The viral circle of life
Last Sunday evening, I boarded a plane to Phoenix, Arizona (traveling for business does have its perks). I considered myself lucky to have a cute woman sit next to me shortly after boarding, a rarity according to my coworkers, who usually get business travelers. I wasn’t trying to hit on her or anything, it’s just nice having someone to talk to on those long boring flights, and I’m much more likely to have something to talk about with someone who is near my age than someone who is significantly older.
So I’m making idle chatter with this woman and I ask whether she was on vacation in Washington D.C. “Nope,” she said, “I was just here in D.C. for my grandmother’s funeral.” Ouch. So she wasn’t really going to be in the mood for conversation. We talked a little bit after that, but it wasn’t really going anywhere.
That’s okay though, I had some good books to catch up on my reading with (Stephen Jay Gould and Arthur C. Clarke for the win). Only I couldn’t help being distracted by the woman next to me. She was getting sick. Not plane-induced nausea, but a cold. As I would soon find out, the latter would prove to be much worse.
Monday at work goes smoothly enough. Then by the middle of the day on Tuesday, I’m not feeling so well. I initially blame it on allergies, but by Wednesday it’s clear that it’s viral. My guess is I caught the cold from the woman on the plane. And the sucky thing about business travel is that I had already flown way out to Phoenix, the clients were depending on me, and spending time alone in a hotel room all day isn’t fun. So I worked through the sickness the whole week, even though had I been here at home in Maryland, I would’ve called in sick.
On Friday night I took the plane back home, fully expecting to continue the viral circle of life by passing on my cold to someone on the plane. But the virus’s plans were foiled. The woman sitting next to me on the plane was already sick, as I could tell by her blowing her nose nearly as I did. We never spoke a word the whole flight.
May 3rd, 2008 at 22:48
And this explains why I haven’t updated the blog in awhile. When you’re just making it through the day and passing out as soon as you get home from dinner after work, it’s awful hard to blog anything.
May 4th, 2008 at 02:09
I was curious. The whole time, the only guy that posted any comments was the one person who went through a bunch and commented. … JR Dallas.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:09
Heh, JR Dallas is a whole nother story. He’s a guy I went to college with (as identified by the email address he’s using, not published). Why he’s going by a different name now, I have no idea.
May 4th, 2008 at 21:27
I sort of assumed he was female.