Today is our second snow day in a row and the third or fourth of the semester. Technically today is an ice day. There’s no new snow accumulation, but the roads were slick as all get out this morning. Leaving the house was ill-advised. The weather report predicted this, so I made sure to set my alarm for 5:30 to start checking the alerts from daycare, the girls’ school, and the college. Daycare is nice enough to call, and they started with a two-hour delay. If daycare is delayed, then you know that the schools are. After confirming that the college was on a two-hour delay, I turned off the alarm and went back to bed.
Normally I like to get up early and “beat my day into submission,” to quote my father. But sometimes our bodies need rest, and I had to admit that today mine did. For the past week I’ve been trying to shake a nasty cough that could give a weaker person a hernia. Frankie says that I sound like I’m on a TB ward. He blames it on my frigid office (there’s a reason I keep the electric blanket down there), my mom blames it on pushing myself too hard, and I blame it on Boy. He started it with a nasty cold last week. Whatever the cause, I was worn down enough on Sunday afternoon to nap for two and half hours, which is unusual. Falling asleep instantly for a nap is a sure sign that I’m under the weather. I would be stupid to pass up this rare chance to sleep in.
Because of the cold, I’ve fallen a little behind on school work. Colds don’t sound that bad until you actually get one. With a stomach bug, you’re immobilized for about 24 hours, and everyone understands that you’re incapacitated and they stay far away from the puke germs. Colds are different. You’re able to get around and do most things, but you’re stuck operating at like 50-60% capacity for a solid week. You can lose a lot of ground in that week, like three chapters of microbiology that go in one ear and out the other.
Part of me is bummed about the snow days because I was really looking forward to making my agar plates in micro yesterday and doing the math for my chem lab today. The other, bigger part of me is relieved that I’m getting the chance to make up lost ground. Getting behind early in the semester and staying behind is a sure recipe for disaster, so these days are a real gift. Yesterday the kids only had delays, but I had a cancellation! You know that I dropped them all off, headed home, and got down to work. I knocked out the post-lab for last week’s chem lab and did the prelab for this week’s (now canceled) lab. Then I reworked my flash card system (Anki all the way!) and listened to my micro lecture. The professor doesn’t want to lose ground on snow days and records his lectures online. He’s hardcore, and I like it. His high expectations push me to do my best.
Today I got in a whopping solid five-hour block of studying done. I’m caught up on chemistry and making headway on micro, having finished my reading and flash cards on bacteria and having reviewed my notes on archaea. Then I did some math to clear my head. All in all, it was a good day. But then it got better! My micro professor sent an e-mail this evening saying that this week’s test has been moved to next week, and lab is canceled tomorrow. Canceled lab means that I have a two-hour block to catch up on reading for biomedical ethics and my sociology class. So tonight I get to relax with some Grey’s Anatomy.
Oh, but now I got an e-mail saying that the girls have a two-hour delay, which means missing chem lecture and a quiz because Frankie won’t be free to watch the kids. Maybe the college will have a delay with some luck, but I’m not holding out hope. Whatever. It’ll all work out. At least I get to sleep in again tomorrow, right?
