Have decongestant, will travel
When I travel, I get sick. Nearly always. I'm not kidding, it happens at least 80 percent of the time.
Most recently, I was sick in New York City. I went there for both pleasure and business, and I got a cold. I've had a cold one other time on a visit to New York, and, last year, I went there and my back went out and I got the sniffles.
I visited my folks in Oklahoma earlier this year and had a cold then, too. Last year in September, I took a nine-day vacation in Crested Butte, Colorado, and there I also had a cold. I've had colds in San Francisco and Phoenix. I've had colds in London and Paris. I had a particularly bad cold in Houston in 1993 that was so miserable my friend Matthew and I still talk about it.
Sometimes, I wait until I get home to get sick. I didn't get sick until the Monday after vacation when I returned from Washington D.C. a couple of years ago, and, more recently, I got sick when I got home from Chicago in March of this year and later when I returned from L.A. in June.
It doesn't seem to matter how much Vitamin C and zinc I take, or how much echinacea loading I do in advance of my travels. Wherever I go, I eventually end up at the drug store buying a box of Puffs.
As a result, though, I've learned to manage to have a good time even if I can't really breathe. Sure, I skipped out on any Broadway shows and expensive tea rooms where other patrons might be put off by my coughing and hacking, but that doesn't mean I didn't manage to have a good time and see a few sites here and there.
You can see the pictures of my trip here. And my apologies to all my friends and acquaintances with whom I traveled and lodged. I hope you didn't come down with anything, and I owe you a couple of dollars for tissue.
© 2000 E.V. Hobbs
This page added October 25.