My Alexander Day

On Tuesday, I had what is “affectionately” referred to in our house as an “Alexander Day”:

• Despite going to bed about 3 hours earlier than usual on Monday night night, I wake up completely exhausted on Tuesday morning.
• Because I’m exhausted, I’m running a bit late, and then I realize that yesterday was a federal holiday, which means that the staff meeting that is usually on Monday morning will be today instead. I rush out the door, figuring that I should just make it for staff meeting.
• I get about halfway to downtown - and realize that my wallet isn’t in my pocket. No wallet = no access to the parking garage and no money to pay for other parking. So I get off the highway, turn around and go back home for my wallet - which is exactly where it should be at home. It just never made it into my pocket in the mad dash for the door.
• I arrive at work and my usual “I’m running late so I’ll go ahead and park closer to the building” lot is full (and only because some jerk decides to park his van in a space marked “Small Cars Only” instead of in the “Trucks Only” spot that is in the corner - effectively blocking the Trucks Only space and making it unusable).
• I get into the office as everyone is returning to their own offices from the conference room, having missed staff meeting.
• Realize as soon as someone starts to ask me why I was late that I was supposed to bring goodies for one of my bosses’ birthday today - which I had completely forgotten about in the craziness of Mikaela being sick and exhaustion and running late this morning.
• I heated up some soup to have for my lunch. I carefully take the hot soup out of the microwave and remove the plastic wrap that kept it from splattering. As I pick up the bowl to carry it to the table, I bump into the open microwave door and spill the soup EVERYWHERE.

Realizing that my day is going nowhere good, and fast, I pack up several files that I need to work on and my laptop and decide to work from home for the afternoon. Talking to Miriam from my cell phone on the way home, we make plans to go out for a nice dinner to try and break my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, day streak. I picked up Mikaela at daycare and dropped her with Grandma Marcia and Zaydie Larry (which gave her the added bonus of dinner with Uncle Matt and Aunt Sarah and Samantha). After their dinner, the plan was for them to bring Mikaela back to our house to wait for Miriam and I to return from dinner (thus making the transition to bedtime easier). (note: Fun story about that to follow).

Miriam got home from work at her usual time. We get to C.C.’s City Broiler just before they get hit with their big dinner rush, and things are looking up. We’re seated promptly, I ordered a nice glass or red wine (a very good Greg Norman, “Limestone Coast-Australia” Shiraz) and Miriam got her fru-fru cocktail (I don’t remember what it was called, but it was blue and made with rum). The salads came out, along with warm fresh bread and we were off to a great start. Filets arrived and they were done just right. The rice that I ordered, instead of the usual potato, was excellent. And we topped off the evening with a lucious toffee torte dessert. Finally, the curse of the day was broken!

Oh my - I could not have been more WRONG. Miriam went to bed shortly after we got home. I wanted to watch the KU game that I’d been recording. I should have known when I discovered that I’d been recording on the wrong channel, and therefore had missed all but the last eight minutes or so of the game, that Alexander was still haunting me. But I enjoyed the last few minutes of the game — with a growing feeling of stomach discomfort.

“Well, I’ve been dieting for a month and a half now. It’s just all the rich food I just ate. I’ll be fine,” I told myself. Liar.

Oh. My. God. I don’t think I’ve ever been so sick in such a short period of time in my life. The only thing that even comes close is when I had mono so bad that I needed IV anti-nausea drugs. I was so sick from Tuesday night through Thursday night that I lost four pounds over the three days. It was so violent, I strained muscles in my chest. Miriam had it badly too, on Wednesday and Thursday. It caused her to pull a muscle in her back. We got another big assist from Grandma Marcia and Zaydie Larry on Wednesday night, picking up Mikaela from daycare and getting her dinner before bringing her home, at a point when neither Miriam nor I were up to driving.

All I can say now is “TGIF”. It’s Friday. We’re finally all feeling better. We’ll be able to enjoy a nice Shabbat dinner and be confident that it’s going to stay where we put it.

I would normally say here that I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. But I don’t think I’d mind if this “little” flu were to cut a swath through the West Wing of the White House