> I know corporate America doesn't really have a place of me to be
> 'sick' of going to work. There is no slot for 'not today' let alone a
> slot for 'not this morning'.... The system is set up for me to either
> be 'sick' or to show up or to plan ahead about this.

You are correct about the system. But what most folks don't realise is
that you don't have to play the game. Sure there are baubles and
trinkets for those who do, but the above still applies. Thoreau had a
unique way at looking at economics and property; his opinion was that
instead of looking at the cash value of something you own or want to
buy, consider it in terms of the hours of your life lost in labour in
exchange for it.

We are taught that we need our things, but the reality is far from
different. Now this may be far from what you are talking about (maybe
you love your job?) but it is very possible and in fact quite easy to
abandon the "rat race" for a much more soul-centred existance, and the
only real cost I have found is fewer trips to walmart and Ikea. Hardly
a great loss. And when we move aboard our sloop next month, we are
getting rid of it all anyway. My wife will quit her job, I'll keep
writing, and hopefully in a couple of years we will be in the
Caribbean.  Some cruisers sail around the world with expenses as low
as $500.00/month, including annual boat maintenance, and in very
seaworthy sailing craft that can be had for around $10,000. But that's
just one option. There are many ways to live life, and the consumer
model is only one of them.

Thoreau put it this way - "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation
and go to the grave with the song still in them." The sad thing is
people have a choice, they just might not see it.

Good luck,

Nathaniel