This week has been longer than expected.
Monday was a day of remembrance and of paying special tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. and all those who like him fought for human rights. Tuesday started with a full day of work, but to my surprise I had a fever. I proceeded to log into my workstation and begin my morning meetings. It’s times like these when being a remote worker is a blessing I don’t have to commute. Since it’s telework, I proceeded to check my emails, go over my notes, and get ready for a long day of meetings. By 9am, my first meeting began and I realized that I was not going to be able to produce any substantial work because my brain is fried. I quickly messaged my supervisor and informed the web team lead. He rightly told me to head out to get better.
I wasn’t sure if it was that serious, maybe it was a slight cold. By midday I had chills and a fever. Thankfully I live with my partner and she’s an EMT and she was able to bring me a rapid COVID test. We both had slight sore throats Monday night but it was beginning to be obvious that I had covid. A rapid test is said to take 15 minutes to show a result. Mine took 8 minutes. I was positive and rapidly declining into the worst head aches and body aches I’ve experienced.
I had a team meeting that evening to finish creating our project plan. That was not going to happen. I laid all evening in a state of delirium and surprisingly kept day dreaming that all programming languages were interconnected by a set of simple laws and if I just kept thinking about them they would come to me. These same dreams plagued me throughout the following nights.
Not everything was bad. I was able to get an extension and my workplace has up to 80 hours of COVID leave. So I figured I would use the buffer to regain my strength and take a break from everything. I continue to have a small routine and take my dog for small walks. While in this quarantine I am noticing my actionable voice in writing which is a relief. Without having to worry about work for another week I can slowly work on school assignments (cause school doesn’t stop even for covid). And that’s okay, if I didn’t have these moments where I can sit up and write a bit, I would be more grumpy. I feel lucky to be in this while being a remote worker and an online student. Meeting with my group is as easy as logging into discord. My main objective for the rest of the term is to not let this bump in my path deviate my learning objectives for this term. Once I’m less delirious and the fever is gone I want to just sit down and write some code. I miss it, but I also feel like if I sat down and tried to do it right now my head would explode.
The silver lining to all of this is that I get to spend time with my partner and my dog. Get a break from the same 6am-6pm routine and I finally got to watch the Toy Story movies. This evening I also got to meet with my capstone group and we were able to iron out the details of our project.
