Argg!

Finished packing the van at 3am this morning and went to bed to catch what few Z's were left to catch.

A headache from hell woke me up at 6:30am.  I popped two aspirin and laid back down to wait for their magic to work.  Nausea began weaving its nasty web and a killer series of 'hot flashes' paraded through, each one leaving me in a drenching, cold sweat.

At first I thought I had food poisoning.  But, then it occurred to me that I'd eaten only 5 bites of teriyaki  chicken from the mall's Japanese stand in the food court, and a slice of bread at 2am.  And the previous three days before that, I'd only eaten one evening meal of a 'big salad' and a third of a ham steak.  I'd hardly eaten at all for 4 days!

Maybe my blood sugar was low.  Maybe that's why I felt shaky, and headachy, and pukey.  Maybe if I ate something...

Like a starving person, I ripped open a box of Nilla wavers and devoured 8 of them while leaning over the kitchen sink.  Crumbs flew everywhere as I gnawed away at those cookies trying to chew them quickly into fast, digestible pieces and chasing each cookie with tap water.  Ugg.  I never drink unfiltered water.  But, I felt absolutely horrible and was in a hurry.

Cookies down, I laid back down and propped my head up on 3 pillows.  If I laid on just one, my headache hammered a lot harder.

I tried to think of peaceful things, but I had this feeling of sadness and thought about how I wouldn't see my 2 dogs and 2 cats for 4 months.  I wouldn't sit in front of my lovely fireplace this winter, hammering out a bit of fiction out on my laptop.  I wouldn't see the leaves on my oak trees turn brilliant shades of orange, red, and yellow.  I wouldn't see my neighbors frown when they had to rake those leaves off of their own treeless yards.  Yada, yada, yada.

Then I burped.  Only it wasn't a regular burp.  It was a cookie crumbs floating in gastric acid and water burp.

I jumped out of bed and ran toward the bathroom.  I almost made it to the door when I started heaving.  I had to cup my hands over my mouth to keep from leaving a watery trail.  I made it to the sink and watched as my stomach contents splattered in the sink and slipped down the drain.

Tearful and shaky, I popped another aspirin and laid down on the couch in the den and let my mother take over.  She cleaned the kitchen, fed the animals, and fed the kids.

Two hours later I woke up feeling myself except for a residual shaky feeling in my legs.  I figure that although I'm not one who is easily shaken, the culmination of a heavy month of activities preparing for leaving home for travel nursing and the subconscious knowledge that I am leaving home and embarking on an adventure that may very well change my life path, finally came to a head and my body erupted.

Yes!  I am still going to California.  I'll just be leaving a bit later in the day than planned.  We'll most likely be leaving this afternoon.  If not, then we will leave tomorrow morning.

I'm still excited and stoked about the trip.  I'm just a little sad to be leaving familiar things behind for 4 months.

Script Girrl