Everyone around me is coming down with the flu.

Apparently it's been hanging around since Monday or so, and I just didn't notice it. But it wasn't until today in which EVERYONE came crashing down with it. Somehow I have avoided it thus far, but there's pretty much no chance that I can avoid it... despite my attempts to sequester myself in my room.

Knowing that this type impending despair is looming is pretty much the worst feeling in the world.

I actually caught the flu a couple of months ago too. I don't remember exact specifics, but I remember that I took a bite out of my nephew's pizza, then suddenly realizing he had been bed-ridden all day. Also I remember that the night I got sick, I made the extremely erroneous decision to get Taco Bell for dinner--then spent the rest of the night vomiting tacos back up (and spent the rest of my life avoiding Taco Bell). Also I remember that the day after was Sara and I's anniversary. So maybe I remember some specifics.

I'm trying to avoid making poor eating decisions to avoid catastrophes like the last time, but I'm finding it difficult to find "agreeable" food items. I mean, we have crackers and soup, but... there's not a lot of it, and there's other people in the house that are already sick. So I had a sandwich and cereal. Those are agreeable things, right? Oh, and a lot of Hot & Spicy Cheez-its. Much less likely to be agreeable, but super duper delicious. I'll love them forever until I vomit them up tonight...

Oh, and the worst part about this impending sickness? I have a slightly strange feeling stomach right now... and maybe a slight headache. I know there are viruses all around right now, so I assume that these are the preliminary signs of a crappy weekend--but then I stop and realize that I don't feel that bad and it could just be another instance of me projecting ailments onto myself after seeing it in other people. (I assume other people do this too... at least I hope so, because I do it a lot. Everytime I heard someone talk about the swine flu, I was convinced I had it about 10 minutes later.) Honestly, if this were under any normal circumstance, I'd probably just shrug off this slightly upset stomach as just a weird thing my stomach's doing--and then eat like 12 tacos from Taco Bell. But it *could* be the flu slowly chipping away at me, and it most likely is--but that glimmer of hope remains, and the fact that that hope will be crushed most likely in the next 12 hours will just make this flu all the worse.

Great, now my lower back is aching a little bit.