It's already past the 24-hour incubation period (the other folks who got sick both started vomiting exactly 24 hours after being exposed to someone else vomiting), and Grace and I are just fine. Thank goodness!
I was sweating it all day yesterday. J called me after I had already left the house to go spend the day with my good friend HC, so that's when I found out that S was throwing up. I immediately called HC to see if she still wanted to get together because she has a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old; I didn't want THEM getting sick too! We figured we'd risk it, so I ended up having an awesome day yesterday.
How did HC and I meet? This is funny... On 5 April 2003, I had to take Kurt to the airport so he could board a flight to Bahrain and catch up to his ship, which was already in the Middle East in support of the Iraq war. It was just two weeks after we had moved into our first home together here in Washington, and it was also our first deployment since we'd been together. We figured we'd get some food along the way, and just before the Sea-Tac Airport exit, we ended up at a Black Angus for some steak.
The amusing thing about that is Kurt doesn't even like steak. I'm a fan, although I don't have it often. When we go to Outback, Kurt always gets the Queensland salad, which features chicken, and I always get a steak. The waiter almost always messes up our order and tries to give me the salad and Kurt the steak, and then is completely confused when the 6'3", brawny, football-player-looking guy asks politely for the salad.
I don't even remember why we decided to go to Black Angus, except that I think we'd never been there before and it looked like a good place to eat. As we waited to be seated, I noticed a woman and her husband also waiting for a table, although now I can't remember exactly what drew my attention about them.
After we finished the meal, we asked for our check, but the waitress told us that it'd been taken care of. Apparently when we told the waitress Kurt was on his way overseas to Iraq, the couple at the table next to us (the same couple I'd noticed earlier in the lobby) had decided to "support the troops" by buying us dinner.
We were just totally floored. The kindness of strangers never fails to amaze me.
But that's how HC and I met. They gave us their information that night, and I ended up emailing her. That started a very wonderful friendship, one that I'm very glad to have. The only drawback to our friendship is that it's exactly one hour door-to-door from her house to mine, so we don't see each other much. When we first met, she was a stay-at-home mom going for her degree, and she had a lot more free time. Now she's working, so her free time is quite minimal.
Yesterday she was off, though, so she called me to come down to see her. We decided to go to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, a very kid-friendly place. I brought the stroller with me, although Grace never sat in it. Instead HC's daughter decided her legs hurt and spent most of the day in the stroller. I was highly amused by that.
Grace LOVED the zoo. I knew she would; she's quite fascinated by animals. She just couldn't get enough of the cool exhibits. I was surprised her little legs carried her all over the zoo, but she's stronger than I thought she was.
Once we were done at the zoo, we stopped by DQ to get some ice cream, because what's an outing without some ice cream?? Then HC decided to show me around the Key Peninsula, just north of Tacoma. We drove and drove and drove, all around these little towns and farmland, as the kids napped in their carseats. I love doing that. My father would announce almost every weekend that he was going "exploring," and who wanted to go too?? I always went with him, and we would spend at least a few hours just driving around and getting ourselves slightly misplaced. I don't know why it was so much fun, but it really was.
If you care to see the photos from the zoo trip, please click here and enjoy!!!