The Plague

So I managed to get pertussis, aka whooping cough, a couple of weeks back. I don't recommend it. It's like the flu, except worse. I spent the second night sleeping in intervals of about 45 minutes at a time since the coughing woke me up every time I started to drift off completely. The cure was almost as bad: Zithromax, in the same family as that stomach-pleaser erithromycin. Urk.

Thank God Julia's up to date on her immunizations. My biggest fear was that she would catch it.

0 to Spring (and back again) in 6 days

Last weekend, we built a fire in the fireplace. Friday, it was sunny and 78. Bulbs have shot forth from the ground, tossing flowers into the air. Overnight, tree limbs go from sharply defined lines to fuzzy edges as leaf buds erupt. Meanwhile, we all stumble out into the light, blinking, our pasty white arms emerging from the short sleeves of T-shirts we dug up from the bottom of our dresser drawer, somewhere underneath the instantly forgotten sweaters. We pluck dead fall leaves from the beds outside and uncover daffodils, crocuses. And weeds. Long-forgotten gardening chores are suddenly remembered: gotta get mulch, plant annuals in the window boxes, put those new bulbs in the ground (maybe it's too late?), prune that liriope.

But March is playing tricks with us, as it always does. Weather.com coldly informs us that it will plunge from 81 (!) on Monday, to 55 on Tuesday, and a cruel 37 next Saturday. So the sweaters will remain in the drawers, and the coats in the closets, for at least another week, and it will be worse than before, because now we have felt what we're missing, not just dreamt of it.

Bleary Eyed

It has ramped up so thoroughly at work in the past 4-6 weeks that I have had to work increasingly at night and on weekends. And I suddenly find myself in the position of hiring not 1 but probably 2 more project managers — my first ever hiring interviews as a manager, rather than a job-seeker. Until we fill the slot(s), there's no end in sight. (And another trip to Philadelphia for a client meeting on Friday.)

This explains why I've been unable to take a break long enough to shake a cold that's been lingering for almost a month now.

At least most of the projects are interesting and/or challenging. I don't know whether to be exhausted or exhilarated.