So I mentioned that I was taken out of commission on Saturday with a 104-degree temperature and a sore throat, which I chalked up to the flu. Thanks to some nurturing from Kate, I was back up and running by Monday afternoon. I even felt well enough to go see Van Helsing with Ferraro, which was good dumb fun, just the thing you need when you've been feeling under the weather. I thought I was home free.

I was wrong.

Yesterday morning I woke up with the worst earache ever. Serious megapressure building up in my right eustacian tube, intense spikes of pain from my ear. Something was clogged or infected, and I spent the day pretty much writhing in pain. I used to get these all the time when I was a kid, and I'd forgotten how excruciating ear infections can be, because there's so many different types of pain involved. The dull throb. The waves. The spikes. The jabs when you brush your fingers against the edge of your ear. The ringing, and the burbling, and, as this morning, the intense searing pain as your eardrum finally ruptures and starts leaking the pressurized fluid from inside.

I have antibiotics and I'm all set to spend yet another day in bed trying to shake this off, but I haven't been this sick in a long, long time. Getting my wisdom teeth out wasn't this painful! This sucks.