Sick

I don't know which is worse:

• Being sick
• The feeling of letting down your co-workers by not coming in
• The knowledge that Big Brother is in the background somewhere notching another mark against you
• Having to get up so @#$%$ early in the morning to decide if you are sick enough to call in so that they don't send a small detachment of assassins to your house.
• Not being able to get back to sleep

And then there is the trying to stumble through the actual sick call itself:

"Um, hi, this is Braden, and I'm calling... oh, um, it's Braden Nurseykindaguy and I'm calling... oh, um, from the ER... yeah, RN.  Um, what was I saying?  Oh yeah, I'm *mindstartsracingtotrytofigureouthowtosaythiswithoutsoundinglikeatotalhoserwimploser* um, not coming in today.  Oh, why? um, because I'm not feeling well... I mean, I've got a fever and chills and my stomach is hurting and I feel like I may throw up and when I went to the bathroom just a minute ago... what?  Oh, you don't want details?  Okay, just let the ER know please.  Okay.  Don't hate me.  Mmmbye."

Okay, I'm going to go lay back down and pretend like I'll be able to get back to sleep.  We'll see how long that lasts.  Mmmbye.