Birthday dinner... sorta

Brenden took me to Kobe last night for my birthday dinner.  My birthday was Tuesday, but I spent Tuesday evening with my parents, so he took me out last night instead.  Throughout the day my stomach had been feeling a little off, but I tried to ignore it.  Brenden came to my apartment and we took Julianne to my parents' house, then went to Kobe.  We didn't have to wait too long (which I was worried about because the parking lot was packed) and they sat us at a table with an older couple and their young daughter and a deaf couple with another gentleman (not sure of his relationship to them).  I was proud of myself because I was able to not stare as they were using ASL!  Normally I'm pretty bad about staring.

Anyway, we had our soup and salad and I was fine, then came the veggies and I was okay, then came the noodles and I was... sorta okay... and then came the meat and I was... not so okay... and then came the rice and I was really not good.  I brought most of my food home because I just couldn't eat it.  I drove back to Mom and Dad's to get Punkin and they met Brenden and we sat and chatted a bit, but I wasn't feeling good and of course that irritated Dad and he told me to go home, so after a while we did.  I had Brenden drive home and as soon as I walked in the door I collapsed on the couch.  I don't remember a lot about the rest of the evening, I just know that Brenden got Julianne ready for bed and rocked her to sleep, then emptied the bucket every time I got sick and helped me to the bathroom to get in the shower.  He went out to get me ginger ale and Gatorade, he gave me a wet cloth for my head, and he stayed with me till I fell asleep.  He had to leave to go home because he had to work today, but I'll tell you, if a guy cleaning up after you when you have the stomach flu doesn't make him a keeper, I don't know what does.  :-)

I was feeling better when I woke up this morning, but not great.  So I asked J if he could take the Punkin and he said he had to work all day.  That's one of the things that sucks about being a single mom... sometimes you just CAN'T take care of your kiddo and there's not much you can do about it.  I don't know anyone else in town that could take her for the day, so I asked Mom to watch her.  She came and got her and she and Dad took her to McDonald's for pancakes.  I tried to get up and do some cleaning, but that didn't turn out to be such a great idea.  So I'm trying to take it easy even though every fiber of my body is telling me to take advantage of the time without Punkin to get stuff done.  I suppose I'll have time to do that later, but I just hate how I have all this "free" time and I can't take advantage of it.