Lady and the Shrimp

First of all, I am back home. Yeah. So very happy. Actually, the sun is shining and it is kinda pretty out there.

The night before we left Manzanillo (nice transition, huh?), Derrick, Tia and I went out for one last dinner in Mexico. We went to a restaurant on the beach called "Charlie's Place". Our waiter was Rico Suave, smooth as silk, with love in his eye for my sis-in-law, an affinity for calling me "Lady", as if that were my name, and an expertise in ignoring my husband, except for when it was time to give him the bill at the end.

There was a moment during the meal that should have made my ears tingle or my intuition spark, or just somehow should have made me question the wisdom of eating my meal.

I had drank two Mishaladas (Corona with a lotta lime juice) by the time I ordered the garlic shrimp. Derrick ordered fajitas, and Tara ordered Orange Shrimp. I have to say, my meal was delicious- huge shrimp for around 100 pesos.

When Rico came around for the "How good is it" check up, he hovered around Tia for a couple minutes, chatting about this and that (she is fluent in Spanish, so I have no idea what they were talking about), and then he asked her in english how she liked her meal. She replied that it was good. He didn't even bother asking Derrick about his meal. He turned his attention to me for one second, "So Lady, how is YOUR meal?" I replied that it was delicious.

And then the "shoulda got my attention moment" happened. He stopped, looked me in the eye and said, "Really??" and I don't mean as in "really, I am happy your food is good", but more as in"REALLY? What a complete and utter surprise, I was pretty sure we were going to be carting you out of here in a body bag... cuz that is what I usually aim for in my LADIES..." But, the shrimp was REALLY good... so when he left our table, I teased Tia about about him for a second, mocked how he had said "Really?!?" to me, and scarfed down the whole meal. I practically licked the plate. I'm pretty sure I stole a couple of Tia's shrimp when she wasn't looking.

Enter two o'clock in the morning when I am tossing and turning, dreaming about weird things happening in my stomach. You know that horrible moment when you awake a night a realise that it is going to be ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS. Oh no. I laid really still for awhile. But then I realised that there was no fighting it. I gave myself over to the Beast of Food Poisoning.

I will spare you the details. I'm pretty sure you've all been there. By the next morning I was a wrung out rag of a Lady, who will not be eating shrimp again any time soon.

Poor Derrick had to do all of our packing for the trip home (Kathrine packed for the kids, THANK YOU KATHRINE!!!). Derrick and Tia (maybe her shrimp was from a different pot?) went to the pharmicia and got me some medicine to help me make the two flights home.

We left for the airport at 1:30 and I drug on through the next 10 hours by laying on benches in the airport with my head on Derrick's lap, sleeping with my head on Dave's shoulder during the flights (Derrick was on kid patrol), and basically just being in survival mode til we got home. I have to say, I wouldn't have made it without Derrick, Dave, Kathrine and Tia carrying me along.

So to conclude my story, I lived. And I really am glad to be home!