Recovering Sick Days

I am slowly recovering from a particularly annoying case of the flu. Bedridden for 4-plus days, I spent the long, solitary hours in a bright white room covered in Kleenex and TheraFlu packets.

I'm fairly certain that nothing brings back vivid childhood memories than sick days at home. Sure, there's a difference; at the age of 8, 4 sick days doing nothing is a heavenly blessing from Jeebus; at the age of 28, it's a macabre exercise in the realization of how quickly life is passing you by.

Still, there's nothing like a good old sick day.

It brings me straight back to ear aches and sniffles at my childhood home at 88th street and Riverside Drive, watching bootleg World War II-era Superman and Bugs Bunny cartoons that my dad picked up from a street vendor at 96th and Broadway.

Occasionally, it might be something else; Star Trek II, Doctor Who, any one of a dozen Marx Brothers movies...even when I was sick, they made me feel better. Something about good watchin'...makes for a wonderfully constant healer.

Lacking ability to do much besides lay half-unconscious with my laptop on my stomach, I went to southparkstudios.com and watched probably close to 80 South Park episodes. Of course, I slept through about 50 of them, but I gotta say; even though the slightest laugh might have caused a painful coughing fit, it was worth it. South Park got me through the sickness; distracted me enough, kept me company enough, made me smile enough. Thank goodness for good programming.

My grandmother, who passed away last year at 98, was basically bedridden for the last 25 years of her life. "Bedridden" in this case is defined as "Anti-socialism" as opposed to "Too Sick To Move", but in any case, the gal kept herself going by watching TV day and night. Certainly nothing I would condone (I canceled my cable long ago), but something I can understand. Being kept company doesn't always mean there's anyone else with you.

Anyway, the first attempt I made to go outside was to drive over to Rocket Video to rent some British sitcoms. While there, I encountered 2 20-ish year olds arguing which Marx Brothers movie they should rent for an upcoming Acid Trip. I guess good entertainment can also keep your Id and Superego company.