flu-ish

When the swine flu hits these parts in force, I expect I will contract it immediately. Not because I am particularly susceptible to illnesses (I don't think I've taken a sick day since my freshman year of high school, although I have certainly whined about being sick while going about my life many times since then), but because I am incapable of that whole hand-washing/nose-covering/non-face-touching thing. Of course I wash my hands after I visit the toilet. I'm talking about the rest of the time: after shaking hands, after touching doorknobs, after holding on to the pole in the train, while in airplanes.

I just can't get worked up about that stuff. I can't even get worked up about it when the person whose hand I shake just came from school or jail, two hotbeds of flu transmission. I can't get worked up about it here. I can't get worked up about it in Africa. Our immune systems need a little bit of excitement now and then, right?

My one and only little concern, and the reason why I will be leaping at the opportunity to get a swine flu vaccine, should they offer me one, is that I will be flying through Tokyo in November (yes! Tokyo! - and this trip isn't going to get canceled). The last thing I need in the world is to be quarantined somewhere on my way to Vietnam. I do not intend to spend my vacation in a Japanese hospital. Or a Vietnamese hospital for that matter. (Unless I crack my head open attempting to surf. That would be totally worth it.)

Anyway, though, having been exposed to various colds and flues on three continents, I feel like I should have some immunity to this sucker already. Right? Right? Hmph.