A couple months ago, Ray came down with the flu, and Amy followed shortly thereafter. Luckily, it wasn’t a stomach bug; they both just felt achy and tired and feverish. But it still sucked for them. And since I was generally in charge of ferrying snot-covered tissues to the garbage and wiping mucous from Ray’s gushing nose, I figured it was just a matter of time before I succumbed to the crud myself.
But it never happened.
Amy asked me if I could remember the last time I was sick with anything more than a sniffley cold. I stopped to think, and the only answer I could come up with was “1996,” which is when I contracted walking pneumonia on the first day of a trip to San Francisco. She has, therefore, never had to deal with me being ill.
I had this decade-long streak in mind when my friend Holly visited last weekend and brought with her (possibly) some cruise-ship-incubated vomit/diarrhea virus that had her kneeling before the porcelain throne for an entire night. Holly has probably more detail than you want to know about it over at Self-Portrait As (one of the McLo.net Empire of Blogs). Unfortunately, this prevented her from staying with us, as had been the plan, and meant that she did not get to spend time with Ray, whom she hasn’t seen in two years. But, I did brave the pathogens and hung out with Holly for a few hours Monday afternoon and, so far, I have shown no signs of feeling like evacuating my stomach.
I thought maybe I’d make up a T-shirt that reads: “I Spent the Afternoon with Holly and I Don’t Feel Like Puking!”
Comments
It was nice to see you, too.
for the record, no one I hung out with got sick, so it appears I had food poisoning, which is not communicable.
Posted by: Holly | June 20, 2006 6:18 AM
p.s. You might also add something about how your response to my illness was to suggest we have lunch in a brewery. Pub food and beer--just the ticket for someone who's been puking!
Posted by: Holly | June 20, 2006 6:21 AM