Sugar Hangover

I woke up yesterday morning with what can only be a sugar hangover.

We drove down to PA Friday afternoon and went out to dinner with Lisa's parents just shortly after we got there. We had a pleasant evening and helped Lisa's mother pack some stuff in their motor home, as they were going to leave for Florida Sunday morning.

Saturday we helped pack some more and, around noontime, Lisa's mother ordered steak and cheese subs for lunch. We each had a half-sub and I think I had a Squirt or some sort of lemon-lime drink. Then we went over to Lisa's grandparents' to say hello and, by 5:00 were at Lisa's sister's house to help set up for the Christmas gathering. It was to be a "dessert" gathering, since it was agreed that putting on a dinner was just too much work. I was starting to feel a little hungry, since I'd only had that half sub, but pressed on with the preparations.

Family began arriving about 6:30, and the table began to fill with cheesecakes, "ultimate" chocolate cake, brownies, pretzels, cookies, M&Ms, carrot cake, and even a "fruit pizza." A chocolate fountain was running, with cookies, fruit, and other items surrounding it. Fruit punch, pop and some sort of fruit chai was also available. A veritable cornucopia of sugar.

And I knew better, I really did.

But, I was starving and, even though I didn't eat all that much, my subconscious told me that this was as close to a meal as I was going to get that night.

I had a cupcake sized mini-cherry-cheesecake. I had a piece of carrot cake but didn't eat the too-rich cream cheese frosting. I had a handful of pretzels, dipped in that chocolate fountain. A handful of M&Ms with peanuts (needed protein, right?). Some milanos (cookies). Some fruit punch. Some fresh strawberries. Some pineapple. A couple of slices of apple. A cup of coffee.

I felt queasy by the time we fell into bed at a little after 1:30 AM.

Lisa's father came and woke us up yesterday morning at 7:00, asking Lisa to help her mother with the packing/loading. Lisa poured us coffee -- fully caffeinated. We usually only drink half-caffeinated. My head was raging. I felt disoriented. My eyes hurt. My head felt like a helium balloon. My heart was racing. I felt flush.

At 10:00, as Lisa's parents pulled out of the driveway in their motor home, on their way to Florida, I told Lisa "I have to have some REAL food, and soon." We went back into the house and Lisa called her sister to tell her that Mom and Dad had left, and Diane invited us over for breakfast. Ten minutes later, Lisa was fixing fried egg, cheese and English muffin sandwiches for us. I ate mine very slowly, at Lisa's insistence. She was concerned.

Our plan for the day was to go and see Lisa's grandparents (always a highlight of our trip). So, she called them to see when they were going to go for their weekly Sunday lunch at a local restaurant. They had been waiting to hear from us to see when we were going to come see them, and invited us to have lunch with them. Twenty minutes later, we were ordering lunch, having just had breakfast forty minutes earlier. I had a BLT wrap -- didn't want anything heavy.

We said goodbye to Lisa's grandparents around 2:00 and set off for home. I was still a tad disoriented, but was feeling a whole lot better, having had as much protein as I did. We stopped off to see my Aunt Wanda and Uncle Bob on the way back, at around 4:00, and were home by 6:30 -- just in time to watch the tail end of the day's late football games.

I'm tellin' ya -- I've never done anything like that before and I'm positive I'm never going to do anything like that again. My system has spent the day today sort of flushing itself out. I don't mind saying that I feel like I've been shot at and missed, and shit at and hit.

Anyway, we had a great time with Lisa's family but it's always good to be back home.

We fell into bed last night and that's the last thing I knew before the alarm went off this morning.

I have just this week to work, then we're shut down for the week after Christmas, and I'm taking the first week of January off.

Michelle and the kids will be up Sunday night to spend Christmas Eve with us. It's sort of unexpected (they're spending the night) so we have to scramble around and get some "santa" stuff for the kids, but it'll be fun.

Heavy work week -- final exams and final grades to get done. Then it comes to a screeching, grinding halt until classes start back up the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. day.

Hopefully I'll be up for air from time to time.

As long as there's no sugar in it...