Shortly after crashing the maskless, indoor reception of the wedding D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser officiated, I soon found that it hurt to swallow. I couldn’t sleep without relentless sneezing and coughing waking me up, or type without brain fog. A grating headache forced me to close my eyes and put an ice pack to my brow line.

I learned through an at-home test that it wasn’t the coronavirus (COVID coughs are dry, so the symptoms weren’t consistent). But interestingly enough, it wasn’t strep either — it was just a common cold.