last night i was imagining my bed to be a crime scene, with detectives coming in and trying to figure out what happened. i contorted into various death scene poses for the forensic photographer. my throat hurt so badly, i had to steel myself before every swallow, and it'd hurt for minutes afterwards. i thought about maybe going to the emergency room tomorrow morning. when morning came, i was in no better shape, a sore throat and a dry painful cough. i got dressed and left my house a little bit after 7am, heading down to the OCB to get my contact lenses checked. i stopped by the porter square cvs to buy the holy trinity of disease fighting: the box of kleenex, the bag of cough drops, and the bottle of robitussin. "excuse me," said a loud security guard, nearly pushing me aside to get in front of the line (which at that point was just me). he had his newspaper on the counter (which i didn't see) and stepped out of line to get something, yet he thought he could just get back in. the fact that he had a gun made arguing the case a moot point though. the short commute was unbearable, crowded, and with my current state of sickness, i was like a viral time bomb, sweating profusely, crushed amongst standing commuters who had no idea the kind of microbial danger they were in. i got off at charles/mgh and walked to OCB. the weather was surprisingly cold, i wore less than i should, and i quickly walked to the eye doctor's office, a ricola rolling around in my mouth which seemed to help.

talking with the secretary, i tried very hard to suppress my coughes. the doctor's assistant saw me first, the same guy from last time, i held a mask and looked through the hole across the wall to see what was the lowest line i could read. right eye, all the way to the bottom, left eye, even the third line was slightly blurry but i could probably squint it to clarity. minutes later the doctor saw me, did the same test, also checked to see that my contact lenses were fitting in place, which they were (i've worn biomedics for many years now, never had a complaint). she said my left eye has a bit more astigmatism, and increasing the prescription won't really fix it (as she demostrated when she switched through the different lenses), but my vision as it is now is 20/25, and the right eye will compensate, and she thought there was no need for me to bump up my prescription. i took the prescription form she wrote out for me and left the office.

things are different when your pupils aren't dilated. i remember a month ago, my last visit, i walked from OCB through beacon hill, past the state house to downtown crossing. i remember it took forever, and one of the reasons was my dilated pupils. this time around, the exact same route, seemed very short. when i got to the state house, it was already crowded with people demostrating their support or protest of gay marriage rights in massachusetts. it's not even 9am and these people are already out, what dedication!

before arriving at the office, i went to a fleet bank office to ask about reopening a savings account. i used to have one, but it'd been empty for so long, fleet deleted the account (they probably sent me a letter, i never read their stuff anyway). i was attended by diana, a young latina woman wearing a purple shortsleeved shirt bursting at the seams. she set up a new savings account for me, i can now look forward to making 0.3% interest, hot savings here i come!

i was the first one in the office. i drink two teaspoons of robitussin (using the handy measuring cup that comes with the medicine), which seemed to help a little bit, but the taste was awful and i wanted to die. james arrived, then kristine, followed by katrinka, dana, alex, carly, and adam. even though robitussin says it doesn't cause drowsiness, i was feeling sleepy. i figured after our weekly monday meeting i'd go home to rest. unfortunately, there was somebody coming in for an "informational session" and the meeting got bumped to 1pm. i could feel the timebomb ticking inside. it wasn't that i couldn't work, i can. but i'd be coughing so much and blowing my nose every minute, i couldn't vouch for the safety of my fellow coworkers. after the meeting, i left to go home.

i was happy to see that nobody was home when i got there. for some reason i had this image in my mind that my roommate uses the house as a party pen when i'm not around. i heated some soup from a can (not the greatest), had another dosage of robitussin, and went to bed. it was 3pm.

i woke up at 7pm. was i feeling any better? not really. alex wong dropped by briefly to deliver more items from his apartment cleanup. i'm going to watch some television, make some ramen, hit the shower, and then go to bed by midnight.