...was being sick!! Cartoons on the TV, mom would always make soup and tea. or if it was an illness no condusive to eating she would have me try some crackers and ginger ale and if that "stayed with me" then I had toast with her homemade strawberry jam and more ginger ale. And I always had Spitfire to keep me company. Mom, cartoons and cat...sick days were not so bad!!!

Chicken and Stars soup and all the time I wanted to read. I need to get some star shaped pasta to make a homemade version.

I was sick a lot as a child. When I was sick enough to stay home from school, I had a special doll named, imaginatively, Sick Dolly, that I was only allowed to play with when I was sick. It was a sawdust filled doll, and it had a wardrobe of clothes sewn by our family friend, Anna Blair, who had polio when she was a little girl. I also had a little bell I could ring when I needed my mom. My sick was usually of the sore throat and laryngitis variety.

Of course, I was actually sick a lot more than that, since I had asthma, and was just generally poorly. That part of being sick wasn't nearly so much fun. I threw up a lot, had to take really horrible cough syrup, and if I coughed too much my dad spanked me. (No, really, he did. Daddy was...yeah, moving right along.) The good sick was the one that came with a high fever and lots of coddling. I'm amazed I didn't end up with Reyes' Syndrome given that my mother gave me a truly amazing amount of baby aspirin over the years.

Four words:

The Price Is Right.

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Dig the Hugh Hefner-esq robe.

if one was sick, it was spending the day on Grandma's couch (the classic plastic covered one in the living room that no one sat on normally) so you had this sweatbox feel to it.. despite having a sheet over the plastic. You got a light broth, maybe some warm flat 7up and if you were close to death, she would turn on the color TV for you to watch, and it seemed like you only saw commercials for food.. which of course, seemed to make it worse.

I don't have time to be sick any more, ever, but at least it gives me a chance to sleep. Which is the main thing that I do while sick. I sleep before and after sleeping. I believe it is the best healer, and it passes the time.

I have pretty lousy memories of being sick as a kid, though. My mom was home during the days, so she'd be there anyway, but she would just drop off an aspirin or two and a glass of water and leave me alone for hours while she went about her usual routines. I just remember feeling crappy and lonely. Except for the "Oz" books. I had a collection of seven or eight of the big old illustrated L. Frank Baum books from the thirties, which I'd inherited from my uncle, and I read them all from beginning to end while I had strep throat and pneumonia. If I finished all of them before I was well, I would start over again. I also read the first three "Anne of Green Gables" books when I got older, and I believe those books profoundly shaped my imagination, my love of the outdoors, and the way that I write.

Not surprisingly, I partnered with someone who treats me exactly as my mother did when I am sick today. I'll never forget how he bailed on me when I had food poisoning! I'm glad you are getting better care than that. I hope Trillian doesn't get it -- and I hope you get better fast. Jamie Lannister :)

Illness is how I originally discovered the Addams Family. It remains the best of families :)

I love that picture. Why is the fish-faced demon choosing that moment for bribery? Did the rat mailman inspire Thomas Pynchon? I would not want to be within 100 yards of that with a high fever.

Sorry your under the weather. Me, the best thing about being ill is sleeping most of the day and maybe a well chosen film to watch.

I hope the crushed velvet Gomez is wrapping you in a bit of comfort... Someone must have tipped off the Universe that you'd been squeezing 27 hours out of each day and is trying to re-set the equilibrium.

Hopefully you won't end up losing a limb like Jaime...

What did I do when I was sick? Mainly drift in and out of waking dreams, watch Buffy/The X-Files/Stargate episodes back to back, and devour books.

Hope you feel better soon :)

The smell of Vicks Vaporub. Brings back the memory of Mom rubbing my chest with it so that I could breath.

The best part about being sick was that my mom would wheel the TV into my bedroom. MY BEDROOM! The excitement. We didn't have cable so I often ended up watching a Canadian TV show called Do It Yourself, with a lady host who was showing you how to be a handywoman. She had a black dog named Zeke.

We got served Campbell's chicken noodle soup in a special French onion soup bowl that was only ever used when we were sick. I guess the handle gave us a leg up while eating in bed. My mom would also make toast fingers (cut in five long pieces) with honey. I remember the taste of Tylenol crushed up in a spoonful of jam - awful! A pale blue barf bucket (I hated baby blue for thirty years, and the sound of any handle hitting the side of a bucket still makes me feel vaguely nauseated.) I remember the creepy sound of the humidifier, too, hissing in the dark. Brrr.

Feel better soon. I rarely comment, but always enjoy your posts.

Poor Kyle. But how wonderful that you have such a lovely and talented caregiver.

My mother used to fluff my pillows and bring me tea with honey and empty my sack of used tissues. It was lovely to feel cared for.

Hope you feel better soon!

I hope you feel better soon!

I think for me the best part of being sick when I was young was that I got tons of attention from my mom. My mom worked as an ER nurse while going to school to get a Master's Degree, so her time was precious. But when I was in junior high I started getting ill a lot with lots of ER visits, which blew, but she always made it seem not so bad. She use to make my stuffed animals talk in silly voices even when I was in high school. It was awesome. And you never knew when the "nurse" might visit with her famous nurses hat, which was really a pair of my dad's underwear on her head. Needless to say the best thing about being sick is that my mom is a badass.

Get well !

Do you know what is "Floraline" ? It is like semolina soup.
My mom always made it when I was sick with ground ham and cheese.
And I was allowed to stay and sleep in parent's bedroom all the day. I remember quiet and sunny room and Minette our cat on the bed with me.
I always want my Floraline/ham/cheese when I'm sick and I do it for my daughters (with pasta, they don't like Floraline).

My Nana would bring me sugary tea and Vegemite toast, and I would snuggle under the blankets watching tv. Any time I am sick it is always sugary tea and Vegemite toast and I'm nearly 45.

My mum brought me home after ten days in hospital, and she cut my Vegemite toast into triangles and it made me very emotional.

So long as there's no bloodletting or leeches... :)