Down but not out

I talk fairly often about how lucky Alison and Jenna are to have each other. but this week, they're in the back seat.

Jeff had been sick the previous week and I'd tried to avoid him but it was catching me. I started getting sick the day before I was to leave for an overnight work trip to New York. It was really important and I'd been looking forward to it in that anxious kind of way of hoping it would go well, that the storm would hold off, and that I wouldn't get the boss sick.

The night before we were to leave, the boss's daughter caught the flu. So there we were, trying to keep our germs to ourselves and doing our best to make the trip a success.

Bolstered by too much DayQuil than was probably good for me and cough drops by the handful, I powered through. The flu may have been left behind. We'll see about that. It was a really, really good trip.

So I get home. I'm out of DayQuil and while I consider getting more, even I knew I had to give in to the cold. I didn't get to work on Friday. But I was scheduled to host Bunco on Friday night and it's just too hard to get us all together anymore to cancel it. I had made lasanga the weekend before and Alison wanted to make cupcakes for dessert, so I didn't have to touch much of their food.

While I wasn't great company, just listening to everyone was so much fun. And so worth it even though after dinner I fell asleep twice and finally gave in and said I was going to bed. I told them to stay as long as they wanted and that I'd clean up in the morning.

I went straight to bed. Before the Nyquil took me, I heard someone complain (I think repeatedly thought I might have hallucinated) "Hey! I got three dishDRYERS and one dishWASHER here. Get on it!."

Later, I think I heard, "Next time I have Bunco I'm gonna pretend that I'm sick so you bitches will clean my house."

And lots of giggling. For a minute there I thought it was Jenna and Alison in the kitchen.

And then I slept.

Yes, I should have cancelled Bunco. But I love my Bunconians. Everyone should be so lucky to have friends like mine.

P.S. Jeff and Ali have been great, too. I am not always a good patient and Jeff and I recover from things differently, something he struggles with.

Bunco is an exclusive affair, so Jeff took Alison to dinner and Plato's Closet to cash in on a Christmas gift from her grandfather. I haven't had the modeling show yet, but apparently as they walked into the shop, she spied a pair of shorts she fell in love with.

Zebra-striped, they were, as Jeff described it, "There because they had just stripped them off a dead hooker."

Thankfully they were six sizes too large. He assures me she came home with appropriate clothes. I'll let you know how that goes...