I�ve been sick for about 7 days now. It�s bordering on the ridiculous.

My computer also died. I was installing Office on it Monday night and it froze up after installation. I shut down and after that, when I turn it on, all I see is my wallpaper, with nothing on the desktop. All programs missing. No Start button. No short cuts. Nada. Can�t be good.

In my haze of sickness on Monday night, I accidentally reset my clock when setting my alarm, so instead of waking up at 6:30AM, I woke up at 5:30AM. I was thinking to myself, �God, I am soooo tired, but I have to get up.� I looked outside and was surprised at how dark it still was, not ray of light penetrating the dark night sky, and it depressed me to think this was just the onset of winter darkness. I dragged myself through the motions of getting ready and rushed to leave my dark apartment. As I left, I ran into a surprise apartment guest, who rushed at me in the dark blocking the microwave clock and whispering �Happy Thanksgiving! Did you have a good holiday?� Confused by this familiar stranger in my apartment and the fogginess left from a strong antihistamine, I left my apartment and reached dark and empty city streets. That�s strange, I thought, there�s no one out on the streets and there are so many Taxi�s.

Being the Manhattanite that I am, I know not to look a gift taxi in its grill, so I hailed one without question and headed to work. Once in midtown, I again marveled at the lack of people and traffic, but hurried thinking it was 8:15 and I only had a few moments before my early meeting. Then, I spotted one of the �early� executives entering my building and thought that�s strange, he must be running late. I stopped for coffee and then entered the building. As the elevator climbed up the shaft, it dawned on me, could it be possible that I am early??? I walked into the offices, noticing no one was here for the big meeting that should be moments away and glanced at a clock.

It was 7:20am. I was an hour early.

But back to my computer. I think it may be a poltergeist. I think I�ve mentioned the ghosts in my apt before. Last night, while I tried to figure out the problem, the lamp on the other side of my room flickered on and off about 15 times. I stared at it the first few times and then I yelled, �Knock it off!� and it stopped. I went to bed shortly after that.

This morning, I was getting dressed in the middle of the room, between my computer at one end and the lamp at the other, when I heard a clicking sound from my computer, which was shut down. I turned my head and stood still for a moment, staring at my monitor. As I stood there, my computer powered on. I stared at it for a bit, curiously waiting to see if the icons would appear on the desktop. Nothing, just the wallpaper.

�Very funny,� I said under my breath, as I turned the computer off, grabbed my coat and walked out.

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