It’s a new era if you call in sick to work. I called in sick yesterday. I’m not sure if this is unique to education, but these days, at school, I got an email from the school nurse asking if I called in due to Covid symptoms. Our school nurse is amazing, and quite frankly, I’m not sure how she keeps up with all the Covid stuff on top of her already busy job. The email specifically says that I do not need to disclose personal information beyond whether or not I have Covid symptoms. If you’ve paid attention, you may have noticed that most school districts have a Covid dashboard that tracks the number of active cases in the district. Ours is no different. To track these numbers, the school nurse must ask tough questions that we aren’t used to answering, even if we are just saying that we don’t have the Covid symptoms. 

I think back to my days in DesMoines, where some of my coworkers would take “mental health” days off. That could sound like, “No, I don’t have symptoms of Covid, but I do have an overwhelming desire to rampage through my department, telling each and every person what I think of them and the quality of their work, and how much I don’t care that their four year old finally pooped in the potty. What adult calls it a potty? And seriously, the kid is four! Why are you bragging?  So, since I cannot tap down my desires, and the voices in my head are encouraging me to do it, I thought I’d just stay home today.” I might save that one for later. Yesterday, I had different issues… dreaded stomach issues. As the person in charge of a group of students in a classroom, I don’t have immediate, or guaranteed, access to a bathroom. And seriously, do you want to be in the student bathrooms (or any multi-stall room for that matter) in these situations? This leaves you with the two office bathrooms, which may be farther away, and may be full in your minute of crisis. Not to mention, that you still have that group of students that you have abandoned in your room. 

This whole situation was too much for me to contemplate, so I called in sick to let my stomach work things out in the comfort of my own home. Guaranteed, immediate access, privacy, and my own bed if I should choose to lay down. Of course, Trent has all those amenities every day, so he has to work on stomach days. He even worked through Covid. If you work from home, you have to be pretty sick to call off. Obviously, I shared all the relevant thoughts with my poor school nurse, because I clearly don’t think that it is too personal. She politely let me know that I only had to disclose that it wasn’t Covid related. 

Since things had resolved by the afternoon, I went to get my Covid booster, which I had been putting off for reasons I can’t articulate. I think part of me feels like Wonder Woman, since Covid has swept through our house twice and I have avoided getting it. But, I decided to go ahead and boost, since I felt guilty about not being at work after everything was done exiting my body in rapid fashion. 

So take care everyone! Who knows? Maybe we can get school off on Thursday because there is a finger of lake effect snow pointing at Valparaiso Wednesday into Thursday (as usual). I’m like a kid with the potential days off, getting all jumpy and excited at an unexpected day off (that doesn’t include foot races to the bathroom). Of course, since Valparaiso is specifically mentioned in the snow-cast, it will probably not hit us at all. It likes to be stealth. 

Have a great week everyone!