I went to the office to get my flu shot this afternooon--only cost me $5, and I've become a firm believer in the efficacy of a flu shot. Every year in which I've received a flu shot I have failed totally to get the flu. Of course, ever since I left the smoke-filled casino I've had far fewer colds as well, and, in fact, since I've been on the live-healthier kick, I've hardly been sick at all (she says, fully knowing she's jinxing herself and inviting the plague!) I read a handful of journals--not all of them NAW journals (and to be honest I only read a small handful of those)--and there's one particular journaler who seems to be sick with some bug or another every friggin' month. This person does not come across as a weakling or hypochondriac, merely as someone who gets every cold or bug that passes by. Jeezzz... start taking some vitamins or something! I'd go nuts if I were sick more than twice a year.

Of course I only get four sick days a year, so it behooves me to stay healthy. (Actually, I get 48 hours of sick leave a year, which, for someone in Admin in a cushy little 9-5 job, is a week. But, for someone on the road, who works 12 hour shifts, that's only 4 days.) However, that's still an improvement over the casino where there was no paid sick leave at all. If you missed work, you didn't get paid.

Anyway, back to the flu shot. I went into the conference room where the flu-shooters were set up, and after I did the requisite paperwork, a somewhat slender young man picked up the syringe, swabbed my arm, went through his little spiel about how you can't get the flu from the flu shot, and it takes about 2 weeks to take effect, yadda yadda yadda... Then he told me to relax my arm. I let it hang free at my side. He poked my deltoid with his finger. "Relax your muscle." "It is," I replied, and for show I flexed it then relaxed it. "Sheesh," he said as he poked my deltoid--this time with the needle. "Your arms are bigger than mine! That's pathetic."

I smiled.

Kelly told me today that she'd read in the paper that a 76 year old woman had been detained at the airport when they found a couple of knitting needles in her carry-on.

Apparently they were afraid she was going to knit an afghan.