is it the debate or the food poisoning?

Yup, I ate some bad oysters during my stay on Martha's Vineyard. They didn't get me right away, but in the middle of the night, right before we were supposed to get up and pack out, I woke up running to the bathroom. I spent the rest of the night trying desperately to sleep in between kneeling to the porcelain and the gurgles in my gut. Oh, it was awful. I had to listen for when Momola woke up and call out to her on the stairs, "I'm going to be less than usless this morning." There's nothing quite like being almost 30 years old, rushing out of the shower to stand, dripping and towel-wrapped, retching until tears come and having your mother have to come hold your hair. I made it through ferry, car, plane, and final car rides without losing anything else, but really, there was nothing left to lose. I arrived at my parents' house completely undone. I spent Monday napping at their house with the cat lying at my hip. I ate toast and broth.

Today I went to work. It was decided early on that I had no interest in my opera ticket for this evening, so that was given away. Shortly thereafter I decided that a full day might be too much for me. First I had a meeting to go to. It ended with a pizza delivery, and despite the hunger the smell awoke, the mingled smells of tomato sauce and jalapeno peppers quickly chased me out of the room. It wasn't too much longer that I was on the phone with Lady, telling her I had to pack it in soon. She listened briefly, and then announced, "you're about to become the girl who stops the train. I'm coming to pick you up." I assumed she was referring to the fact that Metro shuts down whenever someone sniffles, not stopping the train by falling in front of it, Anna Karenina style... She kindly drove me into the city, where I promptly fell asleep.

I'm awake now and watching the debate, and I'm so glad that McCain wants us to achieve peace in the world - he said so. He also tells us every time he's on tv that America has the best workers, the most productive and the most innovative. I'm not so sure about that these days. It was India that gave us Scrabulous, after all. And tell me more about the greed, excess, and crony-ism in Washington and Wall Street, old man, tell me more. Act like you never heard of the Keating Five. Also, I think Palin is rubbing off on him, because his sentence structure leaves something to be desired tonight. Way to side-step and ignore Darfur, you old jerk, you didn't even say the name. I should probably stop now.

Here's to some food with flavor tomorrow, assuming the politi-speak doesn't keep my stomach turned.