I SPOKE TOO SOON...

Well, about 2 weeks ago, Matt started coming down with a cold. He and everyone else in the universe, it seems. I kept telling him the usual things that I tell myself, like " It's not a cold, it is allergies...you're fine". That is my personal mantra during cold season. As everyone around me in the cast seemed to be succumbing to this cold, the backstage started to sound like a Tuberculosis ward. Instead of "Hello!", the new greeting seemed to be, "Don't come too close, I've got a cold."
That always makes me laugh, anyway...as if I can avoid illness if I stand 1 extra foot away from you. I would always say, "Oh, it doesn't matter-Matt's sick too, so if I'm gonna get it, I'm gonna get it."
When Lauren told me that she was sick, and I should stay clear, I laughed and said "My immune system is strong like bull...RED BULL!"
Heh.
Pride cometh before...later that same night.

Last Friday night, I was at Capitol City, and I had a headache. I felt like someone hit me in the forehead with a baseball bat. Kathy gave me two excedrin, and I took them. I sat trying to carry on conversation, while massaging my temples and neck. I soon realized that (duh) I should just stop pretending that I was listening and partaking in conversation and just go home. I made sure Matty had a ride home, and took to home.
I got home and drank a bunch of water. I suddenly felt tons better...hmm...maybe it was just a stress headache. I even bragged to Matty when he got home that I felt MUCH better.
We went to bed.
I woke up and oh yeah. That headache was the harbinger of the dreaded head cold that has been stalking through the theatre. (We like to call it "the creeping crud")
Funny enough, that sounds like the title of a movie I was watching last week...I digress.
I whined to Matty...I'm sick! I have a cold!
He said, "It's just allergies."
I guess I deserved that one.
Well, I drug my sniffling butt to the CVS between shows on Saturday and stocked up on the essentials...lozenges, chicken soup, and ...where is the Advil Cold and Sinus? A little sign says (located behind counter in Pharmacy).
???
I go and ask the pharmacist for a box. She asks for ID. ? I show it. She opens a folder that looks to be filled with registry forms...She asks me to fill in my address and phone number, and to sign my signature at the end. ?
I suddenly start wondering if I am hallucinating, so I ask.."Why?"
The woman sighs and says that because kids have been using certain decongestants to make Meth. Now you can only buy so much of it, and sign off for it. She tells me a story about a woman with about 4 kids, all of which were sick, and she was trying to buy several boxes for herself, husband, and the sniffling family around her. She was not allowed the multiple boxes.
Isn't that a bit ridiculous?
A few drugged up brats ruin it for everyone else.
I went about this past week pretty much like normal, as I didn't really feel bad, per se, the cold was merely an annoyance. Then the cough came. The cough started Tuesday. My voice started getting "thin" on Wednesday. It is now Friday, and we have a 5 show weekend, plus callbacks for Reefer on Sunday morning, and then no Monday off, because we have Thanksgiving off. I'm not sure what will happen, exactly. I am resting and not speaking unless I absolutely have too, and I will be going home like a good boy all weekend to get rest. I'm not pushing the panic button yet, as I have been much worse before...but it does make me a little nervous.
As most of the world says "TGIF", I say, "Oh God, here we go! Hope I can get through it!". Funny, that.
Well, ta-ta for now.
Luv,
SGS