Kindergerms.

Our family finally received our fair share of what my friend M calls "Kindergerms." Seems a nasty case of the stomach flu has been floating around, and while it's not affecting the kids so much, it's hitting the parents hard. Luckily for me, it was only a 24 hour thing, although I still feel super tired and out of it.

The gory details:

One never wants to start one's stomach flu while at work, especially when the only way home is public transportation, which takes about 45 minutes to get one home. Sadly, this was the case for me. I was feeling really weird beginning about 10am Monday morning, and I kept saying how I felt bad and I didn't feel right, etc. etc.. My husband and I walked to get sandwiches, and while we were walking, I declared again that I didn't feel right. I was hungry, I just wasn't feeling normal at all. We ate our sandwiches, I went back to my desk, pumped some milk, and then started really feeling badly. My co-worker came along, I told her again I didn't feel good, so she went and bought me a Sprite to drink. I drank that, but I still couldn't shake off the bad feelings. She and my husband both told me to go home, but I jokingly said I would when I threw up.

About 2ish I decided I should head on home. So as I was packing up, my stomach did a few flip flops and off I ran to the bathroom. The two people in the bathroom left right before the chunks flew, so I got to throw up in peace. I cleaned up, got my stuff, told my husband I was leaving and that I just threw up, and headed on to BART. I was hoping beyond hope that I would just pass out on BART and not have to throw up.

Of course, because I was in desperate need to get home, the BART train started experiencing delays. By the time we were almost at Fruitvale, I knew I was going to throw up again. I asked the lady next to me to move, and she jokingly said something about how many bags I was carrying. I grunted at her and headed to the doors. I stood there, breathing in deeply, hoping the train would hurry up into the station when it slowed down and stopped. This was exactly when I had the urge to throw up, so I started gagging, but managed to keep it down. As soon as the doors opened at the station, I ran out, saw that the garbage cans had funky lids on them that couldn't be taken off, so I sat down on a bench, dropped all my bags, and was trying to get a plastic bag out so I could throw up in it instead of on the platform. No such luck.

After throwing up twice, I called my mom, asked her to pick of Mr. Mateo from daycare and bring him to our condo because I was afraid I'd get everyone sick or throw up on everyone. (Thanks, Mom!!!!!!) I got on the next Fremont train, managed to sit in a seat near the door where I didn't have to ask anyone to get out of my way, and made it the rest of the way to Fremont without incident.

When I got to Fremont, I carefully walked to our car, which was parked 100 miles away (okay, it wasn't, but it seemed like it), and tried my hardest to not throw up again. I drove myself home, and as soon as I started walking towards our condo building, I knew I was going to toss my cookies again. I walked by two ladies talking to each other. I had planned ahead this time and was holding the plastic bag I was supposed to throw up in at the BART station but didn't, so I was hoping I would get far enough away from the ladies before I had to throw up in the plastic bag. Or, better yet, just get in the darn condo and throw up in my own bathroom and stop throwing up in public places. No such luck.

I made it pretty close to the door to get into our building when I had to throw up again. So I did. And again. And again. When I was finished, I let myself into the building, then into our condo, moaned and groaned enough to freak out my cats and cleaned myself up again. I sat on the couch, waiting for my mom to show up with Mr. Mateo. When they came, and then my mom left, I got myself settled until my husband came home.

And, as with most things, my husband ended up getting it at about 2am, so I was in charge of Mr. Mateo for most of the day. I was feeling much better by morning time, just really tired and had a headache, so it was okay. Mr. Mateo was a super good boy all day and took two good naps with me.

So now I really have no shame. Throwing up at the BART station pretty much tops everything at this point. Stupid Kindergerms!