Chapter 112: Alright With Me

Today kind of sucked, if I am being honest. That’s not entirely true. It wasn’t a terrible day, overall, I just felt terrible. I woke up this morning and my body still felt really achy and drained of all energy. I spent a little while trying to figure out if I should go to work or not. I was weighing the pros, (not having to go sit there and feel terrible,) and cons, (losing an entire day’s pay,) but was having trouble deciding. I sat there for quite a while trying to decide and, right around 8:30am, finally decided to go. I went and got myself all dressed and ready for the day, complete with a blue/brown eyeshadow blend that matched my shirt perfectly, and still felt pretty bad. As soon as I got to work, I knew it was a bad idea. I felt awful. I kept getting really hot and then really cold and going back and forth with that and my whole body was feeling very weighed down, (more so than usual,) and simple tasks like walking up or down the stairs left me feeling winded and completely worn out. I told my sister very early on that I wasn’t feeling well and that I was almost not going to come in at all and that if it got much worse I would be asking to leave early. My Mom told me before work what her break schedule was and to let her know if I did need to go home and she could take me on one of her breaks. By noon, after having been there for 2.5 hours, I knew it was already too much, so I told my sister that I needed to go home but that I would wait until 1:30pm when my Mom had a break. One of my co-workers overheard the exchange with my sister and kept asking me all these different questions about how I was feeling and why I was leaving, etc. I found it kind of irritating because it really came across as if I was being interrogated or getting the third degree. At the same time, though, I understand that this particular person tends to have an inquisitive mind, which can sometimes come across as nosy. I think I was just getting irritated with it because I was already in a bad mood from not feeling well. This time I decided to go by my Mom’s desk beforehand to tell her I was leaving and would need a ride. I wanted to make sure to avoid an issue like we had last week when I left early. I also felt kind of bad because I left early last week, as well, but I was feeling genuinely bad both times. I have no reason to feel guilty for either incident, but I still do. I think this is a part of having my sister as a supervisor – she can make me feel bad about things more than a regular supervisor could because I feel a natural sense of loyalty and obligation to her. I don’t know. It sucks. I didn’t like leaving early, and when the time came I kind of made it a point to slip out without really saying anything to anybody.

When I got home, the first thing I did was pour myself a glass of Orange Juice. Everybody has been telling me to take Vitamin C or something to fight the germs, but I knew I didn’t have any Vitamin C at home. Orange Juice, on the other hand, I had plenty of. I drank it for the rest of the day, and had a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup for lunch. The main thing I felt like I needed, though, was rest. I laid down on the couch and turned on the past two night’s episodes of “American Idol.” They have reached the top 24, and had the top 12 girls perform Tuesday night, with the top 12 boys performing Wednesday and a “results” show tonight. I have this long-running tradition ever since “American Idol” started where I pick a winner in the early stages of the competition. It started back in Season 1 when I saw Kelly Clarkson on the very first episode with the top 10 and said right then and there, “She’s going to win.” I have done that every season since and every time the winner is a girl I have been right. Every season where a guy has won, the person I picked was second place, right up to Adam Lambert, who I picked to win during “Hollywood Week.” Well, I have yet to pick a winner this season. I know it is still early, but it doesn’t seem like there is a really clear-cut winner. The talent this season all seems so mediocre compared to previous seasons and there isn’t a single person there who really blows you away. I hate when that happens. The season with Katharine McPhee and that terrible Taylor Hicks guy was like that, too – even Katharine McPhee was the best of a group of people who weren’t really all that interesting. A lot of people have the opinion that “American Idol” is silly and frivolous and not really worth watching, and while I can certainly understand their point I don’t agree. The main reason for this is because I feel like “American Idol” is giving America an early look at and a hand in selecting who their next big pop star is going to be. Sure, it doesn’t always work out that way for the person who wins. After all, for every Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Jordin Sparks or even David Cook, there is a Ruben Studdard, a Fantasia, a Taylor Hicks or, sadly, a Kris Allen, (although, the jury is still out on him, really – his album is great!) However, no matter what happens with the winner, there has been a major force in the music industry to come out of every season. I don’t know – I think it’s a really good thing for the kids who make it on the show and for fans and followers of the music industry, and even when a season is kind of bland like this one so far, I still like to keep an eye on what is happening on there. Sadly, there were some really terrible performances from the girls. I really don’t think this is a girl’s season, as Simon Cowell has publicly stated. The guys aren’t much better than the girls, but I think they are at least more interesting. There is one girl on there, though, who I really like. Her name is Haeley Vaughn, she is 16 years old and she’s just unusual. She’s a little African-American girl with a guitar, which is unusual enough, but she is really bubbly, happy and funny and chooses really offbeat songs to sing. I like her. I don’t know that I think she will win, but I find her very entertaining and am pretty sure she will at least make top 10.

In the middle of watching “American Idol,” I fell asleep for a little while. I probably slept for about a half hour or so and woke up feeling a bit better than I did when I went to sleep. It was nearly 7pm by this time, and I spent a little while checking up on a few things online. I hadn’t visited one of my favorite celebrity gossip sites, Oh No They Didn’t, in quite a while and decided to check in on it. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to find there. No overly interesting celebrity news is happening at the moment, apparently. The guy who played “Boner” on “Growing Pains” went missing and his body was found today, apparently. I dicked around online for a while longer, checking in on my Ebay auctions and such, (I’m still winning the Richie Rich/Heatherette Vans!) and just kind of passed the time until 8pm when my Mom got off work. She called me before coming home and asked if she should pick up some food or if we should order something. I told her to just come home and we could figure it out then. We sat and watched the “American Idol” results show, which was boring. Most of the people who went home were people who shouldn’t have made it through to this stage in the first place. We wound up just eating leftovers for dinner. My Mom had Thai food and I had some sort of pork hash that her boyfriend had made and fried up an egg to go with it. I was telling my Mom at that point that I felt like, based on how I was feeling then, I would be fine to go to work tomorrow. Unfortunately, after a little while, that feeling changed. I wasn’t sure if I actually had what she was sick with before because I hadn’t developed a cough at this point, which she had. Unfortunately, that seems to have changed since then and I have found myself coughing quite a bit. I also keep getting really hot then getting really cold and going back and forth between the two. My body is also feeling really drained and sore again. I don’t know what’s going to happen between now and morning, but I would REALLY prefer not to miss work again. It would really suck if both my Mom and I had short paychecks next time. Fortunately, hers isn’t going to be THAT short, (and actually won’t be short at all, just missing overtime,) and I have extra cash in the bank, so we should be okay if I do have to miss tomorrow. Still, it would be really nice if I could keep that extra money I have as extra. After all, I have been spending like I had extra money. If that money is no longer extra, but is making up for missing money, then I wind up being kind of almost short right now. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I do have quite a bit. That would just mean that I would absolutely have to stop spending it right now, which I already intended to do once my Ebay auctions end. I don’t know how I am going to be feeling in the morning, though. I guess the best way to find out, though, would be to go to bed. The quicker I fall asleep, the quicker I will wake up in the morning and figure out what is going to happen from there. I took some Nyquil a little while ago and I can really feel it kicking in so I should probably get to bed, anyway. Fingers crossed I will feel normal by morning and can just move forward. That would be, like the Kris Allen song I am listening to right now, "Alright With Me."