Viruses R Us

Why is it that whenever I accomplish a major milestone, I get deathly ill? OK, "deathly" may be a wee bit of an exaggeration, but bedridden isn't. I don't get sick that often, but when I do, I usually can work through it. But I caught this cold (or possibly flu -- I can't really tell as my symptoms have sort of been a mix of the two) last week that by Friday morning had me ready to keel over. I was so determined to get my thesis out to the committee that I dragged myself to school. Waiting at the counter of the copy place while they printed 5 copies of the thesis had me almost passing out. Walking around campus to drop off the copies to my committee members had me trembling from the effort. I forced myself to get through with the knowledge that as soon as I was done, I could go home and collapse into bed. Which I did. And I spent the entire weekend sleeping. I probably slept 20 hours on Saturday and another at least 15 hours on Sunday. When I wasn't sleeping I was still too weak to do anything by lay in bed (or on the couch, for a change of scenery). I feel a lot better now, although, I still have a terrible cough. A similar thing happened shortly after I wrote my comps. It's like your body runs on adrenalin for so long and when you finally have a chance to take a breath, it says "oh, I can actually take the time to be sick now! cool!"

In non-viral related news:

• the annual Let's Talk Science Western Canadian Regional Conference is this weekend. Which means that cools peeps from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan & Manitoba will gather at UBC for two fun-filled days of talking about science outreach. It's always a good time and it's nice that it's happening during this down time when I don't have to think about my thesis, so I can really enjoy it. We are going to watch the Canucks vs. the Flames at Nevermind with the Albertans -- I really hope the Canucks can actually manage to beat the Flames*, because I don't know if I can live with gloating Albertans!
• my friend Therese is coming to visit me next week. Yay Therese!
• I scored the game winning goal in my hockey game last night!** yay me!***

*If you want to see something really funny, check out this Calgary Flames video.

**Yes, I played hockey despite being sick. About half my team was sick (one girl played despite having pneumonia!). Crazy hockey players!

***If it seems like I only talk about hockey when something good happens, that's just because I only talk about hockey when something good happens. Case in point: I score a game winning goal, it goes on the blog; we lose 10-2, no mention is made. It's called "fair and balanced" reporting. =)