So after taking an extra day to make sure I was fully recovered and not contagious anymore, I am back at work. (…but am I working?) 
I guess I can’t say fully recovered because it will take a few days of careful eating to get my system back on track, but I’m functional and not tired anymore.
I was mesmerized today while a co-worker showed off some new brushes in Illustrator. I really like the effects, and it makes me want to take an Illustrator class. Part of me thinks that I would be able to create things in Illustrator more quickly and with more satisfaction than trying to do so by hand. Sure, I had some art courses for my graphic design minor, but hey, it was a minor — I spent 2 semesters on a variety of art classes, not the kind of concentrated study it takes to be an artist/illustrator. But I have the urge to create, and I feel clumsy with a pencil and a handful of Micron pens.
Anyway, I get mesmerized whenever I watch my coworker using Illustrator, much in the same way I was mesmerized watching an old college mate hand-code his website (back in the day when everyone had just discovered that GIFs could be animated). He – the college mate – let me just look over his shoulder for hours and ask questions now and again. Eventually, I said, “gimme the code to start with,” and the rest is history, or at least a career.
So I figure there’s some hope that I could learn Illustrator well enough to actually use it someday. I’m not sure if the training best suited for me involves watching over someone’s shoulder again or taking a class with assignments and tests. What I do know is that the creative bug never completely goes away, and while writing is one part of the creative world that I have some mastery in, there is more just begging for me to jump in.
P.S. I suppose being mesmerized by someone using Illustrator means I can’t laugh anymore when my mom watches screensavers.