Sick in Aspen

It´s 3am here in Aspen and I am awake mainly for three reasons. One is altitude sickness. Aspen is at 2500 meters and one of the consequences of altitude is insomnia. Secondly I have had fever for a day now without any other symptoms. I arrived to Aspen the night before last and since yesterday morning I have had between 37.5 and 38.7 fever. And lastly there´s the 8 hour jet lag between Aspen and Madrid which partly explains why I would wake up at 3am since it´s now noon in Madrid. And what´s worse is that I am in Aspen on the first trip ever with my second daughter Isabella who is 15. We had never traveled just the two of us. But while it is depressing to be sick it was special to see how well she took care of me. Isa brought me cold towels to lower the fever, ordered food for me and even googled altitude sickness reading all the symptoms to me. As she took care of me I remembered the nights in which things were the other way around.

So far I missed my dear friend Jack Hidary´s 40th birthday party. Today I have a meeting of trustees of the Clinton Foundation. If I go on feeling like this I will miss that too. But sometimes life is like this. We are reminded of the fragility of the human body. One thing is sure, I am not getting up until I feel reasonably well.

Update: It is five hours later and my fever is gone and I feel better. So I will be able to spend a very American Fourth of July after all!