FundamentallySound Blog

The last couple of days I've had a pretty nasty cold. In fact yesterday I spent the whole day wrapped up under the covers drinking hot tea and trying to ignore my craving for ice cream.

Being sick and having a fever, sweating, and all that, it brings back vivid memories of being a kid and staying home from school, completely baffled by the things adults do in those hours between 9 to 5. But I knew what I liked to do, and that was lay in bed listening to the double cassette release of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Either that or anything by Bananarama. Even back then my tastes vacillated between sugar-pop and highly eccentric experimentalism. This was long before Classical Bob was mixing Suzanne Vega and David Tudor. Or Steve Reich getting remixed every which way but loose.

In a surprising way, I think I actually enjoy being sick, to some degree anyway. As long it is nothing serious, and just a common cold, I love the way it allows me to just cancel all of my appointments with impunity and abandon. No need to explain other than to say, "I'm sick." No responsibility except to rest, tend to myself, and drink lots of liquids. It's really not so bad, it's actually rather fun.

When I have a cold now, and when I feel feverish, I might was well be 15 again. The sensations are the same, the memories so clear, I close my eyes and expect to hear the opening guitar chords of that Lamb track "Back In NYC." In fact, for nostalgia's sake, I might just try to find a copy and listen to it while I doze off tonight. Nothing like that weird music plus a good fever to lull me into strange, but fun, altered states.