I flew 7000 miles to America and all I got was this lousy stomach bug.

So I've been a little out of commission lately, and that's why. A few of us have been laid flat over the last couple of days. Mostly me, Ava, and Jason's parents. We rallied today and went out for lunch. An admirable attempt was made to feel like normal humans and eat, but mostly we leaned our heads against the back of the booth and looked pale. And then Nate stuck his finger the wrong way through the straw hole in the lid of his drink. Do you know what I mean? So that the little plastic points were digging into his finger when he tried to pull it out. Much freaking out ensued, until the waitress brought us some scissors and Jason cut him free. That was after he got a bunch of soap in his eye in the bathroom.

"Aren't you glad we sat in your section?" I asked our waitress after she brought the scissors. We are the ones asking if the blandest food on the menu could be made more bland and also injuring ourselves in obscure ways. Good times.

Being sick enabled me to reacquaint myself with American cable TV. Let's just say there was a lot of Home and Garden Television watched. I also realized anew how at any hour of the day, somewhere on some channel, there is an episode of "Law and Order" being shown. It's uncanny! I think if extraterrestrials were observing our culture, they would draw the conclusion that "Law and Order" is what holds our society together. Like if an hour goes by that it is not playing somewhere, the stock markets will crash, cows will stop producing milk, and we'll all start driving into ditches. I'm all for law and order as an aspect of daily life, but the TV show? Meh.

Tonight Jason and I have a meeting and then we will hopefully all decorate the Christmas tree. Should be fun! If we can all remain vertical for that long. Fingers crossed!