Lest This All Look Like Fun and Games or "A Cramp Abroad" . . .


You should know that as soon as I got home from the field trip I started to feel very strange, which soon became distinctly unwell. I managed to keep the boys alive if not entertained until Rob came home from his class, and then I got well and truly sick. Sick like I haven't been sick since October of 2005 when I passed out in the Magic Kingdom and came to with an entire family dressed in matching tie-dyed shirts standing over me, and then had to prove to Disney security that I wasn't some druggie, just a middle-aged housewife who'd had a bad salad from Mimi's.

It was like that, only this time in Vienna. And this time, the whole family got it. At the same time. I was down first, then the boys about dinner time, then Maddie about bedtime. Rob was trying to help everyone, but three different times he had people throwing up simultaneously in different rooms. Once, Will, Sebi and I were all hurling together, letting out loud sounds while Rob ran from room to room. I was passing out, and when that happens, there is a lot more laundry to do. He was trying to keep up with that as well, then the washing machine started squirting water across the room. Try that on for size. Five people with the stomach flu and a broken washer. Now add in Freud toilets that are not good at keeping the smell down and you have a perfect storm.


The plague hit Rob just before midnight. Kids were still sick all night long and Rob would get up with them and we both felt awful, so we didn't get much sleep. We all still felt hideous today and stayed prostrate, moaning and glassy-eyed for the most part. By noon, we were expecting a cart to come by calling out "Bring out your dead."

Joss seems to have avoided it all, so he was his peppy little self, and we just threw sippy cups and doppelkeks at him. At one point, we were all comatose except Joss, who poured a huge, full glass of orange juice onto my head, the pillow, the bed, the floor, etc. We whimpered from the bed, wiped up the juice, and Rob volunteered to lay in the juicy part because he was in and out of reality as it was, and wouldn't be troubled by a little pulp. Our poor kids--no one could help anyone else. We staggered into the kitchen to distribute drinks a few times, other than that it was like "The Lord of the Flies."


Thnakfully, we all felt human again by seven and we watched Wall-E together. We even ate small pieces of banana. As a family.


There is a baroque monstrosity in the middle of one big plaza here in Vienna that was built to thank the Lord for delivering the city from the plague in the 1600's. Notice the little angel burning the whithered old allegory for the plague. We need to build our own plague column, with a little angel pouring OJ on the plague.


Comments

Curtis said…
I think I'll leave that off my list.
Angela said…
It sounds like a horrible experience. I was going to say "indescribably awful," but actually, you described it quite well. I hope you all continue to feel better.
ashley said…
At least you all had it together and now its over.

love,
Pollyanna

also, I'm glad it was o.j. and not syrup, for Rob's sake.
Lois said…
Oh my goodness!

I'm glad everyone's feeling better.

It's ALWAYS "Lord of the Flies" at my house.

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