Coffee Break with Liz and Kate

You may recall a month and a half ago when I lamented my daughter’s illness, which could very well have been pig flu. The world will never know.

Before we go any further, I think it’s important for me to point to the fact that I realize the seriousness of this outbreak. But I refuse to give it power over my life.  But I digress.

Oddly enough, after my super-secret assignment to places I can’t tell you about, I got sick, too. Same thing as my daughter for the most part. But I never let myself consider that it was that pesky pig flu.

In fact, I’ve exerted much effort to keep pig flu on the back burner of my mind.

Oh, sure, I’ve been hearing the heart-wrenching reports of deaths of children (I can’t even go there, folks) and that this virus is going more viral that a video on YouTube, but I’d really rather not give this thing any more attention than I have to.

Which worked to a certain extent. At least until I met my parents for lunch on Friday and Mom pulled out the hand sanitizer immediately after sitting down at the table. Then again after getting soup. Then again after getting food. Then again as we left. And we were encouraged – ok, forced – to follow suit the whole time.

As we left, Dad made one of his usual snide remarks about the restaurant owner demanding payment for a new bottle of “Germ Be Gone” they’d need to replace the one we’d just used up but I had to wonder how much truth was found in his joke… After all, I’d seen my mother use more than one pump of sanitizer at a time…

I guess the fact that my dad was preparing to take my brother to his office to re-test for the porky virus played no small part in Mom’s paranoia. And to bring things full circle, my brother does in fact have pig flu.

It would appear the neighbor in my carriage house does as well. Our dear friends across the street had it, too. Every member of the family, in fact – except for the mom. Wow. Who coulda seen that one coming…

I guess all this is to say that there is really no rhyme or reason as to who gets it and why – as to whether the vaccine will work, or not. And we have a couple of choices here.

We can live in fear. Or not. We can take every precaution known to man and get the pig flu. Or do nothing and exit unscathed.

Let’s not be afraid, though, ok? Let’s just live and be the best we can be.

And as Halloween approaches, if you haven’t already narrowed down your costume of choice, pig costumes should be readily available. I think you know what I’d suggest…

-Liz

Enjoy your Coffee Break!

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