this weekend to go to a friends "cabin" (read beautiful 3 bedroom house) in the Pocono mountains. I didn't want to miss out, but more than that, I didn't want to typhoid Emma all my friends.

Cam and psmee convinced me I was being a little crazy with the paranoia, so after taking my temperature 5 times throughout Friday, I got in the car and headed north. I took it twice more on the drive because I'm a total freak, and then, in the clear, met up with the girls. We had an incredible weekend of food and wine and laughing like crazy, and I felt fine throughout. We also played a full game of Mexican Train Dominoes (is the name offensive? It's the official name of the game, like, on the box, but it's got to be offensive, right?), one of my absolute favorite games. Turns out the little dots on the dominoes are called pips, which one chica misheard as spitz, so there's a fun fact.

So, I guess time will tell if I made it through the swine flu unscathed. I'm optimistic, and hopeful I may have even pirated a few of Cam's hard-won antibodies. I'm still getting that vaccine if I get a chance, though!