Manic Moment Narrowly Avoided

Next week is Finals Week! Hoooraaay! Under normal circumstances, the stress of finals, the holidays, my upcoming birthday (ish!), and the lovely Iowa weather combine to give me one major manic moment. There are benefits to this: a clean house, gift-wrapping sprees, great periods of study time where it actually sinks in. Things like that. The downside? Extreme crabbiness, a tendency to wake up with 15 minutes until the final, kids missing the school bus, waking up the house because I'm fighting with the vaccuum, the wrapping paper, the scotch tape, whatever. Well, for a change (so far), I have managed to avoid the Moment. How, you ask? Okay, I'll tell you my secret. First, you must have school-aged children. Then, one of these children must catch a cold. The cold should mutate into a sinus infection that said child gives your significant other. You must kiss or otherwise be intimate with said significant other. Wa-la! Within 24 hours, you get the sinus infection. Okay, not the best way to avoid a manic moment, but it's working. The meds and the infection are crashing my sinuses (sinusi?) every four hours, my right eye has a headache, and I about die every time I bend over to pick something up off my floor, but I'm sleeping and oh so NOT manic. I could feel one coming on, too. I started my usual cycle of nightmares late last week and my sleep time was shortening. Now, thanks to NyQuil and other OTC products, I'm sleeping a decent amount of time. Thanks to bribery and threats of bodily injury, my family is pitching in to save the house. Wrapping can wait until after finals. I am studying between naps and seem to be retaining the information. I've even managed to cook a few meals instead of using take-out or the microwave. This is working so well, I think I'll make notes and try it next time I feel one of my Moments coming on. Wonder if I can buy a sinus virus on ebay?