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Say you've got a cold or a light touch of the flu. Then keep far away from me. You feel awful and I don't want to feel awful too. I know you don't want visitors, but here I am. And at least I've brought a gift: a few suggestions for entertaining things you can do while you suffer in peace and quiet. Except for, you know, the coughing and sneezing and assorted other noises you're making yourself. Relative peace and quiet, if you know what I mean.

Drink tea. It really doesn't matter what kind, since you can't smell it anyway. Earl Grey will smell just like jasmine. Peppermint and Irish Breakfast, the same. And if you want to, you can use it as the base of my father's restorative tonic, which consists of tea, bourbon, and horehound candy (tea optional). Or boring old lemon and honey, if you insist, though my father would not approve.

Cuddle large, fuzzy cats. Even if you're allergic to them. You're already sneezing as much as humanly possible, so you have nothing to fear from dander. Bonus: A large, fluffy cat makes an excellent substitute for a heating pad or hot water bottle.

Read. Or pretend to. Actual reading may distract you from how miserable you are (unless you're reading Les Miserables). Pretend-reading will encourage people to keep their voices low, plus it doesn't matter if you fall asleep with the book elegantly displayed on your chest. (Make sure it has a classy dust jacket, even if the book inside is Fifty Shades of Grey. Which I don't recommend, unless it's for pretend-reading. It may lead to barfing, which may be in your future anyway.)

Eat chicken soup. Tell everyone that you need it for the fluids and the electrolytes. Egg drop soup is an especially good variety, since if you can't convince someone in your household to make it and bring it to you, you can always convince the Chinese take-out down the street. Nibble saltines daintily, or the little fried things that look like Chinese tortilla strips.

Hit the Nyquil. And I don't mean the non-drowsy kind. Sleep through as much of the cold as possible. Warning: Do not mix Nyquil with Southern Comfort or the bourbon-horehound mixture (see above). You'll barf and you may be doing that already.

Squash tissues. Let them blossom all around you in a protective ring that no one will want to cross.

Call the doctor. Don't go see the doctor. You've got a virus and there's nothing she can give you for it. Just ask how long it is until you can get an appointment, then rest assured that your cold will be over before that. Unless you start making a sucky, moist kind of wheezing sound when you breathe. The advantage is it will keep people even farther away from you, but the downside is that you may have pneumonia.

Whine. Punctuate with coughs and sneezes. Again, the goal is to get people to leave you alone. If this isn't working, move on to even more disgusting symptoms. Keep a bucket by your bed, just so people get the idea that you could use it at any moment.

P.S. I'll give you one guess why I wrote this. If you don't get it right, I'll start whining. And coughing. And sneezing. And barfing. Just bring me some egg drop soup and leave quietly.

You wouldn't want to catch what I've got.

-Janet Coburn

Janet is a freelance writer and editor who lives near Dayton, OH, with a husband and two cats. She attended EBWW in 2016 and highly recommends it to anyone who wants ideas, motivation, and friendship. She has two blogs that she posts in weekly - Et Cetera, etc., and Bipolar Me. She currently is working on two book-length writing projects, a mystery and a memoir.