wishing to be sick is stupid

Everytime I make the mistake of telling someone how I haven't been sick in so long, I become ill the next day. This pattern has been so reliable that, when I was tempted to utter the dooming words to a friend, I stopped myself, mentioning the above jinx, and then shut up. Alas, the damage was done.

Maybe it's that I just know when I'm getting sick and then I think about it until - by law of attraction - I make it come true. It's the altered mind state of sickness, the excuse to sleep during the day, watch movies, and read without time limits that gets me to "fantasize" about it. Of course, reality always looks different. Once the aching body and stuffy nose have arrived, I am reminded that I cannot afford to be out of commission, for the chores and duties of motherhood haven't gone out sick together with me and there is no "other half" to pick up the slack. There is homework to be helped with, children to be chauffeured around, dinner to be prepared, and unusually large and messy spills to be dealt with (because those only happen when you either have no time for it and are on your way out the door or are at the brink of collapse from exhaustion).