A lurking cold

It started with a somewhat scratchy feeling in my throat on Thursday evening, together with dry lips and some general discomfort. Then I couldn't sleep properly that night and felt very tired and a bit achy on Friday morning, so I called in sick.
Now it's been 24 hours and I'm still waiting for whatever this is to actually break out. I still feel like one does in that awful before-stage when you just realize that you're coming down with a cold and all you feel is a tickle in your throat and a some body aches. That's the worst. I'd much rather have the actual cold than linger in the before-stage, not sure whether it's a cold or my imagination. Having a cold is not that bad. In fact I've been hoping that I'd get one. Being sick in December is really cozy. You get to curl up on your bed/couch with the Christmas lights in the window and lay there and comfortably drift in and out of sleep as the sun sets behind snow-covered tree tops. And, this one has nothign to do with Christmas, you get to medicate yourself with painkillers that make you feel comfortably drowsy and at ease. There's something about waking up from a nap and realizing you have fever-induced chills, and getting up with a blanket wrapped about your shoulders and making yourself a big cup of tea with honey and downing some extra strength tylenon, then going back to bed with about 3 blankets to watch some T.V, and then within 15 minutes start to feel warm and secure, as if those pesky chills were never there. That transition between chills and warm and secure is very enjoyable. That warm feeling that suddenly comes creeping and starts to work its way through your body.
There are definite perks about having a cold. As long as it doesn't get too unpleasant, it's quiet nice. I think we all need it at least a couple of times a year. Two times a year to retreat from the world and the pressures and enter this snug, secure little world of blankets, honey, cough drops and old T.V shows. At the end of these bouts I usually feel so relaxed and at at ease. A bit reluctant and scared, yet ready to enter the real world again.
Anyway, at this time I feel like I'm still in the before-stage. That's how it's been lately whenever I get a cold, like it doesn't really break out. It's like a tickle in my throat and some fatigue and that's it. No fever. I wish it would just break out and be done with it. Am I sick or not?