ACW Episode 72 – Why there was no cartoon last week

Mea culpa. I had every intention of getting a cartoon up last Tuesday, but then things sort of went to hell in a handbasket. Or a vomit bucket, as the case may be.

I mentioned this in yesterday’s post, but thought I would share the whole gory story with you today. Sunday night last week, I got hit with a very lovely stomach bug that kept me up all night wretching and puking hard enough that I dared not go anywhere without a bucket in hand. By Monday morning, the techni-colored yawning had stopped, and I thought I’d be okay if I just stayed in bed for the day. I even managed to draw the cartoon you see above that Monday evening. But I didn’t have the energy to get up that night and scan it in and write the blog post. So I figured that early Tuesday morning, I’d take care of those last little details. Only on Tuesday morning I discovered I couldn’t stay upright very long without getting all queasy and dizzy again…

Tuesday ended up being the day from hell. Princess’ class had an end-of-the-year party that I had to go to. Yes, had to. It was one of those things where they hand out awards to the kids and you know all the other parents are going to be there and your kid will cry if you don’t make it, especially when you promised them (pre-stomach flu) that you would definitely be there. So Hubster stayed home that day, helped me get up and get dressed, and then dragged my corpse into the car and out to the school. He made sure I stayed upright through the ceremonies and the following party, and then dragged me and the kids off to the post office to complete passport applications. This of course took forEVER! By the time we got through with all that, I really felt lousy, so Hubster took me back home and dropped me into bed and I pretty much stayed there until 10AM the next day.

Wednesday was Pixie’s day home, and I am extremely grateful that she decided to sleep very late that morning. As it was, when she came bouncing into my room at 10AM, I still couldn’t stay upright long, so I spent all the rest of that day on the couch watching kids’ cartoons with her. I somehow managed to drag myself out to the bus stop to get Princess when the time came, but when we returned home, I told her she was in charge and Pixie had better behave because if I had to get out of bed, I was going to collapse on top of somebody and nobody was going to enjoy that. Then I went back to bed and slept for four hours straight, all the while having weird feverish dreams about Princess and Pixie turning into Lisa and Maggie from “The Simpsons,” and they acted out some famous movie that I can now no longer remember, and they did it on the movie set for “On Golden Pond” (which was definitely not the movie they were acting out). Meanwhile, I had turned into Homer Simpson (“D’oh!”) but Hubster remained the same, and then someone opened up a hardware store in our hallway. That last part turned out to be true, because the kids had decided to pretend they were owners of a hardware store/gift shop, and their playing woke me up.

Miraculously, I felt much better by then; tired, but no longer dizzy every time I sat up. And by Thursday morning, I was able to get up and reclaim my kitchen from the astonishingly huge pile of dirty dishes that had accumlated whilst I was sick. I still have not caught up on laundry, but then we did take a quick weekend trip up to see my in-laws, so I was going to be behind in that task no matter what.

So, I apologize for not having a cartoon posted last Tuesday, but as you can see, there were extenuating circumstances. I’m sure you’ll all understand.

And if you don’t, I hope you catch the stomach flu and can’t find a bucket when you need one. Nyah.