Why I Hate Ruby Tuesdays

I have so much work to do, yet I have to stop long enough to let you know what happened to me yesterday. I wasn't even going to blog it, but Marilyn Celeste Morris blogged hers and it made me realize how precious life really is.

Not to sound corny, but I almost left this world yesterday.

I had the day off, the tours needed more work, but I needed a break. I have approximately seven days, 11 hours, 15 minutes and 22 seconds before the October authors go out and I'm pushing the pedal to the metal. When my daughter suggested a trip to Walmart, I took her up on it. Hadn't had too much to eat that morning so I decided we'd go out to eat. She didn't want to eat before Walmart so I waited until we had bought the groceries first which was fine as I wasn't exactly to the passing out stage (that came later).

We decided on Ruby Tuesdays. I had a steak, mashed potatoes (I had ordered a baked potato), onion thingees (didn't order) and brocoli. And of course the salad. Service was okay except for my food being wrong but I just ate it anyway. The steak was dry which was unusual for the place as I usually get some pretty good steaks from there.

On the way home, my stomach started gurgling. It hurt so bad, I clutched the door of the truck. My daughter, who was driving, asked me if that's what labor felt like and I could honestly say it did.

We had gotten all the way home and was pulling into the road that goes behind the condos which is how we have to get to my door and I have no recollection of anything except when I opened my eyes, my daughter had pulled over to the side and was yelling my name.

She kept saying she was taking me to the hospital and I remember opening my eyes a bit and feeling very very bad. She said I had peed all over myself and incoherent. All I know is that I was in a dream-like stage and was fighting to come back to normal. She pulled into the carport and ran to my side and I was trying to get out and she kept telling me to get back in, that she was taking me to the hospital. I said no, I want to go inside. She helped me up and was taking me to my bedroom and I told her I had to go to the bathroom and there I stayed having the most horrific pains and it coming out of both ends.

She gave me some other pants to put on and my feet wouldn't move so she picked them up for me. I was deathly ill at that point but was awake at least. We tried to make it up the stairs to my room but decided on the couch downstairs instead and that's where I laid for hours. Slept, then woke up to a dog licking my face (demon dog strikes again). I kept pushing him away but he wasn't budging.

Around 11 p.m., my daughter called my name and asked if I wanted to sleep with her. The way she tells the story today, I had slumped back in my seat towards her and my eyes were wide open yet when she called out my name, I couldn't hear her. She straddled me, tried calling 911 but in all her own hysteria and because it was touch-dial, the call never made it. She kept yelling my name, taking my head against her chest and screaming my name. I never heard her. When I finally came to, she said that's when my eyes went from wide open to closing and that's when she said she thought I was dying. Not a good night for her and I'm so sad I put her through all that.

So I ended up telling her I wanted to sleep in my bed and stayed there until about 2 a.m. when I got up and got something to drink and a sandwich. Was relieved the bad part was over but still felt "out of it."

Today I get up and I'm feeling better. My daughter doesn't even want to joke about it. I'm still weak, but it just wasn't my time to go I guess.

My daughter got her first reality check of realizing her mother might be around one minute and gone the next, so she's not dealing well with that. I'm trying to make light of things and she doesn't want to hear it. She's my best friend in all the world and I realized how much I meant to her (not that I didn't know it before).

And, something else, it sure pays to have a nurse in da house. ;o)

And one more thing, Ruby Tuesdays better get a reality check of their own and check everything they send out to poor unsuspecting and hungry people like me. I won't be back.