The conference crud strikes early

I've blogged about the conference crud before. It's inevitable. You will most likely get it if you spend any time at all in conference sessions, on the exhibit floor, or on a shuttle bus. If you aren't ever in one of those three places during a conference, well, then you're not in attendance.

This year the conference crud has apparently struck early. Lots of people are sick and have even missed a day or two of work in the past week leading up to the 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting (which officially starts Friday). There's been a vicious head cold that's been making the rounds at work. I myself was laid flat out on Monday with it (consisting of congestion, headache, sore throat and a general all over icky feeling). I slept all day on Monday and am much better, although there's some residual congestion hanging around. I have friends and colleagues all over the country that have reported being sick. Most of them have to get on a plane today or tomorrow to come to Philly for the meeting. The only thing worse than catching the conference crud and going home sick is being sick before you even arrive at the conference. Conferences are exhausting, and doubly so when you're not feeling well.

Maybe, just maybe, if I'm now well on the way to recovery (light years better than on Monday), maybe this was it and my bout of the crud is over and done with for this conference. Either that or we're all going to converge and trade germs and go home with each other's version of the crud.

But let's think positive. Let us all hope and believe that the conference crud struck early this year and it's now over and done with.

And then the realist in me says: "sure, and rainbows will be shining out of my butt next week."