Pneumonia.

Tobias, my trusty hound, ready to spend a sick night with me. (And yes, he is named after an Animorph)

So let's talk about where I've been for the last two months.

Here's a tip: If your mom is sick, don't go to her birthday party. I know, she'll be mad, but guess what, you won't lose out on two months of your life.

I did that thing. And halfway through Disney, I felt like I may die.

A week later, I was bedridden with a fever and chills.

Four days later, I had bronchitis.

Six days later, I had pneumonia.

Now it is mid-March, and I finally had a day where I could be out of bed. Yesterday was the first day I could really edit something. Today, I actually hit my deadlines.

I am not one to stop working because I'm sick, which turns out, makes you sicker. My first pro-rate story launched on Mothership Zeta, and I couldn't even promote it because as soon as I started writing the blog entry, I started coughing up a lung. I tried to hit page 50 on my WIP, and no luck there either. Everything was a failure. Weeks went by with my critique group asking me if I'd hit my goals, and me weeping, "Nooooo, why do I suuuuck?"

"Well," someone finally said, "because you were sick with a thing that literally kills people."

But people work through worse things than pneumonia. And I am never one to let myself be lazy.

But tonight? I made my deadline. That's what is important. I wrote today. I will write tomorrow. And I got better.

I'm not exactly sure what I learned from this experience except that steroids do give you headaches (Dr. Liar) and sometimes there are circumstances you can't just grit your teeth through. I am grateful I can go outside again. I am grateful it cleared up. I am grateful I can string words together somewhat coherently again. I am grateful I hit that deadline.

Now onwards and upwards, Tobias! We fly!