STIDT: First Edition

I promise not to make this whole blog about my mucus, but really, who isn't missing the irony here? I was perfectly fine for three months back in NY - snow, wind, thunderstorms - nothing had the power to make me reach for Nyquil. And the minute I land here, I get sick. I had such wonderful dreams of making a splashy entrance at work with my new suits and my new haircut. Instead, I end up going in hacking and hawing and sounding worse than Betty White. The group here was probably expecting a 20-something yr old Business Analyst and instead got stuck with an 80yr old sounding crazywoman. Oh well, life is full of disappointments, so whatchagonnado?

So here's another life lesson: Nyquil's brother is good, but not as effective as the original. It's more like a step-brother actually. MediNait didn't knock me out for 8 hours like Nyquil usually does, so by 1am, I was wide awake. Unlike the previous two nights though, this time I made myself fall asleep by promising myself Hugh Jackman dreams. The sleep itself was fitful, but I did manage to sleep for the first time in 48 hours, which is great. I did, however, have to pull a Britney Spears and do a wardrobe change in the middle of the night when my fever broke and I woke up drenched in sweat. Joy. The good news is that I think my sneezing and coughing has improved by .0000001 second/cough (I think), so it's only a matter of time before I'm fully recovered, right?

As you all also know, I have been known to say and do dumb things every now and then (read: everyday). In fact, a certain someone had a running list of "Top 10 things Jigz said" in college. Usually I limit myself to 1 dumb thing a day, but jetlag + sickness = party time for dumbastic activities. So without further ado, here is the first edition of the Stupid Things I Did Today, known from here on out as STIDT:

- Sat at someone else's desk instead of mine for 10 min, earning confused looks from everyone around me. Eventually I realized what I had done and apologized to the legitimately confused look-givers.

- Someone tried to take a look at my ID to write down my name correctly, but for some reason, I offered her my palm - I still have no idea why. I also couldn't understand why she wanted my ID. So every time she'd ask for my ID, I'd give her my palm. This continued for a minute before I realized what I was doing and finally offered her my ID so she could spell my name correctly while writing it down.

- Jammed the printer on my non-first first day, delaying everyone else's document printing.

- Tried to self-translate the vending machine instructions that were in German and ended up paying 1.60sF without getting any M&Ms in return.

- At 1am, when I couldn't sleep, I went to the lobby to ask for some salt so I could do salt-water gargles. Unfortunately, the receptionist's English wasn't very good, so I had to explain Salt as follows: White, powder, and doing the salt shaker imitation. Needless to say, his eyes grew wider and wider every time I said or did that. Finally, I pretended that there was breakfast in front of me and I was adding salt and pepper to it, and I kept saying, "Food, salt, and pepper", and pretended to pour salt and pepper on my plate simultaneously. He finally understood and asked housekeeping to bring me...Pepper.

Since I look like a horror story these days, I came back to the hotel at around three in the afternoon. The sun was out so I decided to explore the area a bit. The exploration lasted all of five minutes, after which the hawing and the sneezing won and I came back to the hotel room and crashed for a couple of hours, which mercifully limited STIDT to just the above acts. But fear not, tomorrow is another day. The STIDT list will do nothing but keep on growing and growing and growing...