warning: whine zone

so, i'm 95% sure i have salmonella.  on saturday morning, after a really fun spontaneous trip to joshua tree (about a two hour drive) to watch the perseid meteor shower (where i, for the first time in my life, slept out under the stars) i talked my roommates into making a stop at the cabazon dinosaurs and having breakfast at the wheel inn.

both gained notoriety in 'pee-wee's big adventure' and they have been on my hot list since arriving in california.  and since i don't go out to joshua tree on a regular basis, this was my best opportunity for check-marking that little item.

big mistake.

don't get me wrong. the dinosaurs were fun and kitschy, as expected, but the breakfast was the worst meal i've ever consumed in my life.  in fact we all agreed on that point.

the rest of the day, my stomach felt a little off, but i mostly chalked it up to lack of sleep.  afterall, we had left for joshua tree at 10pm, arrived a little after midnight, watched meteors until 3, then got up at 5am to head out.

eventually i got my stomach under control and my roommates and i joined some others from the ward to go see the last performance of twelfth night in the 'shakespeare by the sea' season.  the play was held outdoors at point fermin park n san pedro, and as heather used to teach in that area, she made sure we took the route winding along the fantastically beautiful coastline.

it's sad to say, but the drive ended up being the highlight, as shortly after the play started,  heather and i realized we had had far too little sleep for shakespeare!  since neither of us had driven though, we were stuck. so we found creative ways to catnap in our camp chairs.

other than still being extremely tired, sunday passed normally, until about 4am, when my stomach decided to go to war with itself.  and four days later, that battle still rages on.  what was initially confusing to me was that other than the inability to keep food down, and the tiredness (which could be attributed to a number of explanations) there were no other symptoms.  and i don't know about you, but when i get the flu, i GET the flu.

i knew it wasn't your standard food poisoning, which onsets almost immediately, but i also felt that this was not a 'normal' sick. it wasn't until i was talking with a co-worker yesterday and he asked me if i thought it could be salmonella that i did a little digging, and all of the 'symptoms', including the timeline are right on.

so now i'm on day 5 (they say recovery between 4-7 days) and i haven't been able to keep anything down since sunday.  i've dropped 8 pounds this week and i'm flippin' HUNGRY.  but i know what will happen if i indulge that hunger, and it ain't pretty or pleasant.  and really, i'm pretty annoyed,  i feel like knee surgery should meet the quota for crappy health stuff in any one month, and now this.  i feel like i'm losing control of the little things and i can tell that my boss is less than enthused about all my recent time off - first for the knee, now for salmonella.  even i have a hard time believing it.

it all feels a little overwhelming at the moment and i'm pretty grumpy about it. cordy is in desperate need of a bath...easy, one might think, but being on my knees is one painful and two will induce vomiting.  i need new brakes, need to research new car insurance, cancel my september work trips (since i'm not allowed on a plane for two weeks post-surgery), clean, attend a wedding this weekend, and get my job responsibilities back to a manageable mess.  needless to say, this is not exactly how i hoped my birthday month would turn out.  i even had to forgo the chocolate spa thanks to the stupid knee. gah!