Illness Sick And Sneezy Waitress and Colleague

[snzer]

I went out to dinner with a friend recently and had a wonderful experience. The hostess seated us and said our waitress would be with us shortly and she came up a few minutes later. I had a feeling she was sick because her nostrils were bright pink around the edges and her voice was very stuffed up when she introduced herself. I was thinking to myself that I would be so lucky if she sneezed haha I definitely would have chosen the right restaurant.

She brought back our drinks and asked if we were ready to order and sniffled a little. My friend ordered first and as he was telling her what he wanted, I was watching the waitress's face. I saw her nostrils flare a little and then before I could prepare myself she sneezed really suddenly. She was holding onto the pen and notepad while writing the order so she kind of just craned her neck down to sneeze on herself/her chest. That worked well enough but I definitely felt some of her sneeze spray on me since it was essentially uncovered. Her nose was running really badly after the sneeze and when we finished ordering, I saw her wiping her nose on her wrist while she walked around the restaurant. It was a small place and we were seated in the corner, so I could pretty much see her at all times as long as she wasn't in the kitchen. She had a tissue in her pocket that she took out sometimes to wipe her nose. She would crumple it up and put it in her pocket and seemed really shy about it.

When she came to bring us our food, she was setting down all of the plates in kind of a hurry because it seemed like she needed to sneeze again based on the visible hitching of her chest. I'm sure it wouldn't have been obvious to most people but I could very obviously see and hear her hitching breaths haha. I was right because she turned over her shoulder and sneezed three times in a row. She had food in her hands so she obviously couldn't cover and I wonder if the table behind her got sprayed. When she finished I said "Bless you, you sound like you're under the weather" and she said "Oh, thank you. I'm sorry, I have an awful cold but we're really short staffed with everyone being out sick, so they asked me to come in anyway." I told her I hope she gets better soon and she told me she hoped that she didn't get anyone sick. She had these wet sounding desperate sneezes that were mostly covered in her hands or her arm, but I wonder how many people she got sick by coming in to work...most likely including me. I think caught a sneezy cold from her since I got her sneeze spray directly on me, but it might have come from work.

The woman I work with who sneezes all over the place had another cold. She gets sick every 3-4 weeks it seems and I'm lucky I don't catch everything she brings in. I could tell when she came in the other day that she was really sick. Her nose was going crazy all day long, and she was sneezing her head off. I felt so bad for her because they sounded like they took a lot out of her. As usual, she didn't cover up those sneezes, so her desk, her computer, her keyboard, the break room, the conference room, and any other place she set foot in became contagious with her cold. When I was heating up my lunch in the break room I heard someone gossiping with someone else and saying something about being accidentally sneezed on in the hallway and how she could "feel the whole thing" on her skin. No doubt that woman is going to catch the sneezy cold too if she got a sneeze right on her.

I was working with her again on a project since we're kind of friends now and we work well together. We were chatting about the next steps for the project when she cut herself off with a gasp in the middle of her sentence. She started to have a sneezing fit that went for almost a whole minute. She didn't even try to cover so I stood there and watched while she sprayed the cubicle around her so that we could finish our conversation. Every sneeze was wet and most of them were right out in front of her. I was sitting on the corner of her desk while we talked, so I was definitely in the danger zone for those huge sprays. I didn't feel any on me but I could see the dense clouds of spray that basically coated all of her cubicle after the hours of sneezes. I'm always kind of in awe of the massive amounts of spray that each sneeze has for her. It drives me crazy (both because it's a little rude but mostly because it's incredibly attractive haha).

Anyway I caught a cold but it wasn't too bad. It was only maybe three days of sneezes and then I was fine again. I still can't figure out if it was my coworker or that waitress who gave it to me, but it could have been anywhere since 1/3 of the city seems to be sneezing and coughing and I'm constantly on the bus to go places. Even the restaurant had a few other sneezers while we were there. If anyone wants to hear obs from my bus rides I have so many haha I take at least two buses every day and have a lot of opportunity to observe. I live near a college so students are always getting each other sick. Cold season is basically September to May here because of all the stressed out students spreading their germs, but now it looks like we're getting in to the serious cold season/flu season starting soon.

Edited November 10, 2023 by snzer
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[Vinda]

Wow, thank you for sharing! These obs were very long and detailed - you did a great job describing things! I'm so impressed you were able to talk to the server about her symptoms; I would have been way too weird, lol. And I'm glad the cold you caught wasn't too bad! 

[Italiangirl]

@snzer, I love your obs!

They're so detailed and just... 😍😍

Thanks for sharing and I'm glad you got over your cold! 

[kiku]

@snzer Thanks for sharing! Good to know your own cold wasn't too bad. But wow, your colleague seems to be extremely sneezy when she has a cold, and she gets like that every 3-4 weeks? Whoah... I would be so distracted from my work!... I do think she should cover her sneezes though, definitely. Same goes for the waitress, although I realize it's difficult when your hands are busy all the time... Anyway, it was all great to read! 👍

[Steelswarm]

Your obs are always great to read @snzer, the descriptions are great to imagine the scenario you went through. I especially liked to read about the usual sneezy co-worker! That situation sounded incredible, did all the sneezes sound the same? Did you like bless all of the sneezes? Or kept talking through the convo as best you could with what was happening? 

Good thing the cold you caught wasnt too bad!

I'd love to hear about those bus ride obs, send em in hehe xd