Nothing can be dreaded more in the early part of fall than the first time you hear the tingling in your throat and the feeling of a touch of a fever.
It means you may have spent just a little bit too much time outside, and/or spent less time sleeping than you should have and/or been near too many other people with communicable colds and flu-like symptoms.
But there you are: cold medication in one pocket, a mess of tissues in another and in a permanent state of apology for your voice, sniffling and somewhat weaker handshake.
And the coughing. Oh my goodness, the coughing.
If it hits you in the middle of the night, the first cold of the year will catch you unprepared and unable to properly fight it. While you wrestle with the idea of going to an all-night convenience store, you toss, turn... all that. Before you know it, it's 5 a.m. and you're pondering catching up on a Netflix show you've been missing.
The first time you see the morning sun when you're fighting the first cold of the year, it's the most unwelcome thing in the world. Go away, you tell it. But onwards you stretch, hitting the first morning beverage with resolve that you're not going to let it ruin your day.
After a quick trip to a drugstore, the first working day of the first cold of the year hits and the work that you'd also been thinking about starts to wear on you. On and on the morning goes. How long ago did I take that cold medicine? Where's that stash of tissues? Is it worth it to call in sick or can I make it through this?
You've now reached lunchtime and the effects of the cold are hitting you again, this time coupled with the effects of not having a good night's sleep the night before. Soup is your friend, if only because all your other workmates and friends have scattered like pigeons. And sleep! Did I mention sleep? Oh, if you could only sleep for a few hours how much better your life would be. For example, you could handle this.
So the day drags on, perhaps with a little help from the dull roar of the acetaminophen behind your ears that only you can hear. It tells you that you can go through the motions of the day and into your duvet-covered sanctum at the end.
As you hit the front doorstep of your home with the weariness of a tired business person being told that there's changes coming in the tax system, you've gotten used to not being able to properly breathe out of your mouth. Unfortunately you can't taste anything but you shovel in a below-average supper because goodness knows you don't want to make yourself any weaker than you already are.
Here's literally the worst part of the first cold of the year – if you live alone, you have no one to complain to, no one to give the cold to and no one to plug in the kettle for the lemon tea you make when you have a cold.
So you spend the night in covers on your couch, complaining about it on social media. #FirstColdOfTheYear
'I'm definitely calling in sick tomorrow', you tell yourself as the lemon tea's restful waves waft over your idling brain. It's only 9:30 p.m., but just one last check of your phone before golden slumbers take you away for a few hours.
It was Friday today?!?!?!
