Happy New Year, Indeed

On Sunday night I was so sad at the prospect of a whole week of work. FIVE WHOLE DAYS at the office, you've got to be kidding me!

Now I rue those thoughts, and would give anything to be at work right now. Instead, I have been at home for the last two days with a sick Lucy, who has since been joined by a now-sick M. The sickness? A stomach bug. The worst of all sicknesses, because as you care for the sick person and try to feel maternal, you can't help feeling resentment and terror that the sickness will descend onto you. Heaving into a toilet bowl is no one's idea of a good time, am I right?

I am normally not a "germ" person - they don't bug me too much. I let my kids eat food off the floor (unless said floor is close to the cat's litter box). We wash hands, but not obsessively. I usually don't wipe off the handle of the shopping cart before I troll the aisles of the grocery store.

When a stomach bug is a possibility, though, I become as OCD about hygiene as possible. Which is not all that easy when you've been puked on 3 times in the last 36 hours.

So I type this post with hands aching and bleeding from too much hand washing, to wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope 2010 is fulfilling (and germ-free) for all of you.