Last week I had some cause to revisit the long scroll of 2003, all the text I wrote last year, for a recollection. And scattered amidst the travels and enthusiasms was a near constant series of illnesses, mostly colds. Snot this, cough that. Hack hack hack.

It was part of my sense of maturing that I have worked to be healthy in the last few months. Eating yogurt or eggs each morning and a decent lunch and dinner. Sleeping eight hours each night. Getting up from the computer, cleaning up around the house. Working out four or five, even six times a week. I can feel some long atrophying muscles taking shape now!

And I can feel another cold building in my throat. This is coming up after ten days of doing nothing crazier than writing and aikido. No heavy drinking, no travel, no late nights with wet hair in frigid temperatures. Just doing everything I thought I had to do to be a healthy person. A totally conservative lifestyle!

And it's not just like I have the sniffles; today I have a painful sore throat and cough, sneezing, coming on fast. I've been rubbed my nostrils with zinc, laying on my couch, drinking echinacia tea and slowly eating a delicious whiting sandwich from the Your Black Muslim Bakery. But my body feels worse by the hour. Shit, what do I have to do to stay healthy?

I saw a doctor when I had shingles, and I asked to have my blood tested ten ways from Tuesday. My plasma came back placid. Maybe I have allergies or something else. I would call it hypochondria, but my throat hurts - I would ignore it if I could. It sucks being laid out sick all the time. I think to myself, hey Justin, you gotta slow down buddy, rest up and get well. But if my illness is born from a state of rest, well how do I rest more than that? Maybe I need to move into a sanitarium, and partake daily of the vapors. Or unplug - perhaps the news is killing me. Argh.