How I spent my week
Jul. 2nd, 2006 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fenchurchIn which I realize this roadtrip is doing wonders for my state of mind.
At one point, on Monday, as I was driving through the middle of nowhere (aka very southern Idaho), I came to the realization that I was grinning from ear to ear and had been for quite awhile. I think, if nothing else, that I really needed this trip as a morale booster. It's a sign things are getting back to normal, that I can do the sort of stuff I always used to do. And I just plain love to drive... something I'd been unable to do to this extent for over half a year. I still have to stop more often than normal, and I'm a bit sore at the end of the day, but I can *do* it. Life is good.
In which I realize that I've become a cooking snob and I also visit a very good bookstore.
On Tuesday, I spent the day running around Provo... visiting some of my favorite places and hunting down the games I wanted to buy my cousin as a wedding present (I ended up getting them Apples to Apples, Cranium, Uno and Phase 10), and also picking up a few cooking essentials that were completely missing from my in-laws' kitchen. I did succumb to the temptation to buy them a small Calphalon saute pan, but through some excessive internal wrangling I managed to resist buying them a chef's knife (or a santoku knife). As it stands,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rackham's sister rinewick2 will likely be getting one from us for Christmas... since she's still at home, that means it will available for use when we come to visit in the future, and we've managed to infect her with the Alton Brown bug, too, so she's doing a lot more cooking (the reason the knife would go to her rather than my parents-in-law is that, apparently, my mother-in-law doesn't like sharp non-serrated knives. At all. Yeah, I think it's a bit weird too). And yeah, I got some grocery items I consider to be essential, but apparently my in-laws don't. I kept having to remind myself I was going to be here for less than a week (ha! That didn't quite work out) and I could live without things like Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and fresh garlic and ginger for a few days.
I also hit Pioneer Book... which is possibly the best used bookstore in Utah (yes, even better than Sam Weller's). It's no Powell's City of Books, but if you're willing to spend a little time hunting, the odds are good Pioneer Book will have *exactly* what you're looking for. Of course, you really will have to hunt... as an example, the SF&F section is huge and the books are arranged alphabetically by last name of author to the extent that if you're looking for, say, something by John Dalmas, it will most likely be somewhere within the "D" section (probably right next to a book by Aaron Allston and one by Robert Heinlein). In other words, it's a jumbled mess, but they've tried to instill at least a teeny bit of order to it. And if you can't find what you're looking for on their shelves, they can check the computer to see if it's out at their warehouse (which, apparently, actually *is* organized). In the end, I managed to find a copy of the John Dalmas book I was looking for (Reality Matrix), so I was happy.
In which I spend the day attending various wedding functions.
Wednesday was a wonderful day... the wedding was beautiful, my cousin and his new wife looked like they were having the best day of their lives, there didn't seem to be any major crises with the ceremony, the luncheon or the reception. I got to meet my aunt's brother-in-law and his wife, A, for the first time (I actually know my aunt's mother-in-law pretty well, I'd just never happened to be around when my uncle's brother was visiting), and spent a good portion of the wedding reception chatting with A -- she surprised me when she mentioned she was from Fiji, because I'd had her pegged as being from India (by accent alone). Apparently, there's a fairly large community of immigrants from India living in Fiji (her great-grandparents on both sides of her family had moved there when they were young), to the point that they've managed to keep the culture and even the accent around, several generations down. It was really very interesting!
Got home late, with my shoulders a bit sore from driving through stop-and-go traffic several times (there's a ton of road construction right now stretching from Ogden down to Point of the Mountain at the southern end of the Salt Lake Valley -- it was just nasty).
In which I have fun hiking and driving around Provo Canyon.
Thursday, I headed up the Canyon... It's absolutely beautiful, especially right now, where things are still fairly green. I drove up to Squaw Peak (yes, it's still called that) and caught a marvelous view of the valley. I forgot my camera, but took a few photos with my phone, which I sent off to Rackham.. I've felt pretty bad that he wasn't able to come down for a visit this week, so I figured I'd share the fun! Then I drove up past Sundance Ski Resort to the Alpine Loop, around behind Mt. Timpanogos. I don't believe I've been up that way since we moved away... I'd been thinking I'd takenonetwomany around that direction after the last WriterCon, but now I'm not so sure (I know we went to Timponogos Cave, but I think we got to it from the American Fork direction, instead of the back way). Cascade Springs was as gorgeous as ever and I did some hiking around the area, snapping more photos with my phone (if I get a chance, I may see about transfering them to my laptop, to see if they turned out at all well).
By Thursday night, I was starting to feel what can best be described as uneasiness. I didn't actually feel sick, but my stomach was making me a feel a bit cautious... by 11:00pm, it had turned into full-blown queasiness, and then things got really bad.
In which I discover the joys(?) of food poisoning. (WARNING: Ickiness abounds.)
I wasn't sure, that night, exactly what was wrong... my two main guesses were food poisoning or heat exhaustion (since I had gone hiking out in the sun earlier in the day... even though I'd brought plenty of water -- it's all too easy to push things too far). By 1:00am, the latter was still my main suspect. Earlier, I had taken a cool shower, since I was feeling a bit feverish and warm... but then I started throwing up. Okay, I thought, feeling marginally better (or as much as you can when you've just vomited three times in a row), it must have been food poisoning. I even wrote Rackham to tell him that's what it had been, then got some water and bit of Gatorade. And then half an hour later, I suddenly felt much worse and threw up (repeatedly) again. And then about 20 minutes later, and then 30 minutes after that (repeating the pattern for a little over two hours). By the end, I surprised there was anything left in my stomach to bring back up, since I was losing even the little bit of fluid I'd managed to get down... *TMI Alert* it was my first experience with projectile vomiting... stomach contents coming up with absolute violent force is not an experience I EVER want to have again */TMI*. Around 3:00-ish I made the decision to wake someone up to take me to the ER the next time I threw up, but thankfully that part was over.
On the plus side (if anything can be considered to be plus, in that situation), since I wasn't really getting any sleep that night, I got a chance to watch an episode of Jake 2.0 and the AtS episode "To Shanshu in LA," both in high definition (my in-laws recently bought a huge HDTV and those two shows popped up on the overnight HD programming). Yeah, I didn't think it was much of a consolation, either.
The next few days are a blur of misery... no more vomiting, but I couldn't even stand the smell of food. My fever broke Friday night... and I managed to eat a teensy bit of chicken and rice soup (after only being able to handle water and Pedialyte). I slept a lot. I watched a lot of TV (though I had a tendency to fall asleep pretty much at the drop of a hat and without any warning). Yesterday, I managed a bit of organic mac & cheese (I had brought a box with me) and some canned peaches, as well as a lot more water and Pedialyte (the amazing thing about this stuff is that if I don't need it, it tastes absolutely vile, but if I do need it... it's just about the best tasting stuff in the world).
My main suspect by this point was some sort of virus, with the niggling thought that it still might be food poisoning. And then my aunt called. Turns out about half the people who were at the luncheon got sick... some worse than others (I was one of the really bad ones), including the bride and groom. We're still not sure what it was, since all the food was fresh and simple, without any of the standard culprits for this sort of thing (i.e. no mayo anywhere), and it was all prepared very directly by either my aunt or a friend of hers who both took every precaution), and everyone who was there had a bit of everything, yet not everybody got sick. All we can think is that one of the ingredients of something like the pasta salad was contaminated when they bought it. Oh well.
My aunt says she's lost about six pounds in the last few days. I'd be incredibly surprised if I haven't done the same... but it's not the method I'd recommend. In hindsight, I really should have gone to the ER, that first night. I suspect I was dangerously dehydrated, considering how much I'd thrown up and due to *ahem* other digestive issues.
The upshot of it all is that the last half of the week has been a miserable experience (in fact, I don't recall every being quite that sick with a stomach ailment before) and I didn't leave yesterday as I'd planned.
In which I start to recover and have to decide when I can handle the drive home.
This morning I woke up finally feeling somewhat normal, and actually a little bit hungry (not surprising, since I'd essentially lost everything I'd eaten on Thursday and then had not really had any food since). I'm still not up to eating just anything, but my in-laws have been wonderful about getting me some easy-to-digest foods. It's not that I'm still feeling actively sick or anything, it's more like lingering after-effects, where nothing sounds appetizing at all and it tends to sit funny in my stomach. Bleh.
I would really like to be home by tomorrow night, so I'm not on the road for Independence Day and so I can spend the holiday with Rackham, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get out at a decent enough hour today to make it worthwhile... it's almost 3:00 and I've still got a load of laundry in the dryer (I'm wearing my last clean shirt) and I'm still dithering on whether I'm even feeling up to being in the car for six or seven hours, or if it would be worth it for me to stick around here for one more night and try to get on the road extra early tomorrow... maybe making it all the way to La Grande (or even just as far as Baker City), which would mean a fairly easy drive in on the 4th. I'm also just a bit worried about hotel availability in Boise for tonight... and I don't want to make a reservation, in case I only get as far as Twin Falls or something before deciding I can't drive any further. Plus, I haven't exactly been sleeping easily and I haven't been able to take any painkillers for my shoulders, so they're VERY sore. I'm a little worried about being able to handle the driving for that reason, too.
I suspect I'll know I'm going to be heading out when I'm in my car and one the road... because I think there's a distinct possibility I'll chicken out any time up until that point.
Hopefully everyone out there in LJ-Land is doing well... I'm afraid I haven't even been able to manage my normal vacation skimming of my flist this time because, apparently, it *is* possible to be too sick to use the computer.
At one point, on Monday, as I was driving through the middle of nowhere (aka very southern Idaho), I came to the realization that I was grinning from ear to ear and had been for quite awhile. I think, if nothing else, that I really needed this trip as a morale booster. It's a sign things are getting back to normal, that I can do the sort of stuff I always used to do. And I just plain love to drive... something I'd been unable to do to this extent for over half a year. I still have to stop more often than normal, and I'm a bit sore at the end of the day, but I can *do* it. Life is good.
In which I realize that I've become a cooking snob and I also visit a very good bookstore.
On Tuesday, I spent the day running around Provo... visiting some of my favorite places and hunting down the games I wanted to buy my cousin as a wedding present (I ended up getting them Apples to Apples, Cranium, Uno and Phase 10), and also picking up a few cooking essentials that were completely missing from my in-laws' kitchen. I did succumb to the temptation to buy them a small Calphalon saute pan, but through some excessive internal wrangling I managed to resist buying them a chef's knife (or a santoku knife). As it stands,
rackham's sister rinewick2 will likely be getting one from us for Christmas... since she's still at home, that means it will available for use when we come to visit in the future, and we've managed to infect her with the Alton Brown bug, too, so she's doing a lot more cooking (the reason the knife would go to her rather than my parents-in-law is that, apparently, my mother-in-law doesn't like sharp non-serrated knives. At all. Yeah, I think it's a bit weird too). And yeah, I got some grocery items I consider to be essential, but apparently my in-laws don't. I kept having to remind myself I was going to be here for less than a week (ha! That didn't quite work out) and I could live without things like Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and fresh garlic and ginger for a few days.I also hit Pioneer Book... which is possibly the best used bookstore in Utah (yes, even better than Sam Weller's). It's no Powell's City of Books, but if you're willing to spend a little time hunting, the odds are good Pioneer Book will have *exactly* what you're looking for. Of course, you really will have to hunt... as an example, the SF&F section is huge and the books are arranged alphabetically by last name of author to the extent that if you're looking for, say, something by John Dalmas, it will most likely be somewhere within the "D" section (probably right next to a book by Aaron Allston and one by Robert Heinlein). In other words, it's a jumbled mess, but they've tried to instill at least a teeny bit of order to it. And if you can't find what you're looking for on their shelves, they can check the computer to see if it's out at their warehouse (which, apparently, actually *is* organized). In the end, I managed to find a copy of the John Dalmas book I was looking for (Reality Matrix), so I was happy.
In which I spend the day attending various wedding functions.
Wednesday was a wonderful day... the wedding was beautiful, my cousin and his new wife looked like they were having the best day of their lives, there didn't seem to be any major crises with the ceremony, the luncheon or the reception. I got to meet my aunt's brother-in-law and his wife, A, for the first time (I actually know my aunt's mother-in-law pretty well, I'd just never happened to be around when my uncle's brother was visiting), and spent a good portion of the wedding reception chatting with A -- she surprised me when she mentioned she was from Fiji, because I'd had her pegged as being from India (by accent alone). Apparently, there's a fairly large community of immigrants from India living in Fiji (her great-grandparents on both sides of her family had moved there when they were young), to the point that they've managed to keep the culture and even the accent around, several generations down. It was really very interesting!
Got home late, with my shoulders a bit sore from driving through stop-and-go traffic several times (there's a ton of road construction right now stretching from Ogden down to Point of the Mountain at the southern end of the Salt Lake Valley -- it was just nasty).
In which I have fun hiking and driving around Provo Canyon.
Thursday, I headed up the Canyon... It's absolutely beautiful, especially right now, where things are still fairly green. I drove up to Squaw Peak (yes, it's still called that) and caught a marvelous view of the valley. I forgot my camera, but took a few photos with my phone, which I sent off to Rackham.. I've felt pretty bad that he wasn't able to come down for a visit this week, so I figured I'd share the fun! Then I drove up past Sundance Ski Resort to the Alpine Loop, around behind Mt. Timpanogos. I don't believe I've been up that way since we moved away... I'd been thinking I'd taken
onetwomany around that direction after the last WriterCon, but now I'm not so sure (I know we went to Timponogos Cave, but I think we got to it from the American Fork direction, instead of the back way). Cascade Springs was as gorgeous as ever and I did some hiking around the area, snapping more photos with my phone (if I get a chance, I may see about transfering them to my laptop, to see if they turned out at all well).By Thursday night, I was starting to feel what can best be described as uneasiness. I didn't actually feel sick, but my stomach was making me a feel a bit cautious... by 11:00pm, it had turned into full-blown queasiness, and then things got really bad.
In which I discover the joys(?) of food poisoning. (WARNING: Ickiness abounds.)
I wasn't sure, that night, exactly what was wrong... my two main guesses were food poisoning or heat exhaustion (since I had gone hiking out in the sun earlier in the day... even though I'd brought plenty of water -- it's all too easy to push things too far). By 1:00am, the latter was still my main suspect. Earlier, I had taken a cool shower, since I was feeling a bit feverish and warm... but then I started throwing up. Okay, I thought, feeling marginally better (or as much as you can when you've just vomited three times in a row), it must have been food poisoning. I even wrote Rackham to tell him that's what it had been, then got some water and bit of Gatorade. And then half an hour later, I suddenly felt much worse and threw up (repeatedly) again. And then about 20 minutes later, and then 30 minutes after that (repeating the pattern for a little over two hours). By the end, I surprised there was anything left in my stomach to bring back up, since I was losing even the little bit of fluid I'd managed to get down... *TMI Alert* it was my first experience with projectile vomiting... stomach contents coming up with absolute violent force is not an experience I EVER want to have again */TMI*. Around 3:00-ish I made the decision to wake someone up to take me to the ER the next time I threw up, but thankfully that part was over.
On the plus side (if anything can be considered to be plus, in that situation), since I wasn't really getting any sleep that night, I got a chance to watch an episode of Jake 2.0 and the AtS episode "To Shanshu in LA," both in high definition (my in-laws recently bought a huge HDTV and those two shows popped up on the overnight HD programming). Yeah, I didn't think it was much of a consolation, either.
The next few days are a blur of misery... no more vomiting, but I couldn't even stand the smell of food. My fever broke Friday night... and I managed to eat a teensy bit of chicken and rice soup (after only being able to handle water and Pedialyte). I slept a lot. I watched a lot of TV (though I had a tendency to fall asleep pretty much at the drop of a hat and without any warning). Yesterday, I managed a bit of organic mac & cheese (I had brought a box with me) and some canned peaches, as well as a lot more water and Pedialyte (the amazing thing about this stuff is that if I don't need it, it tastes absolutely vile, but if I do need it... it's just about the best tasting stuff in the world).
My main suspect by this point was some sort of virus, with the niggling thought that it still might be food poisoning. And then my aunt called. Turns out about half the people who were at the luncheon got sick... some worse than others (I was one of the really bad ones), including the bride and groom. We're still not sure what it was, since all the food was fresh and simple, without any of the standard culprits for this sort of thing (i.e. no mayo anywhere), and it was all prepared very directly by either my aunt or a friend of hers who both took every precaution), and everyone who was there had a bit of everything, yet not everybody got sick. All we can think is that one of the ingredients of something like the pasta salad was contaminated when they bought it. Oh well.
My aunt says she's lost about six pounds in the last few days. I'd be incredibly surprised if I haven't done the same... but it's not the method I'd recommend. In hindsight, I really should have gone to the ER, that first night. I suspect I was dangerously dehydrated, considering how much I'd thrown up and due to *ahem* other digestive issues.
The upshot of it all is that the last half of the week has been a miserable experience (in fact, I don't recall every being quite that sick with a stomach ailment before) and I didn't leave yesterday as I'd planned.
In which I start to recover and have to decide when I can handle the drive home.
This morning I woke up finally feeling somewhat normal, and actually a little bit hungry (not surprising, since I'd essentially lost everything I'd eaten on Thursday and then had not really had any food since). I'm still not up to eating just anything, but my in-laws have been wonderful about getting me some easy-to-digest foods. It's not that I'm still feeling actively sick or anything, it's more like lingering after-effects, where nothing sounds appetizing at all and it tends to sit funny in my stomach. Bleh.
I would really like to be home by tomorrow night, so I'm not on the road for Independence Day and so I can spend the holiday with Rackham, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get out at a decent enough hour today to make it worthwhile... it's almost 3:00 and I've still got a load of laundry in the dryer (I'm wearing my last clean shirt) and I'm still dithering on whether I'm even feeling up to being in the car for six or seven hours, or if it would be worth it for me to stick around here for one more night and try to get on the road extra early tomorrow... maybe making it all the way to La Grande (or even just as far as Baker City), which would mean a fairly easy drive in on the 4th. I'm also just a bit worried about hotel availability in Boise for tonight... and I don't want to make a reservation, in case I only get as far as Twin Falls or something before deciding I can't drive any further. Plus, I haven't exactly been sleeping easily and I haven't been able to take any painkillers for my shoulders, so they're VERY sore. I'm a little worried about being able to handle the driving for that reason, too.
I suspect I'll know I'm going to be heading out when I'm in my car and one the road... because I think there's a distinct possibility I'll chicken out any time up until that point.
Hopefully everyone out there in LJ-Land is doing well... I'm afraid I haven't even been able to manage my normal vacation skimming of my flist this time because, apparently, it *is* possible to be too sick to use the computer.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 09:04 pm (UTC)Sorry about the urpiness. Imagine the Bride and Groom, that's a honeymoon they'll remember ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 09:11 pm (UTC)I hope you are feelng strong enough to get home before the holiday.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 11:13 pm (UTC)Fish is a frequent culprit. Any kind of shellfish, bivalve or crustacean. Escargot, especially if the shells used to hold them are reused (even with washing it's impossible to get them clean because of the chamber design.) Chicken, if it's been mishandled before cooking. Ground meats of any kind if they aren't cooked to temp. Badly-washed produce, though that's not REALLY likely in this country (as we don't usually irrigate with untreated sewage--overseas produce, though...you never really know how it was grown). All processed meats. Cooked veg that are left out for service without enough heat to hold them, or conversely any serve-cold product that isn't sufficiently iced. Hot soups, etc. that are prepped and held but not at 135 or higher, or that weren't heated through to 165 or were chilled improperly. Even something was just older than everyone thought.
Basically there's about a zillion and one ways for a contaminant to get in there. Which sucks. I'm still not sure if what I had last January, at the end of LCB 100, was the flu or food poisioning, but it sounds rather simliar. It is DEFINITELY possible to be too sick to do anything but lie on the couch and hope the projectile vomiting is over. Take it really, really easy and relax!
no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 11:25 pm (UTC)I've never heard of Pioneer Book! I'll have to go next time I'm in Utah. I'm feeling the need for a Utah trip soon, too. Since I need to go to Montana, maybe I'll go that way, and spend some time playing with my friends there before I head north. It makes the trip longer, but makes the middle more fun than "driving across southern Idaho forever and ever and ever and ever."
no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 11:52 pm (UTC)Filing a book between Heinlein and Allston? Honey, they weren't disordered books- they were carefully ordered books, grouped by quality!!
Call when you get in, let me know you're okay. Hugs!
no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 04:36 am (UTC)As for Pioneer Book, it's even bigger, nowadays! The owner's son used to own another, similar bookstore next door and they finally just combined the two... knocking out walls and rearranging all the books. I wasn't too surprised, since they were essentially operating them as one store for years, it was only logical that they'd make it official.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 04:43 am (UTC)It's right down on Center Street in Provo... on the south side of the street not far up from the NuSkin building. Really worth checking out!
It makes the trip longer, but makes the middle more fun than "driving across southern Idaho forever and ever and ever and ever."
The one nice thing about that area is that it's got pretty decent cellphone coverage... I put on my headset and just use my handsfree stuff to call various friends while I'm driving through there. Whatever it takes to keep me from getting lulled by the countryside. It does work better on weekends when I've got a kajillion minutes I never use. :-p
no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 04:46 am (UTC)LOL! Too true! I hadn't thought of that!
Call when you get in, let me know you're okay.
Well, I don't know if you're still up... but I'm safely ensconsed in a hotel room in Twin Falls, ID for the night! I just had the largest meal I've managed to eat since Thursday (a bowl of soup and a cup of pudding) and I'm about to drop off!
no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 04:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 04:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 10:37 am (UTC)As for missing me, well that's the breaks. I know how unimportant I am to you. You'd prefer food poisoning to socializing with me! sniff... :'(
no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 10:37 am (UTC)Either way, sticking to starches for a few days might not be a bad idea.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 02:51 pm (UTC)Either way, sticking to starches for a few days might not be a bad idea.
Oh yeah... I've been so glad, this morning, that I'd thought to grab one of those Campbell's Soup At Hand thingies (Chicken with Mini Noodles) last night when I got the soup for dinner. I don't think I could have eaten anything else this morning... and I was a bit surprised that it's taking so long for my appetite to return (especially if it was just food poisoning).