Monday, October 27, 2008

The Pink Cup Giveth, the Pink Cup Taketh Away

I've written before about how, three mornings a week, I take a pink cup to work half-full of cottage cheese and peaches. The reason I use the pink cup is because it's tall and deep, ideal for avoiding spills in the car.

Little did I know that the pink cup would come in handy in another way last Friday...

So, there's been some illness recently in my house, and on Friday I was feeling fairly poorly at work, sort of achy and queasy and offish. I didn't feel quite bad enough to go home, but close. Here's how bad I felt: all I could stomach for lunch was a Coke.

Around midafternoon, I started to go south. Tylenol wasn't cutting through the achy feeling, and my stomach was feeling worse and worse. At one point, I announced to the guys in my cubicle that I was going to go throw up, but nothing came. By around 3:30, I was feeling bad enough that I needed to leave work, something that hasn't happened in several years.

When I got into my car, I put the pink cup in the cup holder, just in case, even though it was dirty with that morning's cottage cheese dregs. Sure enough, as I was driving across the freeway overpass with nowhere to pull over, I started puking.

With one hand on the wheel and one hand holding the pink cup to my mouth, I barely managed to make it down the other side and pull over. It was mostly the Coke, so it came out easy and filled the cup. I managed to reach across and open the passenger door and dump the cup into the gutter, and then round two started, another half-cup's worth.

Man, that wasn't fun, and the drive home felt like it went on forever. I hit my bed at four and didn't really wake up again until late Saturday morning. I had chicken noodle soup for lunch and then a Happy Meal for dinner, and I think I'm doing okay now.

I wonder if I'll still be able to use the pink cup for breakfast, or will it now carry nauseating connotations? I should have gotten a photograph of the cup half-full of vomit, but I guess I just wasn't thinking clearly....

4 comments:

Rich said...

Um. . . thanks for sharing. . .I guess

Alb said...

You make me sick! I will never again be able to drink from a pink cup! Uggghh!

Anonymous said...

You know... this entry will be floating around for years to come, like a serial killer driving up and down the interstate, looking for victims to cross paths with.

Anonymous said...

I have fond memories of the small aqua colored pan that mom had us utilize to blow chunks. Too bad it was so shallow that puke bounced right back into my face. I was able to cook ramen noodles in this same pan later on in life, so don't lose hope in the pink cup.
-Dazed