It was once said that a black man would become president when pigs fly...now there's swine flu

The worst possible thing that could ever happen to a person working in the news is catching the epidemic that is talked about 24/7. The people they work with are experts about the disease, how many people it has affected, and what states have had the most contact. New York happens to be at the top of that list for swine flu. I don't know why, its pretty far from Mexico. But everyone here, except for Brad (a producer), is terrified of catching the dreaded disease. Tracey (AP) came in two days ago and said, "I am scared to ride the subway after what Joe Biden said. Someone next to me sneezed and now I'm probably gonna die." The story meetings are filled with jokes about banishing all people who have the swine flu. And finally, we find that a boy in Texas is now dead. Two days ago Brad asked me if I was scared to get the swine flu now that I moved to New York. I said, "I'm not freaking out about it. But I don't want to get it, especially because people are dying of this disease." He said, "Psh...one person in the united states died and he was probably Mexican. No cases have been reported in Manhattan." What he doesn't know is that I got an email from the house president that someone in my building went to Mexico on spring break and has swine flu. This person lives in Manhattan. But like I said, I'm not freaking out about it. Yesterday I went on a run and for some reason felt extremely exhausted afterwards. It took me forever to get ready and the pollen from the trees was making my nose run. I went into work and like normal signs were flashing all over the desktop TV screens about swine flu. I felt my nose running again and wondered how pollen could get to the eighteenth floor in the middle of a city. In the story meeting that day I constantly felt like sneezing. Have you ever tried suppressing a sneeze? First of all its not a pretty sight and second its almost painful when the reverse process takes place. I did sneeze and everyone looked at me, not really in a good way. Justin is a field producer and constantly goes out with Greta to whatever state she may be in that day. He wasn't there so they gave me his desk. I constantly tried to hide my running nose. But it was one of those things that couldn't be helped. Plus it was progressively getting worse. Finally I couldn't help it any longer and had to constantly run to the bathroom to blow my nose. The sneezing couldn't be helped either and came at involuntary moments. Suddenly everyone could tell I was getting sick but they didn't want to say anything. I felt like crap, not only was my nose all red, my head felt congested, but my throat began feeling raw and my body ached.
I felt exhausted and would realize that I was zoning out when Gissel was trying to get my attention, "Erika? You ok?....Can you email that info to Sam?" By the time the show came around, I wanted to die. I was glad that the control room was dark so no one could see my suffering pain. I sat like a zombie with a tissue, frozen in one position so my nose wouldn't start running all over again. Brad kept making jokes and talking to me, but I accidentally ignored him for half of them. My goal was to just get through the show. I sneezed and everyone in the control room said, "bless you" during the middle of a commercial break. Final it was over and everyone started heading out. The executive producer, Meade, said, "How do you like the show? Good. Have a great weekend. And try to recover." Try to recover?! All my attempts to hide my sickness never got passed Meade. She is aware of everything going on around here. Journalists just have to be more aware I guess. I was embarrassed, the subway took eternity to take me home, only to have the worst night of my life. I was in misery. My body hurt, my nose kept running, my throat was raw, I wished I was dead. I don't think I slept much last night. Today all the BYU students went to the Statue of Liberty. I told Kathrine to tell them to leave without me. How Depressing!!! I've always wanted to see that, but I don't think I would have survived. I walked to Rite Aide and bought day quill. The lady at the counter laughed. I turned around and saw disposable masks on sale. I really didn't think anything was funny.