Merry Christmas everyone that is kind enough to have not deleted Dr. Trot from your list of blogs that you follow! (You know, to replace it with something that actually gets updated…I hear this is the thing to do…) So my excuse this time is that I’ve had a freaking nasty case of the flu since December 23rd and have refrained from posting nasty updates over the last 5 days with only you best interests in mind. You’re welcome.
So after one final work week from hell to wrap up 2013 I made my way back to Siberia Minnesota for Christmas. First I went to Philadelphia to visit Dr. Aki (and apparently kick off my bout with the flu). Dr. A took me to The New Deck for some comfort food and therapeutic holiday cocktails the night before I was set to fly out.
In the morning I took the train from Aki’s place in University City to the airport. Now, at this point I was already feeling really crappy. I was feeling badly enough that I figured I also probably looked pretty shitty. The train conductor was kind enough to remove any doubt in my mind about this. After taking our money (this was a very challenging interaction for me) and punching our tickets, the conductor (who’s day job is probably as a lineman for the NE Patriots) came back to where I was sitting, put a fist full of cough drops in my hand from his pocket, and then tucked me in with the oversized collars of the coat I was drowning in! WOW. I tried to say “thank you” (emphasis on “tried”) but he told me to shhhhhh “and keep your face covered when you get off and hustle back in through the first set of doors so you DO NOT breath the cold air.” I just nodded and obeyed 15 min later when we arrived at the airport.
By some act of god I made it though security to the gate and onto the plane without anyone calling a haz-mat team on me. I did my best to pass out immediately after I got on the plane and to not get up again until we landed. Not too hard.
As out of it as I was, it was still hilarious to watch people all but refuse to deplane upon feeling how cold the air was in the jetway once we landed in Minneapolis! They were that cold in the jetway! To be fair, it was -11F outside (without the windchil) and that’s damn cold even when you’ve spent 30 yrs of your life here. But watching adults balk at the jetway was pretty good. 🙂
Drs. Sami and Alex collected my sick ass from the airport and took me to a rather dysfunctional brunch (I’m sorry…at least it was tastey….finally…right…?) and then dropped me off at my borrowed vehicle for the 2 hr drive to Willmar. And we thought I was done traveling!! HA! The drive home really wasn’t all that bad. And then I really was home!
We had Christmas, kind of. I slept a lot and didn’t get out of my pj’s, much less shower, for 3 days or go to church. I still ate and drank a bunch of items that are some how absent from the “What to eat while training for a sub-4-hr marathon” diet, knitted and kicked my mom’s ass at played cards. Not bad, especially while having a bad case of death.
Meanwhile, Dr. M is on his way home to Bangladesh. He left the US on the 26th, my second day home, and should just be arriving in Dhaka now. Hopefully his travels were less infected than mine!
Alrighty, it sounds like it’s time for more embarrassing card games 🙂 and unnecessary consumption of Christmas goodies. I’ll be back with more on the best gifts of Christmas and a running Gin rummey score.
DrTrot 