Because I’ve been under it.
Getting over a cold reminds of those dystopian stories where everything is grey, no one feels any emotions, and everyone walks like a robot. Are those a thing? I could just be imagining it, but anyway, that’s what it feels like. I have no energy to do anything, even to get properly angry. I can’t taste anything, I have no enthusiasm for anything. I’m not even miserable; I just don’t care, or even the energy to care.
Now, the good part is that Nicole is a grade A, Olympic-class pamperer-of-the-sick. When I’d get home from work (colds make you almost bad enough to miss work), I’d have a little nest of comfort on the sofa waiting for me. Frozen delightful treats await me in the freezer, multitudinous beverages are in the fridge, and a nice hot bath has been run. It’s not quite enough to make me look forward to getting sick, but as far as silver linings go, it ain’t bad.
Sitting inert on the sofa has given me an unfortunate amount of time to binge-stream Seinfeld. I saw “unfortunate” because the show hasn’t aged particularly well in some respects. The laugh track doesn’t do the show any favors, there’s more yelling that there should be, Kramer is more “wacky” than “funny” most of the time, and the idea that papayas are too zany for normal people to eat was dated twenty years ago.
Where the show continues to shine is when the four main characters are torturing each other. The glee with which they twist the knife into each other’s backs is a delight, and no one is better at it Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Watching her grin while she’s making Jerry squirm makes me laugh every time. Her Elaine brings more energy to the show than the rest of the cast combined. I didn’t appreciate what she brought to the table when the show was in its original run.