Sick days are a perfect time to update. I'm laid up with some throat thing that's been going around. Knock on wood-- I hope it's not strep. It hurts to swallow and I'm feeling very tired. I think I had something of a fever yesterday, but there are no signs of it so far today.

I woke up yesterday morning still tired after 9 or so hours of sleep. This was a bad sign. "Oh dear," I thought to myself, "when will I have time to be sick?" I headed to Unicorn School, where I summoned my energy to look after the kiddos. I think the only noticeable difference for the kids was that I politely refused to carry any of them up the hill toward lunch.

Lunch involved staring blankly at a plate, blinking, picking up my fork, chewing, and swallowing painfully. Repeat until full.

After lunch, it was time for a desk shift.

Desk is the customer service and retail leg of our hammocks business. We ship orders that come in from our website, take orders over the phone, answer customer questions, etc. We're into our busy season now. A busy desk shift requires an alert, attentive deskie. I was not the best choice. When the phone started ringing, I looked at it in despair for a moment before picking it up and chirping, "Twin Oaks Hammocks, this is Joanna. How can I help you?" Four o'clock could not come fast enough.

And then, wonderfully, my work was done for the day. I slept through dinner. I attended a coffeehouse in the empty grain bin, though I probably shouldn't have. I went to bed early.

And now, miracle of miracles, I have managed to arrange my life so that I don't have to do any work today.
I was supposed to do tofu hut deep clean this morning. Normally, I love this job. It's gross, mucky, and very satisfying. There's just nothing like blasting layers of mold and grime off of neglected surfaces in the tofu hut. Don't get me wrong-- we clean our tofu hut every day. Any surface that is actually used for making the tofu is cleaned with lye and very, very hot water. But pipes under the sinks, walls behind the machinery, etc. just sit there. They get splashed with soy milk and are left to their own devices in a hot, moist environment. Of course they get disgusting. I do deep clean once a week. Today is the day. I got two helpers assigned to pitch in, so I couldn't completely abandon them. I headed down to the hut in time for the beginning of the shift, assessed what needed cleaning, told them what to do, and then abandoned them. I hope things turn out alright.

Other than that, I had a K shift assigned today. Jess said she'd take it. Jess is a saint.

Tomorrow, I don't have a lick of work assigned.

I can take the whole weekend to get better if I need it. This is excellent news.

Twin Oaks has sick hours built into its labor system, so we really do encourage people to work on getting better when they need to. There is, of course, pressure to do productive things if you can, but those sick hours are still there for people who need them. I don't have to worry about eating into my vacation time by being sick. All I have to worry about is whether I'm drinking enough water, what mini-series to watch next, and whether I'm feeling up to walking to ZK for meals. Life is pretty OK.