Master man, I'm never better than your latest plan.

So here is how my week went down:

After leaving work on Monday evening, I got my hair trimmed up with my fabulous stylist, and on the way home my throat felt a little scratchy. I thought nothing of it.

Upon arriving at the apartment and feeding the cats, I made myself dinner, sat down to watch Treme (David Simon's mesmerizing new show for HBO) and then...I started coughing.

I ran into the bathroom and started doing salt water gargles in the midst of yelling "NOOOO! NOOOOO!!!!"

I went to bed with my throat hurting like hell, and did not sleep very well. (Rhyming is the first sign of insanity, by the way.)

On Tuesday morning, I felt awful. But I had to go to work since it's one of our busiest weeks of the year (fiscally and all). I perservered through the day in pain, went home, and promptly napped with the cats. I e-mailed Kelly, whom I had remembered was coughing this past weekend: "How are you?" Kelly: "I stayed home from work..." CULPRIT: FOUND.

I had to let Gaby know I couldn't go to her birthday party (happy birthday today, Gaby!), and warn Jim that if he came over for LOST he may find himself at the epicenter of a globally affecting disease: the common cold.

On Wednesday, I again awoke in dismay at the state my body was in: weak, snotty, scratchy, gross. And also depressed that I had a not-to-be-missed meeting scheduled at work. I trudged in. I sneezed through the meeting. I completed my work, and by one o'clock I bid adieu to my coworkers, for I was no longer prepared to carry on my day - I had to go home.

And at home, I slept. A lot. Most of the afternoon. I woke up to watch Into the Wild, which was fantastic - bravo, Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Kristen Stewart, Hal Holbrook, Catherine Keener, etc. - and then fell asleep again. I awoke on Thursday feeling rested, and better prepared for the fact that I could not miss any more work.

After a better work day on Thursday, I came home to prepare for our weekly games night. This includes cleaning the litter box, taking out the trash, cleaning off the games table, and making the place smell just right (thanks, candles). Then filtered in Erica, Jim, Tyler, Amber, Sean, Adam, and Kelly and we began!

Our new favourite game is BANDTHOLOGY, which sounds hokey, but is actually perhaps the perfect trivia game because it cannot be dated. It was gifted to Jesse and I by our wonderful friend Erin ("Tobes") at our wedding, and we just got around to playing it last month and now we're fully in love with it. In the game, you move up guitar strings to get "band members" in order to form your team's band. The main component of the trivia is a card with a word under six different colors. These colors correspond to the board's frets, and whatever color you land on, you have to use that word on the card to whichever the dice lands on: artist, album, song, lyric.

For example, last night, ultimate winners Tyler & Sean had to say the title of a song with the word "ghost" in it. They couldn't think of anything in the time allotted, which happens a lot because the pressure sometimes really makes your mind go blank. Afterwards, we all started yelling out songs: "Walking with a Ghost" Tegan and Sara! "Ghost of a Good Thing" Dashboard Confessional! "Who You Gonna Call? (Ghostbusters)"! And then I was like, plus there's a White Stripes one! But I couldn't think of it and I was so mad at myself. This morning on the way into work I remembered it and immediately texted Kelly: "LITTLE GHOST BY WHITE STRIPES! I finally remembered."

The game totally sticks with you, and you start remembering key words in songs ("oh, that song doesn't use the word 'charmed' it uses 'cavelier'"). So, thank you, Tobes, for setting our games night on fire and one day I hope you can join us!

Then we played Perv Artistry, which is...well, I simply can't go into how hilarious and awesome this game is because it wouldn't be appropriate. It is a game we only share with those who join our games nights.

Here are our game winners (totally won on luck of a chance card, by the way - one of these guys read the word "message" and thought it said "massage" and couldn't come up with lyrics with "massage" in it, just...saying.) Tyler decided to tickle Sean's eyes.

Literally, anyone can play. Anyone can win.

In conclusion, my week was a challenge, but I worked it all out, and ended up having a great night with friends. And board games. Two things that rule.

I haven't even started thinking of the weekend! What's your weekend looking like?