Eek! Viruses!

As it has been my ritual since my undergrad days, I go home to Las Pinas every weekend. There is something about going home. It rejuvenates you and recharges you for the week ahead.

Not this weekend.

Friday night, I got my keys and opened the door to the house.
Me: "It's awfully quiet tonight...Where are they?"
Paranoid Me: "Uh-oh, maybe we've been burglarized and they're all at the police station!"
Morbid Me: "Maybe they've been kidnapped! Or massacred!"

I opened the door to my brother's room. He's asleep.
I opened the door to the master's. My mom and little sister are asleep.
I woke mom.
Puzzled, I asked, "Ma, ba't ang aga nyo matulog?"
"Anak...may sakit kami lahat. Pati si Ate Joy."
"Anong sakit nyo? Swine flu ba yan?" I asked half-joking, half-scared.
"Hindi ko alam," was all she could muster.
Well, we went to the hospital the next day. Apparently, they're infected with the normal flu virus. The doctor warned me, "Ingat ka. Mabilis makahawa yan."
No kidding.

Remember the ILOVEYOU virus that hit computers in 2000? It was authored by Filipinos and it spread across the world in one day. That's amazing speed. This speed probably triggered the linguistic evolution of associating the word VIRUS with computers.

Pathological or otherwise, viruses suck. Now, where's my face mask?