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01/27/2003 Entry: "Superbowl Sunday Sickness" I don't follow football, in fact, I hate sports. But we have a big screen TV, and I have always thought that those who like football would love to come to my house to see their game on a big TV. Well, that didn't happen initially. This weekend, though, we were invited to our friend Cjae's house, who had a Super Bowl party where they mostly sew, crochet, and watch the commercials. But then a bunch of our other friends wanted to spend time with us, and so we couldn't invite them to Cjae's house, because she only had so much room. So we had our own party. Then a lot of these people who begged us to have one flaked. Or could not show up because they were sick. But we did have Sara, Roberta, and Josh, and Christine made her famous meatball sandwiches. I made a fire that roared nicely. Josh explained football to me, which was great because I don't understand a thing. The whole "Ten Yard Rule" opened up a vast array of "Why are they... oh, that makes sense..." Also he explained that sometimes player threw out of bounds on purpose to the opposing team does not get the ball. Thanks for the lessons, Josh! But other than the great banter my friends provide, I couldn't enjoy myself though for two reasons. First, I came down with some flu later on in the day. I blame a guy at that anime meeting who shook my hand, then wiped it under his nose, apologizing for being sick. Then he breathed on me, but I needed to talk with him, since he's on my "Who's Katsu is it Anyway" half-time show for Cosplay at Katsucon, where I am the moderator this year (abuse will rule). I washed my hands with some alcohol-based sanitizer I reserve in my backpack for such occasions. Then, later on that night, my stomach reacted like I ate eggs or beans (both which I am violently allergic to), and I was sick to my stomach until 4am before it... er, "passed." Then the rest of Sunday, I felt stiff and achy, but thought I was just tired... until... The second reason was that work called just before the Superbowl half-time show, and our network was a victim (it seems, looking at all this in hindsight) that the SQL virus/DoS attack flooded our company over the weekend. I had to get in and fix some of the aftermath, only to find out it was mostly still going on. It didn't stop until this morning, where the database had a lot of open tickets on the various Cisco routers affected. Internal Computing is in a lot of trouble. Luckily, I am not in Internal Computing, I just hate them from time to time because they foul up so much. So for hours, I was dialed into work, praying what I needed done could be done without having to get dressed for work. I succeeded, because what couldn't be done, couldn't have been done for work, either. But the added stress of this made me even sicker, and by 10pm, I was shaking with high fever, cursing my immune system which had failed yet again. I was so sick. I took some Tylenol PM, but it didn't put me to sleep fast enough. Then I took some Echinacea and some sort of "Flu-preventer" which you are supposed to take at first onset of flu symptoms. It doesn't cure the flu, but does make it shorter in length. I am happy to report that I finally went to sleep around 11pm, and then woke up with very little symptoms, little enough that going to work was not a problem. Right now, I feel a little sick, but not like shaking with fever, suffering pain in my joints, or wishing I was dead so I could rest. I took some more of those meds, and I hope they hold out until I can get home. I seem to have gotten sick so much in the last few months. Two bad ones (one really bad), and several smaller ones that lasted for days. I have lost many days of work because of some illness or another. I wonder if my body is just stressed out and finally just went mutinous on my lifestyle. If I get really sick again? I am going to the doctor and find out if maybe there's something deeper wrong with me.