What's Going Around

When he was in high school, my brother spent a summer living with our cousins, who then lived in Minnesota. When he returned, he brought me back one of the most hilarious books I've ever read. It was called How to Talk Minnesotan: A Visitor's Guide by Howard Mohr, who is a writer for Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. This quirky little guidebook outlines some of the finer points of communication in Minnesota, including such items as eating in Minnesota (refusing food three times before accepting, the little lunch, hot dish, and bars), the art of the fingerwave, and useful phrases (like "you bet," "that's different," and "whatever"). Though the entire thing tickles me, my favorite section is on getting sick in Minnesota.

If you get sick in Minnesota, you typically have one of two things: Hot Dish Revenge, or What's Going Around. I wasn't in Minnesota yesterday, but I'm pretty sure that even so, I've got What's Going Around. And so does poor Blake.

All day yesterday my throat was sore and dry and scratchy. Later, when we compared notes, it turned out that Blake was dealing with the same symptoms. As the evening wore on, we both felt more and more head-swimmingly yucky. I totally crashed a little after 8:00; he joined me about an hour later. And both of us spent the night routinely waking up.

Neither of us has a very severe case of What's Going Around, but still -- no fun. This morning, though we both still felt a little crummy, we didn't feel justified enough to skip out on work. (Apparently we're dedicated people.) So we're here, plugging away, looking forward to 4:00 when we can go home, put our feet up, and drink more orange juice.

Maybe later I'll have to refer back to my handy little Minnesota guidebook and see if there's anything in it about Recovering From What's Going Around. Because I'm all about the fast track to a quick and speedy recovery.