After my HelpExchange gig in Evergreen ended, I went to stay with Patrick and Colleen in Wheatridge, who despite being busy doing construction on their home right now, were kind enough to offer me a place to lay my head for a while. My first evening with them, I tagged along with them and a couple of their friends (one of whom is opening his first gluten-and-dairy-free taco truck this summer!) to a bar to watch the Avalanches play a hockey game.
1st thing I learnt: I thought we were going to watch some 'Abs' play hockey. You can't see any abs under all that gear, so that was a mild disappointment. (I had been hearing 'Avs'.)
2nd thing I learnt: Hockey means ice hockey, not the kind I played (or rather, stood at the end of the pitch and pretended to play) as a kid. That kind is called Field Hockey in America.
3rd thing I learnt: Maybe don't ever ever again eat the nachos at whatever place we were when we watched the game.
My very first night in Evergreen I woke up at 4am feeling decidedly woozy, and over the next 8 or 9 hours it became apparent that I had some form of food poisoning. From both ends. (TMI? Sorry. That's mah style!)
Which meant that my very first day in Evergreen I was completely confined to my bedroom in the cellar and the adjoining bathroom. Yay for adjoining bathrooms though!
There's really nothing like being ill and being away from home. Patrick and Colleen were sweet enough to bring me ginger ale and later, chicken broth, but I spent most of the day alone with Spirit, either nauseous, half asleep, or in the bathroom. The only times I let myself break down emotionally were when I spoke with Stef or Mum on the phone and had someone to hold space for all the feelings! It was interesting though - even though nausea is my least favorite thing in the world (give me pain over nausea any day) - I've done a lot of work over the last few years to move through my fear around it. And yet, being on my own in a brand new place, where I don't really know anyone, those fears showed up again big time and I had to be very present to them so as not to go into self-pity. One thing that helped get me through was something Stef offered: "You need to find that place within yourself where you feel totally safe. Go there. Stay there. Be there."
On the plus side I think I lost a few of those extra lbs I put on being a glutton in Evergreen the previous week.
The next day, wobbly but able to walk again, I headed to the local library and updated this blog (with the post before this) and got a bit of work done. I then walked around the neighborhood for a while, got lost, found myself in some rough areas, and then made it home before it started raining, pretty exhausted.
1st thing I learnt: I thought we were going to watch some 'Abs' play hockey. You can't see any abs under all that gear, so that was a mild disappointment. (I had been hearing 'Avs'.)
2nd thing I learnt: Hockey means ice hockey, not the kind I played (or rather, stood at the end of the pitch and pretended to play) as a kid. That kind is called Field Hockey in America.
3rd thing I learnt: Maybe don't ever ever again eat the nachos at whatever place we were when we watched the game.
My very first night in Evergreen I woke up at 4am feeling decidedly woozy, and over the next 8 or 9 hours it became apparent that I had some form of food poisoning. From both ends. (TMI? Sorry. That's mah style!)
Which meant that my very first day in Evergreen I was completely confined to my bedroom in the cellar and the adjoining bathroom. Yay for adjoining bathrooms though!
 |
| How to get over food poisoning, once you can keep liquids down: Ginger ale, water, water with oregano oil, pepto bismol |
There's really nothing like being ill and being away from home. Patrick and Colleen were sweet enough to bring me ginger ale and later, chicken broth, but I spent most of the day alone with Spirit, either nauseous, half asleep, or in the bathroom. The only times I let myself break down emotionally were when I spoke with Stef or Mum on the phone and had someone to hold space for all the feelings! It was interesting though - even though nausea is my least favorite thing in the world (give me pain over nausea any day) - I've done a lot of work over the last few years to move through my fear around it. And yet, being on my own in a brand new place, where I don't really know anyone, those fears showed up again big time and I had to be very present to them so as not to go into self-pity. One thing that helped get me through was something Stef offered: "You need to find that place within yourself where you feel totally safe. Go there. Stay there. Be there."
On the plus side I think I lost a few of those extra lbs I put on being a glutton in Evergreen the previous week.
The next day, wobbly but able to walk again, I headed to the local library and updated this blog (with the post before this) and got a bit of work done. I then walked around the neighborhood for a while, got lost, found myself in some rough areas, and then made it home before it started raining, pretty exhausted.
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