Sick Day

I called in sick this morning, but not because I'm just trying to lay out of work for the day, but because I'm actually sick. Like, running a fever kind of sick. I think that part has passed, but I still don't feel really well. This was actually the perfect day to call in, too, because The Ex is dropping the children at home tonight, so I don't have to leave the house at all. Having to leave the house when you're sick is horrible, especially if it involves anything to do with children. Hell, having to take care of children when you're sick is horrible, but thank god mine are getting old enough that I don't have to supervise their every move. This doesn't mean that they won't destroy the house, but they are at the age that they know you can't drink the hand sanitizer. And yeah, that really happened one time. Hello, Poison Control.

I think this might be the first time I've called in sick all year. I'm trying to remember, and I've called in getting a divorce, called in the cops showed up at my house yesterday and I can't deal with coming in, I've called in Verizon sucks and I'm waiting on the tech to show up, I've called in my older daughter broke her arm and wrist and has surgery today, and I've called in that the anesthesiologist actually gave me gorilla tranquilizer and I just can't stand up yet. Luckily for me (but maybe not for her), my boss's husband left her a few years ago and she's a single mom and understands all of this. While I wasn't necessarily sick, I necessarily needed to be at home on all of those days, though on two of those days it was because I was a complete train wreck.

This is all vastly different from the kind of sick calling in that I've done in the past. That kind of calling in was usually related to 1) I just stumbled in the door at 3:39am from a hard night of drinking and I can't come in because I'm still drunk, 2)  I stayed up all night in some variety of compromising position and I can't come in today because I'll be doing the same thing all day long in between napping, 3) I need a mental health day and plan to spend the entire day camped out in front of the TV doing internet shopping (which is very similar to I plan on spending the whole day at Potomac Mills because I'm pretty sure no one from work will spot me there), and 4) I am legitimately ill and you will have a doctor's note on your desk first thing tomorrow morning.

The reason I don't call in sick is because my sick time accrues from year to year. I took two complete maternity leaves on full paid sick leave, and I've been working to build my time back up. I'm up to about 800 hours of sick leave now, which I figure is money in the bank, because the guv provides no severance package, and they have to pay me for my accrued time. I also have no short term or long term disability, so it's stupid not to keep track of your time and keep some in the "time bank" as I call it. When I call in sick, I usually use my vacation leave, because I earn a lot of that, too, and the people I work for are wise to the old trick of not using any time all year long and then being told that the employee needs to take the whole month of December off. That actually worked with one boss, but it only worked that one year. And it wasn't the whole month, but more like two weeks. I didn't like that boss, so screwing her right at December was really more like an extra Christmas gift to me. I'm running out of my excess vacation leave, so today might actually be a real sick day for me. I used three days of sick leave in June when I had my operation, and didn't even bother to get a note. Policy says that if we're out more than three days, we have to provide a doctor's note. I forgot, what with having my belly button glued shut and all, and when I got back to work I asked my boss if she would need a note. She thought about it, and while she was thinking about, I ran down to my office and pulled my awards from the last three years off the wall that congratulate me for not using ANY sick time, and I ran back down to her office. I quick laid them out on her desk, and I said, I don't think I've really demonstrated any pattern of leave abuse. Do you? And she said she wouldn't need a doctor's note. Yeah, I thought so.

My plan for today is to watch a little TV, sleep a little more, and try to coax my new cat out of the basket under my coffee table so I can work on socializing her a little. She's spent the last several years living in my neighbor's garage with limited house rights, so I'm pretty sure that she'll actually like living in the house if she ever comes out from her hiding spot. Not only that, but that's my sofa blanket basket and if the cat keeps living in that basket, I'm going to have to wash the blankets every week so they don't turn into cat-hair cashmere. I need to get better today, because I have to go back to work tomorrow, since I'll miss Wednesday for a training session. Not only that, I haven't finished all of my September work yet and I don't want September to overlap into October the way August overlapped into September. And, one of my co-workers is going out on maternity leave in November, and I'm extremely confident I'm going to get stuck with her shit. No one has told me this yet, but I'm not stupid. It's all good, though, because I can knock it out. I'll get over this nasty head cold/sinus infection and I'll be back in fighting form tomorrow. And some of the people I work with? They'll wish I was still sick.