Things that Suck

I wrote a long, happy, probably unenduringly boring blog post on my way home from Massachusetts yesterday, but "Things that Suck" is, unfortunately, much more apropos to today.

Things that Suck:

1. Driving 19.5 out of 51.5 hours.

2. Getting food poisoning.

3. Having to get up every hour through the night while someone else suffers food poisoning.

4. Staying up late after a 7-hour drive to do homework, then not getting to turn it in on time anyway because you have food poisoning.

5. Having your third and last EGS picnic, and having it rain for the 3rd $%^@#$ing time.

6. Getting the astronomical lab bills for ruling out appendicitis.

Things that Do Not Suck:

1. Spending approximately half of the remaining 32 hours holding the sweetest, most wonderful, cuddly babies who ever lived.

2. Not getting food poisoning yourself.

3. Not being the one with food poisoning.

4. Having the homework done.

5. Not having to skip the "inside" picnic because you only had fries, not fries AND chicken nuggets, so your food poisoning symptoms were mild and short-lived.

6. Ruling out appendicitis.

The Whole Story:

The drive to Massachusetts was not the worst one we've ever made, but 8 hours in the car after a full day of work/school, after getting up before 6:30 a.m., is hard. And then driving up and down I-495 seemed interminable, even though it was never all that long. I hate I-495.

Our family gathering included my grandfather and his wife, my aunt and one of her and my mother's best friends, me, my brother, my two cousins, and the combined children (two older kids—mine—two toddlers, and three infants).

There was much passing of the babies. They spent all day Saturday sleeping on various family members—especially Number One, who would never give one up if she could help it—and still slept through the night! We really hated saying goodbye to them, since we only get together every few years, and obviously they won't be babies anymore.

Even without the babies, it was a great visit with family I adore. Very much worth all the driving, especially now that it's done. :)

Travel Tip: Stay away from that Wendy's. No, not that one, the other one. The one about 2 hours and 15 minutes from Grafton, MA, in NY, off I-84, across from Taco Bell and just outside a Wal-Mart Plaza. If I could be more specific than that, I'd report them.

I don't like fast food very much, and definitely not on the road. I was going to skip eating, or maybe just get some fries. I am very grateful to my husband for insisting we find the Panera Bread that had been on the exit sign but was hiding behind trees and around a corner. He and I ate there. We're fine. Number One had fries and chicken nuggets, and as mentioned, is still paying for it (poor kid). Number Two had fries and a burger and a touch of reaction last night, but is also fine. The fried stuff from Wendy's is the ONLY thing all day yesterday that they had and we didn't, and the timing was right (four-six hours after eating). I watched Kitchen Nightmares after we came home, and all those images have been running through my head since Number One first started you-know-whating. I may never eat out again.

Number Two is totally bummed, I'm sure, despite not being sick. Her EGS class has had an end-of-year "picnic" for three years. The first two it rained, and they had to be inside. I checked the weather forecast last night at 11 p.m., and it was partly cloudy for today, no rain mentioned. But guess what? It's been drizzling since we got up. Was supposed to clear by now, and isn't giving any sign of it. I know this is a small thing compared to food poisoning, but it still sucks!

I don't want to talk about the lab bills. *sigh* But hey, she didn't have appendicitis!

How was your weekend?