The Year of the Cold

I like to call 2007 "The year of the cold." At this moment, I am again reminded that an over developed interest in q-tips + teeth that feel like they are loose = I have a sinus infection. Because this is not the first time this has happened to me, I attempted to figure out why I am a germ magnet. Two major themes emerge:

Variable A-Kids. I am not one of those teachers who have managed to develop a personal space bubble. In fact, I think that I may be walking around with a sign that reads, "If you need a hug, I've got a hug" on my back. On Friday, I told the children in my class that I was sick and they should not touch me. At the end of the day, several students' internal struggle with this was visible as they tried (and ultimately failed) not to hug me goodbye. Two tried to keep their feet far away as they leaned in...But, most just attempted to use stealth to avoid the germs and surprised me with a quick goodbye. Sneaking up on germs has no scientific evidence of working to avoid colds but my students do not seem to care.

Variable B-My Thesis. I am 16 days away from handing in my thesis. Each Tuesday, after my 7:30am-9:30pm day, I am run down. I am also loaded down with another phase of work to do for my thesis class. I am always behind in the work I need to do because by Wednesday afternoon, I'm sick. The idea of sitting and doing 2 more hours of work after work each night is much too daunting, thus causing the cycle of undone work/run down me to continue.

Findings
I think variable A is reacting to the catalyst of variable B. The cycle of school and contact with germy kids creates a situation where I sound like a man and have a red, red nose (both were observations by my class last Friday).

However, all of these factors will change after 41 days (end of elementary school) and 64 days (end of NY residency) where another study can be conducted in order to triangulate the findings of this phase of research.

Discussion
Based on the evidence, it is clear that I should invest in anti-bacterial stuff and never take class again.