First Day At The Office

Not an idyllic first day of work by any stretch of the imagination.

It started yesterday, when I realized I was getting a cold sore or two. Those things always help make for a good first impression. At least that way I know they won't be looking at anything other than my fat bottom lip.

Then, this morning as I was wading my way through various orientation materials at the office, Michelle phoned telling me that her vision was blurry. She couldn't see in front of her face, and that I needed to come home. Earlier she had exercised earlier, and apparently not had enough to drink before or after working out. For a short while before I left for work she complained of the same symptoms, though they seemed to be subsiding enough for me to feel confident leaving her.

But they came back enough that two hours into my first day at work (if it was even two hours) I raced home for what I thought would be getting Michelle to the Emergency Room.

However, when I got home, she didn't exactly want to go to the emergency room because she was afraid it would cost too much. So, instead of me helping her and taking her somewhere, we argued for a bit over whether we should go to the emergency room or simply try to call a doctor to make an appointment. It was not the heroic scene I had envisioned as I hurried home.

In the end Michelle made some calls to find out how much an emergency room visit would cost. We went to the urgent care only to leave a short while later because Michelle felt too nauseated to endure the 1 hour wait in a waiting room chair. We went home again, made an appointment, and she went to bed to rest.

It was a pathetic scene really. For a few hours in the afternoon both she and Jared were asleep in their respective beds, but it didn't seem safe enough for me to go back to work. So, on the afternoon of my first day of work, instead of mingling with colleagues and gathering assignments, I was instead on the couch in my living room, falling asleep with a bowl of cereal in my hands, watching a Cosby Show episode that I must've seen over a dozen times (Theo and Cockroach get tickets to "Dance Mania" while Vanessa tries to teach Dr. Huxtable "New Math." It never gets old).

Despite the Cosby Show, I felt like a failure, all the more because I was on my third bowl of cereal. To top it all off, when we finally did get Michelle to the doctor, she was showing no syptoms of anything and apparently only had dehydrated herself. I had been hoping for something a little more interesting to tell the office tomorrow that would perhaps better justify my afternoon absence. I suppose it's good that Michelle can see again--but what am I going to tell the people at work?

Anyway, I'll try again tomorrow.