on the bright side (or, 10 reasons having a cold is kinda okay)

It’s official — I made it through the winter of 2015-16 sans cold. It was a tough one, ripe with infectious opportunities not the least of which included a multi-day stay with friends whose entire household was sick, time with my nieces and nephews at Christmas (9/10 times this leads to me feeling under the weather shortly after I return home) and an office full of hackers and snifflers for what seemed like months at a time. But, somehow, I prevailed ailment free.

Unfortunately, much like the 48 bajillion feet of snow Mother Nature dumped on my sweet city earlier this week, the common cold knows no seasonal bounds. And, here I am, three days into spring (and on my half-birthday, no less!), sneezing and sniffling and stuffy. But instead of feeling sorry for myself and letting this cold get me down, I’m trying a new approach and looking on the bright side. So, in no particular order, here are the 10 reasons being sick is (kinda) okay.

1. Fuller House: Blame it on the cold meds or the fact that I wanted something light to watch but, yes, I will admit I went down that path. I couldn’t help it. I watched the first episode and felt so nostalgic that I actually got goosebumps at one point. On second thought, yeah, let’s blame it one the cold meds.
2. Getting work done uninterrupted: Yes, unfortunately a sick day for me also means doing some work, especially since I’m taking off the first part of next week to hang with my house guests (fingers crossed I feel better before they arrive on Sunday). The good news is working from home typically equates to me getting a shit ton of work done because there are no meetings, minimal interruptions (Ira Flatow got me a few times) and good coffee. I knocked out about 90% of my task list for the day despite having foggy head.
3. Rest: Even if I was working part of the day, I still managed to get in some good R&R time (see 1, 4, 5, 7). With the exception of the snow day earlier this week, today marks the first time I’ve stayed in and not been at the office, traveling, running errands, attending an event or ____________.
4. Watching spring happen before my eyes in the form of my beautiful Cleveland Pear blooming. I guess a little snow couldn’t get my favorite tree down.
5. Sipping yummy hot tea: Cold meds help but there’s just something to be said about holding a hot cup of tea and inhaling the delicious scents and steam that really makes me feel better.
6. Zinc chewable that tastes like the strawberry gum from my childhood: Yum.
7. Bath time with my new geranium + orange blossom epsom salts: Oh, how I adore baths.
8. Catching up with my niece: Lately my busy scheduled has left little time to talk to three of my favorite people so I cherished the time spent catching up with the oldest of the three, even though our conversation was short and filled with my constant sniffling. (On a side note, I’m constantly in awe of what an amazing young woman she is and I’m so glad we’ve remained close over the years.)
9. I actually cooked + prepared food for the week: In an effort to get back on track with healthy eating and actually eat lunch, I spent a few hours on Sunday preparing food for the week. This came in especially handy on Wednesday, the aforementioned snow day, and then again today when I really didn’t feel up to going out for food.
10. Time to make changes + customize my blog: I’ve been playing around with a few ideas to update my blog and today provided time to further research and play around with a few new themes and customization. Plus, I’m finally using the URL I purchased months ago (trajectoryoflife.com). What do you think of the new look?

So, in the spirit of optimism, I’m raising a warm mug of tea to this cold, which I’ll hopefully be seeing less of tomorrow. It’s only fair since the weather is not cooperating and we’re forecasted to get more snow. Seriously, when is spring actually going to start?