I liken myself to machines because the more I think about human problems as I do computer problems, the better I am at solving them.

I’ve been busy with the work(s) lately.  Sure, I deliver on time, but when you work in such an experimental field, being “on time” just isn’t enough.

In social media, it shouldn’t be a shock that tried and tested methods, even when you do them right, just backfire on you.  But it always is a shock, because when you answer to marketing metrics, numbers are what counts.  And when you do something that usually gets numbers and you don’t get those numbers, you panic.

Or, if you’re like me, you skip sleep trying to figure out alternate methods to get those damn numbers.

And that, ladies and gents, leads to me being sick.  I didn’t see that coming — I have my own method for surviving all-nighters!  And that nearly always gets me re-aligned for the very next day.

Not this time.  I had to call in sick.  I hate calling in sick.

Like a machine that has been pushed too hard, after my last all-nighter (Monday) my body pretty much gave me my first blue screen of death.  Tuesday night after getting back from work, I lay down, and I could not get back up.  Not to turn off my lamp or computer.  Not even to change my clothes.  I was incapacitated.

I woke up 10 hours later, lightheaded and lethargic, with a sore throat, a temperature, a stuffy / runny nose.

Aw fuck, I thought, did I just get sick?

My reaction:  We’ll see about that, body!

I took vitamin C supplements before drinking half a gallon of water and then lay down to try and fall asleep.  I repeated this every three hours until this moment, where although I have a headache from so much rest, my nose is no longer stuffy (still a little runny) and the sore throat is gone. I feel much better, actually.  Definitely well enough again to head back in to work tomorrow.

What a weird week this is turning out to be.