the monday whine

Things that are not appealing when you have a cold:

- inhaling cold air

- being outside

- explaining yourself ("It's like Walter Benjamin," said my supervisor. "He never explains anything; he wants all his sentences to be epigrams."

"So I shouldn't be emulating him?" I said.

"Well, he failed his Ph.D.")

- writing supervision reports

- doing course reading

- sustained thought

Things that are appealing when you have a cold:

- inhaling peppermint tea steam

- taking your cold much, much too seriously

- kicking around a balloon

- thinking back to happier times (sometimes only 48 hours ago)

I physically embody the "XD" emoticon.