I didn’t realize that the plague, AKA black death, was still around (in this country? I’m pretty sure I knew it still existed in general). A lot of people, myself included, use the phrase “I had the plague,” to express a particularly unpleasant illness, but I’ve personally never meant that I had the actual plague. I think that everybody knows this, but I’ll apologize now if I’ve just rocked your world.

Scarily enough, rodents can carry and transmit the plague, a fact that I’m going to remember everytime I see those cute chipmunks that burrow near my house, despite the fact that most US plague cases are reported in the Western states. Can’t wait to avoid all rodents when I get to California in October!

Gross gross gross gross gross.

Sick

I’m sick. I’m sick of trying to teach people who have no interest in learning anything, I’m sick of being nice to people who are really just jerks and have no interested of being nice to me, and I’m really just literally sick. I got a tickle in my throat after Saturday’s Mraz concert (waited outside in line for about a half hour, the temperature was in the low 60s, and I was not wearing a sweater), which stayed pretty steady as a small cough until last night, when I sat inside a freezing bar for the better part of 5 hours watching the freaking Phillies beat the Dodgers. Stupid Matt Stairs! Anyway, that meant that today I awakened with my sexy sick-voice, a runny nose, and no desire to do anything as pedestrian as go to work. But I try not to abuse my sick time, so I went in and was convinced by my coworkers that I should use some of my sick time, since I have several weeks’ worth remaining. Before I left, though, a woman came in for my basic Excel class, so I started to teach it. Big mistake. I should have gone home. She wasn’t interested in listening to explanations of things, she wanted to make charts when she couldn’t even format cells, and she then wanted to learn about all the advanced functions she’d heard about at her former job. I understand the curiosity, but why would she go to a BASIC class expecting to learn this stuff? Then she asked me if a master’s was required to do my job,and whether I had one, like “Are you a real librarian?”  I suspect she found me unqualified for my job (which is not Excel instructor, by the way), and she was thinking of applying for it. Good luck, lady.

So now I’m home and am experiencing the healing powers of microwaved tea and TiVoed Monday night television.