March Sickness

Well, we started the official March Mathness tournament in my classroom a couple of weeks ago, and as of yesterday, we are down to the Great Eight. The kids do seem to be enjoying it, and I think more than anything, they really get a kick out of seeing their names in the brackets up on the front wall.

All of this week though, I didn't have the Madness as much as the Sickness. I woke up Tuesday morning with a really bad cough that only got worse the next couple of days. We're talking that kind of cough that makes you feel like you're going to throw out your back. The cough that actually noticeably rattles your brain. Then yesterday morning, I woke up, took my temperature, and read 100° on the dot.

I always feel a little guilty taking a day off from school, so I downed some Tylenol and slogged through the day anyway. Hopefully, I didn't pass on whatever I have to anyone else. I got up and went to the doctor this morning, and he prescribed some antibiotics. Hopefully this will clear things up soon.

As a friend pointed out this week, it's good that I got sick THIS weekend, rather than NEXT weekend. THIS weekend, I can lounge around on my couch and watch basketball on TV with a glass of water and a box of Kleenex by my side. I can rest my voice. NEXT weekend, I will be up in the rafters of the Alamodome, screaming my lungs out against the University of North Carolina and for whichever team they happen to be playing. The Final Four doesn't really care about my sickness, so I really need to get my health back.

Speaking of college basketball, I have the TV on in the background, and I just heard Clark Kellogg (commentator extraordinaire and non sequitur majestic) say that UCLA's Kevin Love is a lot like baking soda because he can make any situation seem fresh again. Yeah, Clark, just what every aspiring athlete wants to hear. Themselves being compared to a water-soluble Arm and Hammer household product.