When I was in college my parents told me I could select one trip abroad during my four years of study. There were lots of programs offered, but when the one visiting Egypt and Turkey was announced, I knew straight away that was the one I would pick. I have had a love affair with all things Egyptian since I was a small child. I remember reading about the process of mummification in a book I got at a yard sale and being fascinated with the culture and religious beliefs.
The trip was for two weeks, over the summer after my freshman year. The first week was Egypt and that was really all I cared about. I didn't know much about Turkey, and I didn't care. As it turns out, Turkey was tremendously interesting and I believe I had a wider variety of experiences while on the second half of the trip than I did the first half in Egypt. Perhaps that's not surprising though as much of what we saw in Egypt related to the archeological findings as opposed to general cultural sites.
We traveled in many different conveyances, bus, small plane, train and even a boat we spent several days in as we traveled up the Nile river (which means we were heading South.) It was during this trip on the boat that I suppose my digestive tract was overtaken by some local flora that wiped me out. On the one hand, it was convenient the stateroom bathroom was small enough that I could be at the sink and toilet at the same time. Fluids were exiting me from all directions.
I thought it wouldn't stop, but I had heard there were many other people sick from our group, possibly due to a similar incubation period, so I thought I'd better tough it out. My roommate finally decided I wasn't doing so well and asked for the boat's doctor to come see me. He must have thought I was bad off enough because he told me he was going to have to give me a shot in my butt.
Hey, I've never had a shot in my butt before. I had visions of the School House Rock song, "Interjections" where the little boy gets upset at the doctor and says, "Hey! That's no fair, giving a guy a shot down there!" I wondered if it would be terribly painful.
He told me to get on my hands and knees and then...I passed out. I didn't have enough energy, or perhaps blood pressure, to hold myself up. So I completely missed the whole injection. And therefore I have no idea if it really hurt.
But whatever he gave me, fixed me right up because I was eating shortly afterwards and the next day you wouldn't have known I had even been ill. Thank you unknown doctor on that boat in Egypt back in 1989.
The Big Boy Update: Haircut and a Motorcycle. His hair was long and shaggy and it got to the, "it always looks a mess no matter what" stage that takes another two to three weeks of wait time before it will turn into the, "it's so cute and long and curly" stage and I just couldn't manage to wait it out; so it got cut. He looks good. He also, surprisingly, decided that the thing daddy wears his helmet to drive is a "motorcycle" and not a "mackamuck" this morning at breakfast. Go figure.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Humming. She hums all day long. They're little single notes staggered by breaths, but she seems to make her own tune. And she dances. Oh does she dance to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We don't sit them in front of the TV much, but we have it on in the mornings or when we're doing other things in the room (or if I am just tired and need them to be partially occupied so they're not so much of an energy drain.) She will start to dance when the songs start, turn to look at you, see you smiling back and then keep dancing.
Someone Once Said: I am forced to conclude that being right has little to do with holding a man’s affections.
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