WOKE UP THINKING: Actually had some decent sleep last night, and my throat is about 50% as raw today as yesterday. I like to think that my gargling with saltwater ("yes, can you please send up two salt shakers to room 1131? great!"), noshing on Robitussin menthol lozenges, staying regular with the Advil, and begging off dinner last night so I could just take it easy were all contributing factors. I am beating this whatever-it-is! Of course, chances are it's just that the virus is running its course, or that my bodies defenses have finally discovered a more favorable strategy. Germs are, of course, simply little terrorists who seek to engage the corpus maximus in asymmetrical warfare. And the thing that's good to remember is that these little germs usually lose time and again...

...until they finally prevail, of course.

Nothing...nothing...nothing...lasts forever, now does it?

Odd that, somehow, that simple thought manages to be both the source of greatest comfort and stress all at once.