After leaving you on this cliffhanger of an ending last week, you'll be happy to hear that my cough hasn't gone away in the meantime. We'll also find out in this week's installment of "Marcel Drew Comics, Please Look at Them" that it can take up to 18 weeks for a cough to go away. On the bright side: Endless amounts of material for future comics about coughing.
Monday
Having a cough is just so dehumanizing, somehow. You're just existing like always, but now with the unwanted addition of occasionally barking out a guttural scream every couple of minutes. What's science doing all day? Why haven't we solved this yet? Give me a make-the-cough-go-away pill!
Tuesday
After two years, I'm finally able to spend a night at Anna's place without waking up with immense back pain. Mattress shopping was a huge success. Anna's side now has an absurd slab of concrete instead of a mattress, while I got the same one I use at my place. And now we're both happy!
Wednesday
Remember how I called having a cough dehumanizing? Eighteen weeks?! That's a huge part of the year! I didn't do the math, but I think that's how long a human pregnancy takes! Absurd.
That being said, I don't think cough medicine does anything, really. At least for me, I've never actually felt any relief from it. It's just something I take because you're supposed to. The hope never dies.
Thursday
If you thought we were done with cough-related content: No. This is my life now. Wake up, cough, go to bed... cough even more. I haven't had more than five hours of sleep a night in days. This is not sustainable.
Friday
People with long-haired cats know the struggle. They really do their best to stay clean and hate it when something goes wrong, but sometimes stuff gets stuck on its way out. And then there's this whole process of trying to convince the cat to get a haircut around their rear end. But of course they don't like that, because who would? So there's this back and forth of arguments and claws, and in the end everybody is unhappy.
But that's a thing of the past now. Who would have thought it could be so easy?
Saturday
If you thought this was going to be a cute little comic about autumn and how pretty it is: Surprise! This one's about me coughing, too! Hahahaaaa! What fun we're having! So much coughing! Hahahahahah! Fun fun!
I really hadn't planned on taking a taxi at 1:20 AM to get from Anna's place back to mine. Especially since this was supposed to be my first night on the new mattress, and I was looking forward to finally sleeping without pain. Oh well...
Here, have a few photos from that morning:
Sunday
I promise we had more social interactions with the other guests as well. But this comic reminded me of what parties were like in my early twenties, when social media was new and we all sent dozens of tweets with party updates throughout the night. Weird times. But I met most of my friends back then, so that era actually deserves the "social" in social media.
Thanks for reading, friends! See you next week!
Marcel
🍁