A good/horrible trip

I left early Thursday. I didn't quite leave by 6 as intended, but I did leave around 6:20 a.m. The trip down there was actually quite easy. Traffic was easy, roads were good, and had no problems. I made it to San Antonio in about 8 hours. I found a parking garage right behind my hotel that only charged $6.00 a day rather than the hotel valet parking which was $18 a day. I checked in and then made my way to the convention center. I only got sort of lost once. But I found it, got my family badge and then went and checked out the exhibit hall where they have anything and everything related to music and then some. I ran into my friend David and hung out with him for a while. I saw several people I hadn't seen in a long time. My friend Kirsten called me close to 5:00 and said that she was back at the hotel so I headed back that way. We decided to go have an early dinner and then go see Harry Potter at the IMAX. We went to Landry's which was o.k. but I didn't think it was that great given the prices. We went to the Rivercenter Mall to kill a few hours. I did some shopping, but didn't find anything I really needed. It was good to see Harry Potter on the IMAX, but I am still disappointed by how much was left out of the movie.
Friday I slept in until about 8:30 then took a shower and got ready. I was going to meet Richard for lunch but he wasn't able to make it. We went to Casa Rio and had mexican food. It was pretty good and the prices were reasonable. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the exhibit hall. I finally got to see Josh briefly. He had told me that he found the music software he wanted. It's only $250. I do want to get it for him. It may just be a while. Oh! He made 3rd chair in the concert band. I think that's pretty good for a freshman. Well, my feet were absolutely killing me after being on them ALL day. I didn't leave the convention center until 6:30. I went back to the hotel and ordered room service. Sure it costs an arm and leg, but sometimes it's worth it. All day on Friday I was sporting a headache. I did get some tylenol, but it took a while for it to go away. After I ate my dinner, I took a hot bath and then was feeling o.k. I got dressed and ready for the reunion. They have a reunion for many of the colleges and I went to WT's reunion. I ran into several people that I hadn't seen in a long time. I had two rum and cokes over about a two hour period. Around 11:30 Kirsten and I decided to go the bar and order a top shelf margarita. It is a very good margarita. I had a pretty good buzz after the first one. But I followed in Kirsten's footsteps and ordered a second one. We had to leave the bar at midnight but took our drinks out in the lobby to finish. I have to say that by then I had a good buzz and was drunk, but not to the point I couldn't walk straight etc. Just a happy state where I talked a lot.
We headed back to the hotel. Kirsten proceeded to give me her theories on Harry Potter and we were up until almost 2:00. I fell right to sleep. And then things went way down hill. I woke up at 4:45 and had to go to the bathroom. And then I started to get that feeling that something wasn't right. I started salivating like one does just before vomiting. Sure enough, up came my dinner. I really didn't think that I had drank enough to warrant this. I was actually telling Kirsten earlier, I've somewhat learned to know where my limits are. So I went back to bed. I was up again at 7:45 throwing up the water I drank. I took two more tylenol at 9:00 hoping I could keep it down. By morning I was rethinking whether or not this was related to drinking. I just felt horrible. But it wasn't really like a hangover. And my friend Kirsten who weighs about 100 lbs. wasn't really phased. I go down to check out around 10:00 so I can get to Josh's concert early. It took 25 minutes to check out. There was a line and then when it was my turn, the computer decided to freeze up. By the time I was finished, I had to run to the theatre (about 8-9 blocks away) in order to get a seat. Nothing like running in a brisk 35 degrees when you feel like crap. But I made it and finally found a seat. His concert was really good. I went and bought the CD of it for him, then told him I was heading home.
I was not looking forward to a 9 hour drive when I barely slept the night before and still felt bad. Although I didn't feel like eating anything, I figured I should eat something to give me some energy and perhaps wake me up. I stopped at a McDonald's around 1:00 and got a cheeseburger, shake and some water. I took more tylenol. It lasted about an hour. I had to pull over to puke. What a mess! I wasn't very careful and ended getting some of it on my clothes. I continued on until I found a rest stop and then pulled over to change. I almost made it half way and found myself unable to keep my eyes opened. I pulled over again to another rest stop and took a 20 minute cat nap. That seemed to do the trick. I started feel bad again around 6:00 so I took more tylenol and got a coke for the caffeine. I also nibbled on some crackers just to have something in my stomach. Let me tell you, this was the longest trip of my life. I still felt queasy and I pulled over just outside of Lubbock at a rest stop and tried to vomit again (because it generally feels better after you've done that) but it didn't work. I finally made it home though I felt the need to hurl for the last hour and a half of my trip. Luckily it did wait until I got home. I immediately headed for my bathroom and let the deed be done. I took my temperature which was 99.7. I didn't take any tylenol because I wasn't sure my stomach could handle it. I drank some water and headed to bed waiting until I had to go pick up Josh. As fate would have it, his phone didn't work and he ended up getting a ride home from his band director. I stayed in bed until 2:00 a.m. I got up and took my temperature again and it had gone up to 101. So took a regular tylenol and a tylenol pm and finally got some sleep. I slept until about 10:15 this morning. I didn't want to miss Mass two weeks in a row so I made myself get up. I went to church, but didn't sing in the choir. I am glad I went. After church, I went to the grocery store as we didn't have milk or other basic necessities. I came home, had some lunch (and kept it down), started this blog until I decided I needed a nap. And that's what I did today. Oh, and to answer Summer's question. The Christmas tree is still up. And it will probably be up for another week. But lemme esplain. Other than the fact that I haven't been home and I am behind on so many other things that taking a Christmas tree down is really on the bottom of my list AND there's a light out in my garage so I can see very well to get things put up anyways. And it's not just those easy light bulbs... it's the really long florescent kind that I have to get at a hardware store. So until ACE hardware opens up down the street, it will have to wait until I can make it to Amarillo. But luckily we're getting a day off in a week. Next Monday is some kind of school holiday, so I'm thinking that is when my tree will come down. You can stop laughing now.