Good morning, all. I am sick – in a physical “wasn’t that supposed to be attached to me?” way (mental illnesses aside). Now, here is a rare glimpse into my family history: if you were sick, the only way you could get out of work/school/living was to be to the point where you were ejecting fluid that was:

1. Not meant to come out of any orifice
   
2. Not meant to come out of a particular orifice that fast or that far
   

So, it meant if I had the sniffled, I was told to suck it up (metaphorically and otherwise), take a pill and soldier on. Granted, that’s good advice for life in general – but it also set up something in me that I am particularly fond of: I rarely call in sick and feel guilty if I do. The last time I called in sick was maybe two months ago. The time before that? Early last year. I tend to use only one to two sick days a year – other times I’m ill, I just soldier through. Not because I am some sort of unstoppable tech support machine, but because I was raised to do that.
I understand that I have sick days, and the company is more than happy to let me use them – in fact, they have a ‘use them or lose them’ policy. One thing I will say about my last employer, they had a better policy concerning that: whatever you didn’t use, you got cashed out at the end of the year. Since I usually only took one week off a year, I had a nice bonus coming towards me around the last week of work. Not anymore.

My current position is a reason why I want to write for a living. If I get sick, I can take a couple of days off and let the sickness ooze out of me, or if I need to keep writing as a way of therapy – I can do that. It’s my choice. Right now, the only reason why I am not following my normal routine of blogging, writing and then trundling off to work is because I feel like poo now, and it’s only going to go downhill from here. The fact that Opening Ceremonies are Friday has absolutely nothing to do with it. Seriously. I got my PC at work to live stream the games and my DVR all ready to record what I don’t watch. Anyone who thinks I am slacking off just because of that is sadly mistaken.

Yesterday, I did slack off on my writing however, and I can’t blame illness on that. However, I am going to try to make the best of today and not only hit my 1,100 mark for today, but cram in another 600 to complete that goal for yesterday. Realistically, I can hit that easily before I have to call in (the benefits of having a late night shift, I don’t have to call anyone until the afternoon) and if I write anything after that is just gravy. I had a change of heart for one scene and I want to get that down and finish the poisoner’s feast before too long, which is going to lead to the climax of the book and the last short chapter to the end. Look for it to come in at about 65,000 words when all told and I am aiming for a Christmas release, if not sooner.

Well, I am off to get some juice and tissues. I hope you’re feeling better than I am right now.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy