On Couch Rot

For the past week and a half, I’ve been sick. Not like sick sick but just like sick. I’ve been the kind of sick where you tell your mom you’re sick and she says you still have to go to school but then when you wake up the next morning your voice is husky and you’re congested and then you get to stay home from school and watch The Price is Right. The only problem is that as an adult, sometimes you don’t get to just stay home and watch game shows, sometimes you have to be responsible…boooooo. Thankfully, some of the time you get to absolutely rot on the couch and that is just wonderful.

I first caught this cold proctoring the AP exams again this year. What a surprise, right? Spend two weeks trapped in classrooms with a million kids who cough and sneeze and don’t wash their hands and it’s a miracle I didn’t contract the bubonic plague. I had all but finished my days proctoring when I felt the tickle in my throat that almost always means I have a cold on the horizon. The last day of proctoring was a 7am to 5 pm marathon and I felt miserable the whole day. I had to look focused and read instructions and walk around classrooms when all I wanted to do was sleep.

Thankfully, once that day was over I was able to go full rot mode on the couch. And let me tell you, when you’re just a little bit sick, nothing serious, nothing scary, and you have nothing important to do…there’s just nothing like laying on the couch all day. It’s such an indulgent feeling to cuddle up with a blanket and a box of tissues, maybe a snack, and just watch bad tv and movies, read a book, and nap the day away.

The best part of this is the feeling that, for once, doing nothing is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. Sure, I have laundry to do, and I could get on some new job applications, and I could write next week’s essay, but all of those things require effort and my poor sick little body needs all the energy it can muster to fight off this cold! I read almost an entire sci-fi book this past week and a half (the second in the Hyperion series, it’s great but quite dense), I watched a BUNCH of playoff basketball, I scrolled endlessly through Tik-Tok and Instagram and I didn’t feel guilty about it for a second.

After a day or two of indulgent selfcare, however, it gets pretty old. I start to forget what it felt like to be able to breath out of my nostrils. My nose turned Rudolph red from blowing it so often, and I just started to get bored. And that’s the beauty of the low-level-not-very-serious-I-could-go-on-with-my-life-right-now-sickness when it crosses paths with an I-don’t-have-anything-super-important-I-have-to-do-right-now-day.

So, what’s your favorite sick day activity? Movies? Books? Puzzles?