Complaining

I've just gotten over a slight bout of food poisoning which I think came from some chicken that I ate last week. It started on Thursday with that all-over achy flu-like feeling. You know, the one where all your joints feel like they've rusted and your head could explode at any moment. That was my Thursday. By Friday I had graduated from 'achy' to 'flattened by a semi'. As I hovered over my toilet at 8:00 a.m. I debated the merits of using a sick day. Unfortunately, in this country the beauracracy tends to overwhelm me and I thought that it would be easier to prop myself up against a desk for 8 hours than deal with a sick day request. Besides, I wanted to go to Tokyo the next day and I thought it would look a little suspicious if I took a day off the day before -even though I was TRULY ill.

I made it through the work day - barely - in the last class of the day my JTE finally commented that I looked quite pale... - at least she noticed, right? I went home, went to bed and dreaded the 4:00 a.m. alarm I had set. Now some of you are thinking - 4:00 alarm? What the? -Here's where Tokyo fits in.

My friend Kaz and I had planned a trip to Tokyo to see the Tokyo Motor Show together. I was to get up bright and early (usually not a big deal for me) and drive to his place, then hop in his beetle and drive to the event - yahoo! Well, everything happened as planned, minus the yahoo.
I thought I was feeling better when I woke up. In fact, I did feel better, but I had only gone from 0% to 50% -not even close to where one should be when embarking on such an adventure.
Food poisioning is not fun! Sheesh!

After getting home at 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning (I had spent a few hours huddled in my sleeping bag, in my car, in an expressway parking lot that night), I got in the door, shut off every electrical device in my apartment, covered every inch of window and literaly crawled into bed and SLEPT. I woke up at 5:00 p.m. - attempted a few menial tasks, ate a bit of food, slipped back under the covers and had another full night's sleep. By Monday I was at about 75%, Tuesday, 85% and yesterday was as close to 100% as I ever feel.

I am fully aware that I put this wretched weekend upon myself - it could have been avoided by a simple phone call to Kaz, threaded with explanations and apologies. I could have slept all day Saturday, rested Sunday and avoided the miserable day I had simultaneously fighting crowds and my urge to run to a toilet...

But then what would I have had to complain about this week?