Ok.  I’m starting to feel better and get back into the swing of things again.  I did go back to work last week, of course, but I didn’t win any awards for productivity.  Not that my job regularly passes out awards for anything, but you get the point.

I mostly have my voice back, and my cough is getting better every day.  I’m still tired a lot, but I’m taking it easy.

All the horrible things you hear on the news about swine flu…you should believe them.

Dave gets some major extra credit husband points for putting up with me these last couple weeks.  He has been exceptionally patient and kind.

Thanks for taking such great care of me Dave!  And thank God you didn’t get it.

Everyone knows that I am a bit of a germaphobe…nothing wrong with that.  I wash my hands a lot, I nag Dave to do the same, and to be honest I don’t get sick that often.

So you can imagine the horror when I was diagnosed last week with a probable case of H1N1.  That’s right.  You read correctly.  Katie has the swine flu.  Let the jokes commence.

The reason that it is a probable case, and not a confirmed case, has to do with the large number of cases in Chicago.  The doctor basically said that my symptoms are all consistent with swine flu, but they no longer conduct the blood test for confirmation because it is now so prevalent.   The one treatment option for regular flu and swine flu are the same, and expensive…Tamiflu.

The danger of H1N1 comes in the fact that your body’s immune system is pretty much down for the count.  So you are open to any bacterial infection that comes along.  The reason why people die (4 confirmed deaths in Chicago this season) from the swine flu, or any type of flu really, is because of the complications.  In my case, the complication is a bacterial infection in my throat and lungs.  So I lost my voice last week and may have coughed up a small animal.  I am on antibiotics to treat these things, and hopefully prevent pneumonia.

This last week has been a wreck, I tell you.  Or, more accurately, I have been a wreck.

The scariest part of this whole ordeal was fighting the high-grade fever.  As an adult, I have never had to deal with a 102 degree temperature.   And in my whole life, I can’t recall a single time (let alone a whole week) when I felt so much like someone beat the hell out of me with a baseball bat and left me for dead in an alley.  Being hungover is like one hundred billion times better.

And I don’t sit around and do nothing very well.  Missing six whole days of work has almost killed me.  So I am just about on the verge of stir-crazy, minus the energy to do any real damage.

MUST.  GO.  TO.  WORK.  TOMORROW…MUST!

In true Dave and Katie fashion, we did not come home from California yesterday to a quiet apartment.

While we were away, my parents as well as my brother, Brian, and his wife, Katrina, all stayed at our place in Chicago.

Unfortunately, we did miss my parents this trip.  Brian and Katrina, however, spent last night in Chicago with us and are traveling home to Wisconsin today.  So with Michael and Katie, we all celebrated last night with a dinner out and a few drinks.

Yes, we have informed Michael repeatedly of how creepy he looks with a mustache!

And…NOW we have a quiet apartment…ahhh.

When I bring home “sea kittens” for dinner, Moxie goes crazy.  Her nose starts to twitch as soon as I bring the innocent murdered “sea kittens” home from the grocery store.  And when I open the refrigerator and start to prepare and cook the “sea kittens”, she goes wild.  This is because she likes to eat “sea kittens” just as much as I do.

PETA’s latest marketing attempt has failed on me, and apparently my “kitten” too.

#72 – Take an exercise class and learn a type of exercising I have never tried before.

Picture me high.  That’s right…high as a kite.  Strung out.  Trippin’.  On the good stuff.

I have my eyes closed.  My head is relaxed.  My hands are up in the air, swaying this way and that to the music.  The band is awesome.  My hips are swinging.  Oh, it’s the 1960’s.  We are in New York….the very best part of New York…Upstate!  Who are all these wonderful people around me?  Wow, man, this is amazing.  I love you all.

Now, alter your vision of me ever so slightly.

I am not actually high, but don’t ask me to drive you home because we would totally get pulled over.  It is a Thursday evening in Chicago.  I am wearing gym clothes.  My eyes are closed.  My head is relaxed.  My hands are up in the air, swaying this way and that to the music.  My hips are swinging.  I am in a dance studio.  I am with my 10 new best friends.  We all paid money to dance like this.

This totally counts as #72 on my 101 in 1001 list.

And I am totally going back next week.  This was the best workout I have had in a long time.

No, seriously, I may not be able to walk tomorrow.

Oh no.  Read this.

Am I only a step away from World of Warcraft?