A Clockwork Immune System

At some point during the third week of January, I get sick.

Two years ago, I was wrapping up a three-week long, four credit microeconomics course and starting my internship in the city when my body gave in. I had overambitiously thought that attending class from 9 a.m. to 12:20 p.m., commuting a hour and 15 minutes,then working for three hours, and then commuting back was a good idea.

I lasted three days doing that. The morning of my final exam, I awoke feeling miserable. My body ached and my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. I could barely recall what an opportunity cost was; there was no way I could go to work.

Less than a week in and I'm already calling in sick, I thought. Boss is going to wonder what kind of a slacker did he intern did he just commit to. I sighed and dialed his number with trepidation. He didn't answer, so I left a message, apologizing at least five times in the process.

Fast forward one year. I was adjusting to life in Spain, and while details escape me, I do remember suffering from a nasty sore throat and cough that lasted a good two weeks. The pharmacy gave me some bitter orange-flavored powder that I mixed into water and forced down once a day. When that did nothing, Señora sent me back to the pharmacy, and when all they did was give me a worse tasting powder, she damned them and gave me her homemade remedy: a glass with the juice of one lemon, a tablespoon of honey and some water. Mmmm that stuff tasted so good. I sometimes drink it even when I'm not sick.

And now, dear reader, I am suffering for the third year in a row. I sensed it coming on Friday night when I crawled into bed. There was a tickle in my throat and a tingle in my nose that warned me to watch out. And sure enough, yesterday morning I awoke feeling like crap. I spent the entire day hunched over my computer working on the thesis with Aley. We ended up being extremely productive, and for that reason I didn't have time to think about my weakened state.

But once we wrapped for the day, it went straight downhill. Luckily there's no sore throat, just sneezing, coughing, body aches and a nose I've been blowing like a foghorn.

Final semester, here I come.