Good Health

Don't you just cringe inwardly or thing "Yeah, yeah...blahdiblah and World Peace and all that" when you read that someone replies that to the question what they would ask for if granted one wish from the fairy with her magic wand? Well, I certainly have found it a less than "original" answer. As I am writing this (on Sunday afternoon) I am recovering from a killer cold. Possibly the worst one I have ever had. I usually pride myself of being THE absolute expert of nipping a cold in its bud, due to being able to read the signs of my body pretty well (one advantage of having reached...EEEEK...middle age) and having been required to be able to perform my pony tricks on business trips with no backup plan. This time, though, it caught me completely off guard and hit me like a sledge hammer. From 0 to full blown feeling-like-poop status. It was such an alien sensation I (who am definitely not of the hypochondriac persuasion) ended up googling "difference between influenza and common cold" and "symptoms of pneumonia". It's been a coughing, snot-dripping, shivering nightmare. I did not know it was humanly possible to sneeze that many times in a row without combusting. The only thing missing (thankfully) has been a sore throat (fingers crossed!), which normally is the first sign that I will get a cold. Being me, I did not cancel any of the things I had planned for the weekend (yep, my generosity does not stop at sharing germs with my friends), but I am quite enjoying being mainly house-bound and focused on recovery today.
I am a firm believer in hot baths being the cure-all for almost every situation in life, most of all, a cold. Well, this time, I could not soak in the bath because I had 3 burn marks (long story, the short version of which is yours truly is STUPID!) on my left thigh that took over a week to start growing new skin and made me look like the victim of a North Korean torture camp. Thankfully day 10, when it looked like this, allowed me to finally immerse myself in the hot tub. Aaaah.

The highlight of this week is going to a ball on Friday with a group of friends, fancy long robe and all, and I am determined to do so without the faintest trace of this killer cold. 

When you're used to enjoying good health 99% of the time you begin to take it for granted. Feeling like s*** is not so great, after all, and yeah, good health really IS the most important thing to wish for as you can't really enjoy the other good things in life in its absence.