The Best Worst Day Ever

10/17/09 - Evening

I've typed, deleted and retyped the intro to this entry multiple times and haven't a clue how to start out the blog that can describe the last 24 hours. What started out as a beautiful, pleasant day trip to Canterbury turned into a 24 hour virus nightmare. Rest assured that though my stomach is still queasy, I'm doing better now and am on the mend. This goes without saying, but having this kind of flu while away from home is less than ideal. And now that I'm at the tail end of it, I can appreciate the comical side of what is probably one of my most embarrassing stories to date. I SO wish I could have had Ali here to take care of me or to call up and tell this story to. She would've taken good care of me but made light of it along the way. And afterward, as I'd tell the story, would laugh so hard. Knee slapping Ali laugh. Just thinking about it cheers me up:)

Okay, now for the horror to unfold...

Yesterday I left Acton Town after breakfast with David, Hannah and Angela. Hannah left to go back to Manchester and David was going to hang out with his girlfriend so I planned a short jaunt with another friend to spend the day in Canterbury. Before heading out, I was quite thirsty so I grabbed a bottle of water and drank it up. Yum, water.

Got to travel on my own through London Terminal and really enjoyed traveling the tube and trains and getting to see the countryside some more. It's just a little longer than an hour to get there but by the time I got to West Malling, the stop I was meeting Chris, I felt a little "off". Just thought it was the heavy, salty breakfast (eggs, beans, toast and black pudding) and didn't think much of it. I bought a bigger bottle of water, water numero 2.

Chris picked me up at the station to get to Canterbury and while we were driving around, I started to feel a bit worse. This time I blamed it on the roundabouts and my motion sickness. Once I got out of the car, the cool air on my face helped and all was well again. We headed into town to have a snack, a beer and then check out the Cathedral. Having food didn't sound appealing so I skipped on the Cornish pasty (I should've known right then and there that my lack of appetite was out of character and something was about to unfold). However, I did think a beer would help so I ordered up a local pint. Yeah, wrong on that too. I got about halfway through my beer and decided I needed to just have more water. Bottle 3, down. Still "off" but again, it's cause of Chris' terrible driving. Ha, ha, just blame it on the bloke's driving.

From there we went to check out the Cathedral. It's an impressive building and incredible to see in person. I had taken some time to get into town so we weren't able to go into the church cause it wasn't open but walking around it you could really appreciate the history of the Cathedral. Just beautiful...argh...not feeling so well. We decided to go see some of the seaside towns and visit Chris' family's old vacation area. We get in the car and I'm struggling to just carry on pleasant conversation. I just kept thinking it would pass. I asked if I could roll my window down a bit. A bizarre request since it was so cold and windy out but Chris didn't seem to mind. A few minutes later I asked if we could stop and get water. I cannot even begin to think what's going through his mind. "These American girls and their water!" He gets back in the car and hands me what I'm certain will make me feel better. Down the hatch, bottle 4. Feeling a bit water-logged but this time the water will work, I just know it.

We were off again and I got see the sea. I couldn't tell you the city's name though. Chris said it multiple times but not a once did I understand what he was saying with his accent. Though it probably had more to do with how I wasn't worried about listening as much as trying to keep from getting sick. This was a concerted effort and quite a bit of work so I didn't have much to chat about once we got back in the car. So poor Chris just worked harder to try and make conversation. I know he went into some detail about why most cars here are manual instead of automatic but all I could muster was a a guttural "um hmm".

Chris: "Seems like you Americans like to drive big trucks."
Karen: "Um hmm."
Chris: "Not many trucks over here in the U.K."
Karen: "Um hmm."
Chris: "What kind of vehicle do you drive in Texas?"
Karen: "Um hmm."

A couple miles down the road and I needed to roll the window down again. I think I commented that I just needed some water and was fine but I'm sure by this point Chris must be counting down the minutes until we get to dinner and this bloody American bird can finally get all the water I could possibly need.

Blah, blah, blah, he's talking about something or other, blah, blah, blah, I'm trying to hold it together, blah, blah, blah, and then I cut him off mid-sentence, "Pull over the car!"

I wish I could say Chris thought I was joking, but his quick reaction and lack of surprise clearly displayed how weird I'd been despite all my efforts of drinking water and um hmm'ing to every comment along the way . He pulled over and I didn't make it far before I, well, you know.

By the time I returned to wide-eyed Chris sitting in his car, I was starting to feel less queasy but was too embarrassed to notice any relief. Seriously, I haven't a clue what he was thinking but I didn't have the courage to look at him to try and figure it out. He asked what I wanted to do and I said let's head back to his place. The original plan was to go to dinner with his roommate but I needed to clean up.

You are probably wondering why I hadn't figured out that I must be sick by this point. All I can say is it must've been wishful thinking. I do that when I'm sick. I downplay it, trying to mentally trick myself. I recall when I had strep in Chicago I kept commenting that my allergies were killing me. I had a fever for Pete's sake. But this was different, of course. I wasn't "sick". Just had a bit of a tummy problem from my big, salty breakfast. Cause that sounds right - salty breakfasts make humans drink unreasonable amounts of water and feel dizzy and queasy. So, yeah, my only response to, "What were you thinking?" is that I didn't want to be sick so I must not be. So the saga continues...

Got to Chris and Nick's place and really thought the worse of it was over. Wait, let me restate, the worse of the sickness. I was certain the embarrassment had just begun. So his roommate gets there and they offer to order food in instead of going out. You know, eat a bit to feel better. I'm sitting there, on water number 5 and 6, thinking I'm going to be better and dinner would be nice. Yeah, count me in. We sit and watch a bit of the rugby game (which I really did enjoy and think I could get into if I understood the rules a bit better) but before the dinner is even delivered, the sick wave hit me again. Not sure how I managed to do so, but I politely said I needed to take care of some stuff and ever so discreetly went into the bathroom and got so incredibly sick. Sick, sick, sick.

So it wasn't just that I was thirsty (I probably polished off 2 gallons of water by the time 7am came around), and it wasn't his terrible driving (which to be fair, probably wasn't ever bad in the first place), it was a full-on stomach virus like no other. Insert gory details here.

Chris and his roommate were good sports. Just kept telling me not to worry about it as I'd sheepishly exit the bathroom. Chris went out to get me Alka Seltzer to settle my stomach but other than that, there was little to do. I couldn't take a train home in this state but to be honest, getting sick at David's place with all his roommates there sharing the bathroom sounded equally awful. I couldn't apologize enough and I know that when Chris offered to show me Canterbury he certainly didn't sign up for this. I'm sure he was thinking the same that I was, "I cannot believe this is happening!"

Spent most of yesterday evening and this morning in his bathroom, wishing I was in my own bed. He kept reminding me that this would be funny to tell one day but I just wanted to crawl under a rock. He was sweet to put up with me and though my stomach still has not fully recovered, the worse is behind me.

So where is the silver lining in all this? Where's the insightful comments? If you made it through the accounts that sound like some sort of gross excerpt from "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" (a childhood book my mom used to read me) then you get in on a little secret...I'm even thankful for all this.

In the book, Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair. He gets out of bed to trip on a skateboard and it goes on and on. On the way to school, he doesn't get the window seat in the carpool. At school, his teacher doesn't like his drawing of an invisible castle (which is actually just a blank sheet of paper) and criticizes him for singing too loud. In the end, at bedtime, Alexander's nightlight burns out, he bites his tongue, his brother takes back a pillow, and the family cat chooses to sleep with his other brother. No wonder Alexander wants to move to Australia. The book ends with his mother's assurance that everyone has bad days, even people who live in Australia.

So yeah, England is wonderful but even on vacation, you can have a crummy day. Scratch that, a day that will go down in "crummy sick-day infamy" for me. And though I really wish Ali couldv'e been here to nurse me along the way, tell me it was going to be alright and laugh about it even years from now, I knew in the end that it was going to be fine.

All these years, Ali has been who I turned to - a shoulder to cry on and a ear to share laughs with. And I know she was that for many as she was always giving herself in that regard. I'm just learning that I am so incredibly blessed to be surrounded by amazing family and friends (new and old) to turn to.

Even though I didn't have Ali to get me through my version of "Karen and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day", I felt so blessed to have all these new friends willing to help me out. You heard all the details on Chris - he totally took care of me. Thank God he didn't dump me at the train station to try and make my way back in that condition. Today I called Hannah in Manchester and recounted my story and shared a good laugh over the phone. When I got back to David's house, he bought ginger and lemon to make me tea to settle my stomach. Even now, Kate has toasted me some pita bread to try and give me something to eat that won't be too agitating for my stomach and has shared some tummy meds to help too. Agnes, David's other roommate, has given me some cold and flu medicine to help with the aches and pains I'm having.

Everyone will agree, being sick sucks, especially when on vacation. But it'll be okay and I'm so thankful for everyone that took care of me. I totally felt Ali's love!