How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Okay - at last I am back. I really was only gone for not quite 2 weeks.... The saga goes like this: (please note, this may be a bit graphic for the feint of heart at first...)

We (my husband and myself) leave on our little road trip. First stop - Mobile, Alabama. Okay, that is really a pretty short jaunt from Tallahassee, Florida. So?? This is our vacation!! We spent the night at the home of some friends who have retired there and have built a beautiful home on the river. They started construction after us and finished up in the same general time frame. She is awesome at decorating and they have some beautiful antiques with which to decorate so their home looks complete. We are not there yet - at least in part because I haven't fully decided what I want to do in each room.... oh well... We had a lovely visit with them and their 2 absolutely cute grandchildren. Tuesday morning we get up and drive further west. That night we sleep in Shreveport, Louisiana. Next morning, we get up and head to Dallas. In case I haven't mentioned, I am a Mary Kay Consultant and we are going to attend Seminar! I was really excited about this and quite pleased that Ruben was going to attend also. There are spouse classes and also spouse functions to attend. He chose to go on the Aviation Experience, which should be right up the alley of an ex-Air Force member! WE got there early enough on Wednesday to get to tour the manufacturing facility AND the Mary Kay Headquarters building, both of which are interesting. We ran in to one of the directors from our group while touring the Headquarters and met her group and my husband and the attending husband of another consultant met and planned on getting together the next evening while our unit had a get-together pizza party. We ran into my own Director back at the hotel in the elevator and then went to dinner. Some time after dinner my husband started complaining that he wasn't feeling very well, his stomach was upset. My own stomach had been feeling a bit roiling for a while. You know, I love men. I really do. As the mother of two sons I realized long ago that it was incumbent on me to love men on principle and I do love men in all their so-very-different-from-women glory. So saying, when men get sick they are such big babies!! We get ready for bed and my husband complains again and lays there moaning. He feels nauseated, "ooooooohhh. I hate this. Oooooooh." I, on the other hand, love feeling this way??? NO!! I get him a trash can and grab one for myself. He continues to moan intermittently, while laying there in a very comfortable bed. I get up from same bed and head to the bathroom. There I get the privilege of, shall we say ejecting ingested items in both directions? Oh, yea. Sick as a dog. I have multiple trips with this rare privilege, to the point I name the trash can Betty (first name that popped into my apperently delirious head) as I have developed a personal and intimate relationship with her. Ruben is asking me, "Do you think we should call a doctor?" He has simply been feeling poorly at this point. "No, let's just see what happens, here." After my fourth visit or so, Ruben decides to give up the battle and go to the bathroom himself to just stick his finger down his throat and get it over with. Oh, yes. We have gotten food poisoning. He does "eject" a couple of times (orally) and when I tell him to drink some water he doesn't want to because he will "only throw it up." Yes, but SOME of it will be absorbed, you don't want to get dehydrated and it's better to have SOMETHING to throw up than dry heaves!" He agrees with that logic and drinks some water. I'm thinking 'well, I should be feeling better in the morning so I will still get to attend Seminar. There is SO much info available and I am really looking forward to this!! And the spouse class is like 3 in the afternoon so Ruben will be better and able to attend that, too!'
Right.
Needless to say we spent the day in bed. I realize at some point that even saying the word "pizza" may make me vomit. The THOUGHT of smelling pizza seems like a very bad idea. I call my directors and leave them messages that we have food poisoning and will not be able to do anything this first day. Great.
Well, ever the optimist, I think 'tomorrow is the spouse activity and Ruben will be able to go to that and I will still get to attend the classes planned for Day 2. I do manage to get up and get to the convention center for breakfast and the morning classes. Ruben agrees to meet me at the convention center for lunch as he figures he cannot make the Aviation Experience activity. We have, at this time eaten only crackers, bananas, 7-Up and Pepsi since we got to the point of feeling better than the Wednesday evening gross and disgusting awful we felt. This is NOT to say we felt good. But we would take better than any day!
We do meet for lunch and realize that we are through for the day. We head back to our room to hibernate more - missing awards night, and even Saturday morning decide it would be better to go ahead and leave rather than attend the closing session (which I would also have like to attend!!) as we didn't know how long we would be able to hold out and we needed to get to Amarillo that day. We actually did alright driving. We were careful about eating!! I had a small hamburger with only pickles and ketchup (my choice) that tasted like the best hamburger either side of the Mississippi!! Sunday morning we get up and head to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We had 3 nights scheduled there and really felt SO MUCH BETTER!!! Great thing about food poisoning - once you are done, you are done!! No lingering malaise, no lingering nausea. We both felt great! Just cautious about food.
At any rate, the rest of our trip was great! We love Santa Fe and will return there again! WE shopped and toured and visited gallery after gallery. This may not sound like your cup of tea but it is right up our alley and there is so much beauty in Santa Fe. One day we drove up to the mountains just because. How glorious! I was raised in Southern California and I do miss the mountains. I am quite happy in North Florida, mind you. I just love the mountains.

We went to San Antonio (yes, drove from Santa Fe, NM to San Antonio, TX in one day), where Ruben has a brother and a sister. We visited with them and had a lovely time before we had to head home. Stopped in Hammond, LA for the night and then got home on Saturday.

In the meantime, we had had a power outage (a not uncommon occurrence where we are out in the boonies) and my PC was unable to link to the internet. My modem had fried. So now, after contacting Dell (I love Dell!) and working through every imaginable fix with the tech, we concuured that the modem needed replacing. The tech put in an order for a new one (love extended warranty!!!), it has been replaced and now I am just doing my best to tweak the software issues that arise from a hardware change.

Next vacation - we will take crackers, bananas, juice, and pray to avoid food poisoning at all costs!!!