My body has a different idea about what a day off is for than my mind. This might be because I’ve made my body go to work sick all week. It’s bad to piss off the body.

While the evil cold is pretty much better, it has left me with headaches and fatigue and the sense that my face could fill with snot at any moment. I took Excedrin and a nap for the first two symptoms, but that last one is sneaky. I put on a second sweatshirt and had some cocoa to try to lull it into sleepiness with the warmth. For the moment, it is working.

My mind, on the other hand, reminds me of all the looming deadlines. It says this is no time to be sleeping. It highlights the things undone in every glance. Look: dust. Look: blank space where those chapters should be. Look: unread mail. I feel like my body and my mind are siblings fighting in the back seat over territory, making the whole ride truly unpleasant. I want to pull over and slam down the armrest in the middle of the seat (do any cars even have those anymore?) and ground them both. Somehow I don’t think that will work.

Instead, I’ll take both body and mind on a walk with my friend. I’ll come home and feed the body something healthy and then let the mind fill some pages. And maybe by tomorrow they’ll be ready to work together again. Except it won’t be my day off anymore. Argh.