Rain Rain Go Away

So I got a flu shot on Tuesday at work. Never again. Ever.

The charitable arm of the Chicago Fire, the FireWorks for Kids Foundation, volunteered to deal cards at some company's event at Ditka's Restaurant downtown on Monday night. There was free food and drink for our volunteers and the foundation pulled in a few grand for helping out. I talked All-In Chris into coming with, and we ended up having a good time. There were a couple of cash poker tables, two blackjack tables, and then 40 people got into a $100 buy-in no-limit tournament, which All-In and I dealt along with two other guys that I work with. We had a good time, but I was a little tipsy at the end (we didn't drink until fter we were done dealing) and it was almost 2am before I went to bed.

Tuesday at noon I got the flu shot.

I have had a fever for three days now and my arm is still sore. This is stupid. I haven't gotten sick in a long time (other than two horrific bouts with food poisoning -2000 and 2004- and the occasional cold) so I don't know why I got it to begin with. Absurd really. Why fix something that isn't broke? So I've been miserable for three days, starting Tuesday night. I got home from work (about 6 hours after said shot) and passed out from exhaustion on my bed. I woke up in the 7th inning of Carpenter's gem in St. Louis and watched the end of the game in agony as the fever had broken out big time.

Wednesday I woke up feeling terrible, but we had our big sales retreat at Dave & Buster's down on Clark Street and I had to be there. We spent about 7 hours or so recapping 2006 and setting goals for 2007. Fun stuff. Then we had a "corporate challenge" where we each competed in four games and they ranked us by our scores.

We started off with the Daytona USA racing game. I immediately shot out into second place and held my position for the first seven laps quite easily, never getting passed other than trading spots with the leader once or twice. Then, on the last lap, the third and fourth placed cars started to catch us and caused a massive wreck. I ended up finishing 3rd as a result, the guy who led most of the way finished 4th, out of the points as only top three score.

Next was skeeball. After dropping consecutive 40s to start the game, I don't think I hit above a 20 the rest of the time. I finished last in my group and among the bottom 3rd on the day.

Then I went MJ in game 5 of the 1997 Finals on everyone. High fever, exhaustion, sweating, could barely lift my arms, I really felt like giving up. I stepped up and dropped 50 for the overall victory in the pop-a-shot. I felt like I should have been stumbling as I walked away from the machine with Mike, my new boss and teammate for the team scores, holding me up.

The final game was the derby downs thing where you have to roll the cue ball up into the holes and make the horse walk, trot, or run. I landed a couple trots early and then got out in front with two runs. I looked up to see I was neck and neck with another horse, but that I was one small step from the finish. So instead of rolling it up to the top, I went for the quite hit and walked across the finish line for another victory.

As the overall winner, I got a shot glass. Cheap bastards. Our team also won the overall competition and got....well, a pat on the back. Oh well, it was fun and good bonding with some of the sales staff that I really haven't gotten to know too well since I've been working in Premium Seating for the past seven months.

On my way home I stopped for a haircut (it had been over a month,) and then went home to rest again. The fever was boiling at this point and even a cold shower and a boat load of advil couldn't bring it down. My only saving grace was that Jeff Suppan was throwing in Game 4 and I was looking forward to watching baseball. Then there was a rain-delay that ended up cancelling the game.

Now I'm at work, exhausted, still have a slight fever and I can't wait to get out of here.

One final note: Halloween has seriously become the new New Year's here in Chicago. It's like, everyone is having a party and you're expected to dress up, show up and spend over a hundred bucks getting drunk and having fun. I don't think I'm going out this year....just not in the mood.

I'll be updating my previous posts with some links to pictures. For some reason, I have a bunch that blogger wouldn't let me insert into the post. Somewhat annoying....