A December to Remember

So...where to begin?  This month has had its ups and downs for sure.  The first weekend in December I got to go back to Kansas for my grandpa's 80th birthday celebration.  I had decided a couple months before to take the time off and go because I hate only ever taking time off to go to funerals.  And I decided turning 80 was a pretty big deal.  The night before I planned to leave I got a text message from my sister that said my mom was really sick and that if she was still sick when I got there, I could just stay at my sister's house.  Well, I was halfway there (this is a 500 mile trip one way) when I got a message that not only was my mom still really sick, but my dad was too.  So I went straight to my sister's house.  The next morning I wake up and my sister has the sickness!  By the way, we are talking about a nasty little stomach virus here.  My brother-in-law had to work, my parents were still not 100%, so I got to watch my 14-month-old niece for the day.  The whole time I am hoping I don't get this bug!  My stomach is kinda flip-flopping by the end of the day, but I figure it was just because I hadn't eaten anything like all day long.  I grabbed some dinner finally and it seemed to help a little.

That night my parents were feeling better and had disinfected their house, so I decided to stay over there.  The next day was the day of the party.  My stomach was still feeling weird, but I convinced myself it was just me being anxious about the possibility of getting sick.  I went to the party and the strangest thing happened.  There was *tons* of cake and I wasn't really in the mood for it!  Hello, it's cake, and I'm a girl who loves to eat cake!  Why wasn't I pigging out on this cake??? So I finally grabbed a piece but only managed to eat a few bites because my stomach was doing too many flips.

I managed to make it through the party but the mention of going out to dinner just didn't sound like something I wanted to do.  At all.  So I put on my sweats when I got back to my parents' house and decided eggs could be something I might be able to eat for dinner.  Wrong-o.  A few bites into the eggs I just felt nauseous.  And before I knew it I was running to the bathroom.  I had gotten the sickness!  Since I have already rambled on more than I should about getting the stomach flu, I will just say it ended up taking me an extra day off from work to get over it.  I wasn't going to drive in that condition.

So Tuesday I finally was feeling better and started to make the 500 mile journey back home.  Now that I am an old lady, I have to stop several times to pee when I am traveling.  I pulled into one rest area and the actual bathroom was closed and instead they had a huge row of port-a-potties.  Um, no thanks!  I kept on driving until I found a McDonald's a few miles later.  I pulled into McDonald's to use their restroom, and then decided to grab a burger and see if I could eat that ok.  When I was done there, I pulled onto the street and stopped at a stop sign.  This SUV pulled up and stopped behind me.  There was a truck turning  right onto the street I was on, and I really couldn't see around it to see if it was safe to make my left turn, so I was going to wait for them to finish turning.  So I am still stopped at the sign when BAM.  The moron behind me freaking hit me!  So now I pull into the gas station and she pulls in too.  Apparently she was following her boss (who was the car that had been in front of me) and thought I had gone.  Really?  REALLY?  So my bumper has to be replaced and there is a dent in the trunk lid that needs reworked.  Luckily, since it was her fault, her insurance is paying for the repairs and for a rental car.  (Let me just observe that when I had a used car for 7 years it only incurred two major blemishes...one when my husband's cousin backed into my front bumper and her trailer hitch scratched the paint off, and one when it was keyed in a ghetto parking lot.  My first ever brand-new car that I have had for 2 years as of today has had the front bumper scratched to hell by something in the Walmart parking lot, a big-ol' dent in the passenger side from an unknown object hitting it, 2 unpleasant door dings in the driver's side, and now a wrecked rear-end.  I think I will stick with used cars after this.)

That was just the first weekend of the month!  Can you believe I went back for Christmas?  The husband went with me for the holiday and we had a nice, uneventful trip.  It was good to see my family and no one had the stomach flu!  My stomach felt great and I ate tons of sweet crap! :) 

Give yourself a pat on the back if you actually read this whole thing. 

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