Post-Christmas Blahs

Time to catch up, so to speak, on the end-of-year festivities. For me the holiday season got off to a rousing start. On the night of Dec. 23 I woke up to extreme stomach pains, and without going into too much detail, let’s just say everyone was leaving the party in a hurry, and they were all using several exits. By dawn I had slept for about 2 hours total, had run to the bathroom about a dozen times, and had nothing left in my stomach and bowels except the remembrance of dinners past. Of course that didn’t stop the pains and trips to the bathroom. Needless to say Christmas Eve was a day of sitting on the couch, drinking tea and eating a piece of toast. Thankfully I woke up semi-refreshed and feeling better on Sunday morning, Christmas day -- well enough that Christmas dinner was still on for Steve to come over and enjoy. We got the turkey baking with my bagel stuffing, and had preparations underway for a big feast. Everything was going great…until I actually ate a bit of turkey and potatoes. No more than a couple of bites were enough not only “fill me up” but to also send my stomach into a whirling dervish of contractions and bloating. Sunday night ended up being another rough night. Thankfully I woke up Monday morning feeling great, but I learned my lesson from the day before. I kept to bread, tea, and rice. By Tuesday morning, when I went back to work, my stomach was about 95% back to normal. Of course that meant that the entire Christmas Weekend, which is supposed to be filled with cookies, food, beer and wine, was almost an entire waste. (The only thing worse than being sick over a weekend and getting better just before going back to work is getting sick over a holiday weekend and getting better just before going back to work.) On the plus side I lost 10 lbs.

Lynn and Ashley, Sage’s mom and sister, came down on Tuesday to spend 5 days with us. Thankfully the stomach was much better for me, and Sage had the whole week off. We spent a bunch of time playing games and watching movies, but we also managed to get out and about as well. 1 day Sage took the gals to the new Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Annex where they got to see the big planes (including a Space Shuttle) up close. We also went to the National Zoo to see young Wayne (that’s Tai Shan, the panda cub, to you laypeople). After standing in the rain for an hour we got in to see him curled up in his tub, napping away. This was the 2nd time that Sage and I got to see him, and the NH crew seemed to really enjoy seeing the young buck. After visiting the other zoo animals (including the gorillas, wolves and cheetahs) we headed downtown to try to get into the Spy Museum. Unfortunately it was almost sold out for the day, so we had a nice lunch at Fado and headed back home. Another day we stopped by Croyden Creek Nature Center in Rockville where we took a short hike through the Montgomery County woods. Nothing too exciting there, but it’s always nice to get out into the fresh air.
And now the doldrums of winter descends. I’m not sure if every day in January and February are always gray and dreary or if it just seems that way. Either way it’s a long wait to March 18. Or May 1 for that matter.