Sunday, November 13, 2005

In sickness and in health...

I should have known better. But I was frazzled, discombobulated.

You see, we were going to go to a Chinese Buffet last night. But when we got to where we thought it was, it wasn't. Well, there was a Chinese restaurant, but it wasn't a buffet. So we were back to square one: " Do you want to eat there anyway?" "Not really- it looks blah." "Where do you want to go?" " I don't know- where do you want to go?" "Subway." I didn't want to go to Subway. I wasn't in the Subway mood. It got so we were in this whirling vortex of indecision and I was irritated. Brad was fine - but I was gritchy. So I randomly picked this Mexican restaurant that was in the same plaza. And I thought, " This is probably going to be awful. We're probably going to get sick." I have these vagrant thoughts often and I guess I'm sort of innoculated to them; thus I don't always pay them mind. And being irritated and indecisive, the prevailing mood was just sort of like: PICK A PLACE AND EAT ALREADY! So we just went. And it was mediocre. Oh well. Now we know where NOT to go, I thought. We went on to have a pleasant evening at Nate and Pen's.

I awoke around 3:00 this morning and noticed right away that Brad was breathing strangely. Sort of a puffing pant. I asked if he was okay. He said no. Apparently, he had been throwing up. Oh my word. Guilt descended on me like the apple on Newton's head. The Mexican restaurant! That vagrant thought was my intuition trying to warn me! Oh my word, I felt so bad. The pathetic thing was, Brad had gone downstairs to throw up so he wouldn't disturb me! He said he was trying to throw up...QUIETLY. How is that accomplished? I didn't ask. It was so sweet and pitiful. I just felt so terrible and guilty that he was the one suffering for my arbitrary decision. So we were up for a couple of hours riding out the queasiness together.

At my urging, he decided to use the master bath for his subsequent offerings. For Pete's sake! What's the point of having a master bath if you're just going to rush downstairs when you really need it?! I mean- I do appreciate the sentiments, but...now that I'm awake...Once, as he rushed off, he bid me to plug my ears. Even with my ears plugged, I could hear loud, almost musical groanings and other strange noises, unpleasant in the extreme.

Of course, there was no ginger ale in the house. I did find some saltines, luckily.

We watched part of a "Brady Bunch." I read a chapter aloud from "Ramona Quimby, Age 8." We talked about our third and fourth grade experiences. As we compared notes, we uncovered a strange piece of trivia: we both had the same teacher for our respective third and fourth grades. He had Mrs. Jones, and I had Mrs. Roland for both those years. I finally went back to sleep around 5 a.m. and caught a few more hours of sleep.

Brad felt better enough to go to church this morning. What an overcomer. Most of his appetite has returned, I am glad to report.

Brad says that I have to include something about how I was a dear, otherwise he would not allow this post to go to press. Well, I may be somewhat of a dear, but I'm a sadder and wiser dear, and one who is not going to go making any rash decisions or try ANYTHING NEW or eat at ANY Mexican places for a long time. Actually, we have decided to embark on a new culinary journey- we're going to try to eat vegetarian for one week and see if we survive...so I guess I shouldn't say I'm not going to try anything new...( We'd talked about doing this before the events of last night...) Send me your vegetarian recipes, please!

7 comments:

Amy said...

Ooh, poor thing! In the 4 years we've been together, only my husband has been sick enough to throw up. (For which I am eternally grateful.) He did the run to the guest bath too. I can only hope I'm that considerate when it's my turn!

Anonymous said...

I found myself laughing out loud at the part about
'musical groanings and other strange noises'
Poor Brad. Food poisoning is the ultimate worst.
My condolonces...hope you are both fine now.

the Joneses said...

This is one of my favorite vegetarian recipes (sorry, it's rather non-specific):

Cook some rice (brown works better).
Fry up some cut-up carrots and onion until they're crisp-tender.
Add the rice to the frypan, and then add a can of drained chickpeas. Break an egg over the top of it.
Season with soy sauce and any other spices that you like. (I generally use garam masala and cumin; a dash of cayenne pepper tastes good too.)
Fry it all together until it's warm all the way through and the little bits of egg are all thoroughly cooked.

--DJ

Marie said...

oooh, you guys are sweet to each other. Great example:) I was thinking of taking a break from Milk products for a week myself...we'll see...I love milk products though.
You could make like eggplant parmesian...or like spinach lagsana(sp?)...without meat of course...
Taco salad without the meat...

That's crazy when our premonitions happen. God bless....may you enjoy alot of time of "in health!"

the Joneses said...

I had the very same experience with my husband. Only, it was due to a cream puff left out too long. And, oh yeah, it was on our honeymoon.

And if that wasn't bad enough, Darren's stomach got the idea that it was ME who made him sick, so to keep him from getting really queasy, I couldn't touch him for a whole day (ON OUR HONEYMOON, DID I MENTION?!).

Fortunately he slept it off by the next day, and we still managed to have a baby nine months later. But I still resent it when he cheerfully bites into a cream puff.

-- SJ

Booker said...

Poor Claire and Brad! I know the times I've been sick I wouldn't have wanted ANYBODY to see me. and good luck with that "healthy" veggy thing. God made cows for more than milk is all I'm saying :)

and all these other comments were pretty funny too!

Claire said...

Ryu- sadly, we're not really being healthy because we're still eating sugar and other evil stuff...It's just kind of a fun challenge thing to see if we can expand our horizons in the kitchen...I doubt we'd ever be serious vegetarians. I like chicken too much. Giving up red meat wouldn't be that hard for me... But as far as the milk thing- I have definitely switched to soy! SO much better, IMHO. ( In my humble opinion.)