The reality of work

So some friends came up on Friday. Brought Jeremy with them. Three ridiculously fun unemployed 20somethings. Free to do things like move to Bella Coola or leave their homes for a week and go visit Bella Coola. I've given this freedom up, at least for a little bit, in order for what I have. A job, a salary, a "purpose". For the most part, I like my purpose. I like getting paid well for what I do. I like doing what I do. But sometimes, and often on Monday mornings, I don't. I don't like having to fight with kids to get them to read a few paragraphs. I don't like having to fight with kids period. I don't like liars and I don't like being lied to. And this morning, I kind of wish that I was the unemployed 20something, visiting someone who supposedly had their life together...

No wonder it killed people....

It took me a while to get bored. It all started on Monday, and by 2 am, it was unavoidable. I went to school Tuesday, but left at recess. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.... I didn’t do much but sleep. Couldn’t have a real shower because our shower head had fallen off during our prolonged absence and was lying rather deprecatingly on the floor, looking much like a little candle in a glass jar, and, somehow, does not fit back on the spout thing.

Side note - it’s half snowing and half raining out, yet snow keeps piling up on the roof, and then falling off in big and thwumping piles. I wonder if one of these piles is going to go through my deck.

Back to the shower... I wouldn’t be extraordinarily surprised if there’s a secret camera around somewhere, watching me trying to fit the two pieces together. Well, I’ve tried, and tried, and I’m not dumb and this appears to be a shower that could be put together by a dummie. But it doesn’t fit. So showers that are to be had are to be had with one very strong jet of water pointing precisely at the door to the shower, and, in such, pooling out onto the floor. Great.

What does this have to do with being bored? Well, nothing really. I’m bored because I can’t really leave my house because I have the flu. I don’t know if I’ve ever had the flu before. Maybe I wanted to a few times... wanted the attention, wanted to be able to say “no, sorry, I can’t come to your boring party tonight because I’ve got the flu”. But I don’t think I actually had the flu. I don’t know if I’ve taken a week off of school ever... except for maybe when I had beaver fever. And I don’t even know if I did then...

So here it is Friday, and I’ve still got this disgusting cough, but the fever’s gone and at least half of the other symptoms are gone... by that I mean that the symptoms are mostly half gone. But I’ve been in Bella Coola since Monday afternoon, and have only seen 2 people since I got home from school on Tuesday at 10:30, for less than a combined 10 minutes. I’m bored and I’m lonely and I’m sick of being sick.

Influenza is dumb. No wonder it killed people. It sucks. And now I’m going to try to post this on my stupid dial-up....