I do get a fair amount. 2 or 3 weeks a year, with rollover. If it is a chronic problem, I think it should be treated like a chronic medical problem by the employer. Which, I know, they aren't so generous about. And then there is the whole issue of no-sick leave employers.

I am one who finds myself in a cold sweat on the bathroom floor about 50% of the time. I'm "lucky" in that, while I'm pretty miserable, I can pretty much count on it to be completely debilitating for roughly 8 hours. Then it goes back to merely uncomfortable.

For many people with regular hard-hitting periods, they can't afford to get a cold on top of that.

Yeah --- it would be easy to eat up 10 days sick leave, which is pretty standard, if you have a day or so a month when you just can't work.

Also, re: The OC: I'm also pretty annoyed with everyone except Ryan and Summer this season. Sandy was being a (goodhearted, but still) jerk not to tell Kirsten about Rebecca. Caleb has had 18 months to get over his Ryan issues, and should promptly do so. Seth needs to shut up and get over himself. Zach is bland. And Marissa is ... Marissa.

Maybe they'll get their groove back for S3.

I'm "lucky" in that, while I'm pretty miserable, I can pretty much count on it to be completely debilitating for roughly 8 hours. Then it goes back to merely uncomfortable.

I used to have that. Then, I got on the Pill. worked wonders. I used to be in so much pain that I couldn't sit/lie still. I would pace back and forth, because the concentration required to put one foot in front of the other took my mind of the pain. sort of.

I think I get 3 sick days a year.

The Bitches and Natter threads seem reversed this morning. My world is all mixed up.

Why is it raining here? It should stop.

The news here seems to go back to the tossed baby every 20-30 minutes or so.

I've most often gotten 12 sick days, except for the place where were got 15 or 20 total leave days -- sick and vacation together.

Lee, DC will take your rainy and 60 if you'll take our windy and 40.

I used to have that. Then, I got on the Pill. worked wonders.

Same here -- I used to have crippling pain, the particularly insidious kind that comes on very quickly and if you don't hit it with painkillers before it reach full-strength you're just doomed, because once it has you securely in its grip it laughs at anything less than prescription-strength naprosyn. On the Pill I hardly notice it's happening at all, which is just exactly fine.

Ignoring the baby story, except to say God bless that woman who saw the people throwing something out their car window and went to investigate. She saved a child's life, which is not a bad way to finish out your work week.

I'm feeling oddly un-gronky for having been up till nearly 1 last night. Hec and I had dinner with a friend of mine who is a big, big record geek and wanted to show Hec his collection. For me it was rather like being trapped in a 3D version of the Music thread; I felt horribly out of my depth, but it was fascinating. Plus, tasty pasta, and the pleasure of G's company, which has always been pleasurable but weirdly awkward; he's a deeply goodhearted person who is also both a geek and a nerd, and has several major obsessions on which subjects he's prone to delivering monologues rather than having conversations. But still, goodhearted and largehearted, and acutely aware of his oddness.

And now, over the past few months, he's actually been working at it: forcing himself to go out and talk to people and listen to them and push himself out of his geekly comfort zone. Which is such hard, scary work, and I adore him for doing it. And the universe, in a rare spasm of fairness, is actually rewarding him for his efforts: in the last month he's gone out on four dates with the same woman without messing anything up (though he's still terrified about bringing her home and letting her see the sprawl of his record collection and the complexity of his stereo equipment, vacuum tubes and all), and he has a Valentine's Day date. I'm SO DAMN HAPPY for him.

I'm still all pumped up from the nifty evening, and I'm horribly sorry for anyone who may be feeling extra gronkly this morning. I am clearly not carrying my fair share of the load. I promise to make it up on Monday.