Should Be In Bed...

...but I'm sitting here blogging instead.

How boutcha.

I should be fast asleep by now, since I have to be to work at 8 in the mornin', and I am not a morning person... but... I just got out of the shower and I gotta let my hair dry a bit. Damn, I can justify damn near anything. It's almost beautiful, really, if it weren't potentially so dangerous.

So, anyway, yes, I mentioned a job! Woohoo, Mama's finally bonafide! I got an administrative gig at the Health Sciences Library, which I'm really liking so far. Well, except for that part where I almost contracted bacterial meningitis on my first day!

Yeah, you read that right. When I got to work on my first day, my supervisor was complaining of a really bad headache. I could tell the poor woman was in pain, and it had all the classic symptoms of a migraine, except for that she'd never had a migraine before. Migraines just suddenly popping up in a person's life after 20some years is pretty odd. Well, she trudged on, trying to train me as long as she could before she started getting sick, and that's when we knew it was game over. I had to leave, but I was told that her husband came to pick her up a little while later.

So... I get to work the next morning and there's no one around. I find a note on the door saying to go get a key to the office and wait for my supervisor's call. She finally calls at ten after eight. "Good morning, Maria. How are you?'

"How am I? How are you?"

"Well, I ended up going to the emergency room, and they admitted me. It turns out I have meningitis. I'm in the hospital right now."

Holy shit (which I don't actually say out loud, just think to myself). "Oh, no."

"Yeah, they haven't figured out yet if it's viral or bacterial. But I'll have to let you know, because if it's bacterial, you'll have to get treated, because it's contagious."

Holy shit... again.

So, after that she calls her supervisors, and when they get to the office the whole place begins to buzz with the news, anti-bacterial wipes going every which way and phone calls aplenty. We get in touch with Employee Health and learn that there are only about 3 of us in the office - myself included - who are at any real risk of contracting the condition if it does turn out to be bacterial. But that won't be confirmed until over the weekend, making it hard for us to get prevention treatment, so they're just going to be cautious and give us the antibiotics anyway. So, the next day we 3 go over to the hospital (which is, conveniently, the next building over) and get counseled by a doctor with a Tazmanian Devil tie and receding hairline, and get prescribed one fat dose of antibiotic treatment (which, of course, was totally paid for by Employee Health). Dr. Taz said that we could take the pill right away or wait for final confirmation... I decided to wait, 'cause a raging yeast infection isn't really what I consider a good weekend (point of clarification for my xy readers: a good dose of antibiotics can cause a yeast infection. See, aren't you glad you tuned in today?)

Well, come Monday we find out that it was, indeed, bacterial meningitis, but nothing ever developed out of her culture, so that means that it would have been extremely hard for one of us to catch. Good to know, since I never did take that damn pill.

As for my poor supervisor, she's out sick for two weeks, getting twice daily visits from a home care nurse. She's going crazy from boredom, especially because she can't see her daughter. I guess after day six of the Food Network I'd get a little restless, too. Okay, maybe after day 10. Whatever.

Now the ladies in the office are marveling at the fact that I haven't quit on them, what with all the excitement and all. Little do they know, it take more than a little deadly bacteria to get rid of me!

Oh yeah, Al Sharpton finally said something intelligent, I thought you should all be made aware.