Cabin Fever
When a girl spends more time at work than she does anywhere else, her social life is bound to be affected. And as the possibility of going out and meeting new people grows more and more remote, another possibility grows more and more likely—getting gripped by the “fever”—cabin fever, that is. When we were back in law school, my friend Erika coined the phrase “cabin fever” to describe how it was that a guy we met in that environment was so much more attractive than if we’d just randomly met him in some other social setting. At the time, the evidence was literally staggering since we were all dropping like flies! Boys whom we’d previously thought of as annoying, arrogant or overbearing (or all of the above) were all of a sudden hot, cute and smart. What could explain this odd phenomenon? Cabin fever, that’s what. While the dictionary defines cabin fever as mere “restlessness as a result of existing in a confined space,” I beg to differ. In the real world (or at least in my world), cabin fever symptoms included hook-ups with people I’d never dreamt of hooking up with and breakups that were the topic of conversation for weeks by people who were afflicted with the same condition. And now that I find myself in the working world, I see that cabin fever isn’t just a unique school phenomenon but seems to affect the workplace as well. After all, when coworkers are seeing more of each other than they are of their own families, the line between personal and professional is bound to get blurred. In fact, cabin fever is the perfect explanation for why workplace romances, as much as they are frowned upon and cautioned against, are actually inevitable.
So it’s no wonder that after being cooped up at work all through the holiday season, I started to suffer from delusions of romance with literally everyone that walked by my office door. Wow, look at that copy guy, he sure is cute. Mmmm, yum, look at the arms on the Arrowhead water delivery boy (what was his name again?). I kid you not, these were literally the thoughts running through my head on the eve of Christmas eve while I’m contemplating whether I should just end my misery and hurl myself out a window. By the way, in case you were wondering, the glass is way too thick and the only thing that comes from hurling oneself at it is a sore shoulder and a bruised forehead. But honestly, could you really blame me? After giving up hope and feeling ridiculous about playing games with Mr. Perfect (can you believe he never called?!), I was beginning to suffer from some serious cabin fever. Oh and I haven’t even gotten to the worst part—I think I’m in love with a man who is old enough to be my grandfather. I can’t help it. His bald head is just so distinguished looking and he must be wise, since he’s been practicing law longer than I’ve been alive. Too bad he’s opposing counsel and represents a car dealership that’s totally trying to screw my client. But what’s a few million dollars in the grand scheme of things? I mean, this is love! When I confessed my feelings to my very best friend Ale she laughed and told me I must be kidding. Okay, okay, so maybe I was kind of joking but still whenever there’s just so much time spent in close quarters, some kind of relationship is bound to form. Anyway, after Ale told Erika and Erika told Val, they all staged an intervention, diagnosed me with a classic case of cabin fever and told me I was spending way too much time at work. At which point I snapped out of it and realized that maybe I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life with a man who was in high school before calculators were invented (it’s true, he told me himself).
But my poor friend Claudia did not walk away from her brush with cabin fever quite so easily. We all had to do some major therapy and consoling to rid her of the bug (and its after-effects). Claudia and I started working together early this year and I quickly grew to love her like a little sister. So when all the drama started, I literally wanted to strangle the Boy Who Shall Not Be Named (seriously, this twerp turned out to be as evil as Lord Voldemort) who was taking advantage of Claudia in her cabin feverish state. They had been friends and coworkers for a couple of years before things got complicated. But combine a Friday night work event with loads of free-flowing alcohol and there you have it, yet another case of cabin fever. Claudia and he who shall not be named shared drinks, cigarettes, and later that night, they shared something more. A couple of weeks later at yet another work event, he decided to “share something more” with another coworker on a very public dance floor, in front of a very disgusted Claudia. To make matters worse he then started bad-mouthing Claudia to anyone who’d listen, saying she wasn’t being “professional.” He even tried to get her fired! Thank goodness I was there to talk some sense into their boss but really, after that episode poor Claudia wouldn’t even look at the cute copy guy for fear of being struck by cabin fever yet again.
Nevertheless, even though cabin fever can result in some nasty side-effects, there are quite a few hopeful cases that make me think it’s not all bad. Besides, it can still be fun while it lasts. Because sometimes, when your friends aren’t around for support or company, you have to take what you can get. A perfect example is Mariana. After her move to NYC, I have to admit I’ve been more than a little bit worried about her. Up until very recently, we’d shared everything together, from high school to college to work, we’ve done it together. And now she’s across the country, all alone in a city full of strangers. So when she told me about what she had self-diagnosed as a case of cabin fever, I couldn’t help but be glad. If cabin fever was the cure to her homesickness, that helped her to miss us LA girls a little bit less than we were missing her, well then, so be it. Mariana was recently introduced to Ricardo at a work event and while she freely admitted that if she were back here at home he probably wouldn’t even have registered as a blip on her radar screen; in her present situation, he seems to be exactly what the doctor ordered. Right now, Ricardo’s serving a much-needed purpose and if it’s cabin fever that got the two of them started, that is just fine by us. After all, there’s nothing to say that she can’t enjoy the fever while it lasts and look back on it with a smile on her face.
And whose to say that Mariana and Ricardo won’t end up together forever? If cabin fever is what it took for her to give him a second glance and she ends up really liking what she sees, well then, that’s worth celebrating. Of course it’s true that cabin fever can lead to awkward situations that endanger peace of mind but what about the success stories? What about the stories of happily ever after that were sparked by cabin fever? At the end of the day, who cares what sparks the spark? Whether it’s a blind date or love at first sight or cabin fever; when it works, it works. In which case, bring on the fever!
~~~ Shaiza
