Sick sick and home sick

Well, worship at Ebenezar's Sunday night was amazing! It was so wonderful to devote an hour and a half to praise. I only knew about half the songs, but I found their lyrics all absolutely beautiful! So that was the most positive experience of the last few days.

I woke up Monday feeling way sicker than I had. But I still went to class, sucked it up, and finally let Rachelle talk me into taking some medication. Hamil Harris, a Washington Post reporter, came and talked to our class, and he was absolutely hilarious! He was quite the character and so entertaining to talk with. We then had community dinner, but only with the WJCers so that the SAPSE (people from CCCU basically accrediting the WJC program) representatives could talk with us afterwards. I was still feeling pretty poorly, albeit functional, through all this so I went to bed at a decent hour.

When I woke up Tuesday I felt horrible. I had thought that Monday was the peak, but apparently it wasn't. And I'll spare the details, but while I was getting ready for the day, it became obvious that my cold/sore throat/congestion had elevated to the flu. Barfing in front of both my editors AND the Sapse reps. seemed like a beyond-embarrassing prospect, not to mention an inhibitor to reporting, so I called in sick, something I rarely ever do and always feel guilty for. I then proceeded to sleep until 2, finally make myself some food and luckily kept it down, talked to my mom for an hour, and finally finished reading The History of Love, which was absolutely amazing! I'm now starting Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- it's interesting trying to wrap my mind around this one while riding the public bus, haha. But anyways, the only time I left my apartment all day yesterday was to go downstairs to watch Obama's speech before Congress at 9. I then went to bed a little after 10.

I'm currently at work, and although I still feel pretty lousy, it's much, much better today. I have already written and filed a story on Latino lawmakers (Luis Gutierrez, in particular) who are traveling to churches in 17 different locations gathering stories on the pain that has ensued from families being ripped apart due to deportation. This has always been an issue I'm very mixed over, so it was interesting to report on and to talk to people about.

And it's warmer today than it was this past week, but I still miss Southern California. In fact, I miss it so much that I just spent some time reading the local news from the Orange County Register. Did you know that a baby in San Juan Capistrano fell 12 feet out of an apartment window and only bruised its head? Or that the children of that crazy couple shot in the Montage Resort are just now finally dropping their charges on the city of Laguna Beach? And I still can't believe all the cuts made to the Saddleback Unified School District ...