I feel pretty (awful actually)
I don’t think this is common, if it is, I’d love to know, but for me, being ill has the same visual effects as visiting a health spa. My mum pointed this out to me when I was little and it’s still true - I look good when sick.
Somehow the paleness of infection smoothes out my complexion while the feverish flush of my cheeks looks much better than my pathetic attempts at using blusher. Illness also makes my eyes bigger, brighter and greener giving my ill-nickname of bright-eyes (at least I think that’s the reason - I don’t think I’ve ever contracted mixomatosis). And somehow the darker pink of dry cracked lips looks intentional rather than bloody. My hair even behaves when I’m sick - I think apathy is good for it.
This is not true of all illnesses obviously - chicken pox, german measles and anything involving facial blotching being prime examples - but in the case of nasty, coughy wheezy colds I look much better than I normally do.
This is sometimes a useful attribute - client meetings, parties etc. But when returning to the office after three days off sick it was a bit problematic. My boss looked at me and said “gosh - you look well” then paused, remembering suddenly when he’d last seen me. It was difficult, it was awkward. I could see him contemplating another sentence, possibly along the lines of “you’re fired”.
Fortunately I had my trump card handy, with a wheeze and the croakiest of small voices I said “hello” then succumbed to the hacking cough I had been suppressing all the way up the stairs. Crisis averted, the boss returned to work and I sat at my desk looking better than I have in ages but feeling so full of phlegm that I’m surprised my chair didn’t collapse.
Irony’s a bitch sometimes.
