Bah! I have a cold!

Really? Seriously? Four days before I take off on a road trip to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving I get a cold? A road trip when you're feeling like crap sucks - and I love road trips!

Having a cold and staying home sick was so much better when we were kids! Of course at the time I felt awful but looking back now it was great!

I would get to sleep in and watch TV all day. Depending on the time frame there were the game shows - $25,000/$100,00 Pyramid, Let's Make a Deal, Match Game, Joker's Wild, Concentration, The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, Hollywood Squares and so many more.

Then there were the soaps - never mind most of the time I was too young to understand what was really going on. Again, depending on the year there was Love of Life (raise your hand if you remember that one!), Ryan's Hope, Dark Shadows, All My Children and General Hospital - this was before VCRs, so it was the only way to catch up on your "story" until Christmas and Summer vacations. Oh and remember the talk shows? The Merv Griffin Show and The Mike Douglas Show were my favorites!

My grandmother would make me comfort food...of course, depending on what was wrong with me the food varied. If it was my stomach she'd make chicken soup with angel hair pasta, potatoes, malanga, etc. It was very close to this recipe in fact.

But if it was a cold, well then she had to feed me so I could get my strength back to fight the cold - which meant - lots of food! There was still the chicken soup, or sometimes she would make "potaje" which is kind of a soupy stew made with vegetables and meat run through a blender. I might even get my ultimate comfort food fried eggs and white rice!

And later when they got home from work, my parents might bring me a comic book or some other inexpensive trinket to distract me. Sleep, TV, good food and a toy! Such a deal!

But guess what! I stayed home sick yesterday. I slept in, watched TV and Hubby warmed up some left over take out Wonton soup and made me fried eggs and white rice for lunch! I didn't get an Archies comic book, but that's OK!