Down With The Sickness

For some reason yesterday morning I woke up feeling like crap. But I went to work anyways. Well, that turned out to be a mistake.

So it got worse throughout the day until I got home and after dinner I started coughing up some nasty bloody stuff. Not good. Went to sleep at like 7, woke up at 10, watched an hour of football (haha Greg) then passed out again till this morning.

Good thing my immune system is like a tank cause in the morning I woke up feeling much better. Although I have to admit that I gargled with salt water before I went to sleep and that might have helped. It's kind of wussing out, but not as bad as taking medicine. I still say medicine is for losers.

Oh, I also have to admit that I wore a scarf and gloves this morning. It's the same scarf that my sister bought me last Christmas and it was still folded, sitting on my dresser with the tag on, until today. I guess I decided that staying warm and not getting any sicker today outweighed the negative of looking and feeling flamish. At least for today. I doubt I will wear it tomorrow, it's supposed to be 50 degrees anyways.

Nice, 50 degrees baby. Have you guys ever seen that commercial for some airline when they just have two guys standing at a bus stop all bundled up, and their comversation is something like this:

A - So, how was Florida?
B - Nice
A - Was the weather good?
B - Yep.
A - Were there a lot of pretty girls there?
B - Yep.
A - I bet the girls were wearing bikinis, huh?
B - Yep...

Well yesterday I was in a meeting with one of the higher managers at our division, and his wife called from Miami. Their conversation reminded me of that commercial, minus the talk about girls in bikinis. More in the whole, Chicago weather sucks thing and we all wish we were in Miami. Even though I don't think I mind the cold as most people. I think it would suck if there was no snowy weather during the winter. Just wouldn't seem right.

By the way, I've noticed it before but it never fails to amuse me how you can always tell when a guy gets a call from his woman. This manager guy I was meeting with was this big 3-star hotshot (top-secret clearance) meaning that pretty much 95% of the people in the building automatically respect and fear him at least a little. But here he was, as soon as his wife called, his whole tough corporate image melted in front of me as he started using his tender-loving-care voice like "hi dear....". Of course I had to pretend like I didn't notice and stop myself from snickering out loud but I can share this here. I don't think he reads my blog, at least I hope not.

One other thing happened at work, I got a new cube mate. He is this quiet kid and I'm basically showing him a bunch of basic stuff, like where's the cafeteria, employee store, how to login to the network, etc. So even though I have only been here 2 months, I'm no longer the baby of the group. Got some fresh meat to take care of already...

Oh yeah, I should put pears up there with tangerines as the elite class of fruit. I think eating those pears last night were clutch in helping me feel better. In fact, why don't I just take the chance to rank some fruit in the order of how much I like them:

1. Tangerines - Nuff said.

2. Pears - Originally, not that high on my list, but after they helped me feel better last night, jumped a few spots.

3. Oranges - Like tangerines, except bigger and harder to peel.

4. Peaches - Peaches come in a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory downtown... If I had my little way, I'd eat peaches every day (remember that song?)

5. Lichees - People who have had these things canned in syrup know what I'm talkin bout. But if you have never had these off a branch and peeled this stuff yourself, you are missing out.

6. Cherries - Everybody loves cherries. Including me.

7. Mangos - It's an awesome fruit except kind of messy.

8. Watermelon - Messy like mangos. I ranked it below because these guys are more inconsistent as far as taste goes. I get a lot of bland watermelons, more so than bad mangos.

9. Grapefruit - The best way to eat grapefruit is to chop off the top, dump a teaspoon of sugar in, and start carving it out with a spoon. Does anybody else do that, or is it only a Chen thing?

10. Lemon - No, I don't eat lemons straight up, but they do make quality juices. Or should I say, they make quality "ades"? Anyways, I like how fresh lemons smell, almost more than any other smell in the world. If it was socially acceptable, I probably would've traded in my bottle of Polo Sport years ago for some lemon juice spray. Too bad it isn't... Maybe one of these days I can convince Olivia to trade her Estee Lauder Pleasures stuff?

11. Apples - The thing about apples is, sometimes they are awesome, but a lot of times they suck. They are too easily dented, have rotten spots, plus once you cut it open, you can't leave it out or else it turns all brown and nasty. Hence the low ranking.

12. Grapes - If there's one thing I hate, it's the taste and texture of grape skin. The inside is not bad, but just not worth the trouble of getting through the skin. Its only saving grace is the fact that they make good raisins.

13. Plum - Same as grapes. Replace "raisins" with "dates".

14. Strawberries - It's weird how strawberries can make such a fab flavor for Starburst, but they're otherwise way overrated. I hate how the seeds get stuck in your teeth, and unless you get a really good bunch, the taste is pretty worthless too.

15. Pineapples - Doesn't matter if they're chopped fresh, in a can with syrup, or made into a juice, I don't like them.

16. Kiwi - I don't like fruits with hair.

17. Banana - Like I explained before, only the really fresh green ones are worth eating, and only if they have no dark rotten spots too.

18. Durian - Nuff said.

I know this doesn't cover all of the fruits. But I am pretty sure everything falls between Tangerines and Durians.