I just woke up from a good night’s sleep. I’m still achy and sick to my stomach. But I slept in my own bed. And the bed felt huge, even with O next to me.
The last two nights we spent upstate producing and installing her solo show. The college has some old house that functions as a visiting scholars and faculty ‘guest house.’ I have stayed in these kinds of houses at small New England colleges before. Usually they are spartan, but comfortable. Not this time.
Where to begin…
The bed. The bed was a single bed, that sagged way down in the middle. Single. As in: not twin. We could not lie on our backs at the same time, or our shoulders would push one of us out of the bed.
Sleeping on the couch. Where I moved both nights. But without any blanket or sheet. And the couch was just too short to actually stretch out on. Why do they make big couches that are too small for people to sleep on.
The sheets. The bottom sheet inexplicably only covered 75% of the bed. So our lower legs and feet were resting against the old mattress. This was probably the weirdest part.
The noise. The college rents(?) the back part of the house to a family. A very loud family, with a fighting husband and wife, and a crying kid. At first we thought it was the house next door, but then realized it was coming from behind the house through the paper thin walls. We left the city, went ot the country, and it was much louder than my apartment.
The smell. This one took a while to place. The whole house smelled almost exactly like my Interferon. When I inject, I use alcohol wipes, and so the smell could have been that. But there is a distinct smell from the whole injection process. And the house smelled like it.
The food poisoning. This one’s not the house’s fault. I ate something that didn’t sit well. I woke up in the middle of the night with intense stomach/intestinal pain. Was burping up, but couldn’t puke. Spent long enough on the crapper that I might have fallen asleep (unclear). All I got were a little pile of raisinettes. I wiped my ass, and the tissue was covered in blood. I had been really upset by the intense pain (worried it was an appendix, or something) but seeing a handful of bloody toilet paper set me over the edge. 2am, and I was hysterical. Somehow (drugs, O, exhaustion) I fell asleep. I slept until 130 the next afternoon. Felt sick all day.
Add to that a bunch of bloody noses.
I am just now eating some oatmeal. The first really hearty meal I have taken with a real hunger.
Terrible about the food poisoning. . I have had it for the last 5 days and I think the crapper and I might be best friends now. . . still not eating but if you do I recommend soup.