Well, I was planning on writing something here this week, but someone very special to me asked if I would write for her site, so I did. If you’re disappointed enough that I didn’t write anything here in this space, you can visit Sarah Moon: Christian Skeptic and check it out.

Ms. Moon is a damn good writer, so you should also check out some of her writing while you’re there.

Anyway, have a good week, hopefully I’ll come up with something to write here, in this space, next week.

It will mess you up. If you know someone who has it, just run the other way as quickly and fervently as you can. Because if you get mono, you probably won’t be doing much running anymore. So run while you can. Mono wants to ruin your life.

I was going to write about violence in video games a couple weeks ago, but the three-day headache with a side of dizziness and vertigo had me feeling like I was going insane. So since I felt like I couldn’t string coherent thoughts together, I decided it would be best for me to hold off. The next week, I was hoping I might get back into it, but I felt pretty tired. Fatigued might be a better word. For a couple days there, I was sleeping 10-11 hours a night. I would be falling asleep at work, so when I got home, I hopped into bed and didn’t wake up until it was time to go back to work. I couldn’t even drink to help me write, because alcohol apparently doesn’t do much good for your immune system, especially when it’s already not doing well.

I had a week’s vacation planned the week after I started feeling the symptoms of mono. It was supposed to be a week where I could just rest up and take it easy. I’ve never taken vacation and just not done anything with it, so that was going to be a relaxing first for me. Instead, I had mono and was doing everything I could to unswell my throat because it was painful to eat. More than painful, my throat was so swollen, when I did eat, I was worried I would choke on the food. It felt like water was too thick and harsh to swallow. I had trouble sleeping because of the pain.

So instead of taking it easy and getting to a place where I felt rested again, I was fighting to get back to the point I was at before my vacation started. Even now, I’m fighting fatigue, though it’s not as bad as it was.

I apparently caught mono from my boss. And it looks like I’ve passed it on to some of my other coworkers. They’re now complaining about sore throats and headaches.

But it’s all ok. I’ve only lost about 15 pounds from barely eating for a week or so. And it’s difficult to tell if I’m tired because I still have mono or if I’m just working off sleep debt from that week.

I do know I wouldn’t have ever drunk apple cider vinegar except as a remedy for such an awful sore throat. So I can say mono opened my world to new and horribly painful experiences and bad tastes for my tongue. And now I’m stocked up with a couple bags of Ricolas for the next time I have a sore throat (working in an office actually seems to curb the number of illnesses I get, but you never know right?).

And apparently mono never actually goes away. The symptoms go away, so it’s sort of in remission, but you can still have relapses. So that’s a nice little souvenir from my disease journey.

So yeah, I’m sure many people who read this will have already experienced mono. But for those who aren’t experienced, believe the hype. Mono is something to avoid. Run far away from it as quickly and fervently as you can. Your lymph nodes will thank you.

I was going to write more about violence this week, but I’m a bit under the weather right now. I’m not exactly in the right frame of mind to write anything coherent, so I’m gonna take this week off. I’ll be back hopefully early next week to write about violence in video games.