Shake The Disease

It's a conspiracy!

There's no other word for it.
When 6 people (that I know of) all get food poisoning on the same day, it's a conspiracy. And yes, I'm one of the 6.

Let's rewind to Tuesday July 20th.
It's 4pm and we're having our Mobile meeting here at work. There was no specific topic nor guest speakers, so it was a "pizza and beer" party, basically.
Pizza Hut pizza was brought in and consumed. I had 3 slices. The pizza seemed greasier than usual. That should have tipped me off.
Around 10pm, I decided to eat something since I hadn't eaten anything since the pizza. The food laid on my stomach like a lead weight.
How unusual. Since I have a cast-iron stomach, I figured it was a temporary glitch and put it out of my mind, then went to sleep.
I woke up at 2am and ran to the bathroom. Something was wrong. I took care of it and went back to bed.
I woke up at 3am and ran to the bathroom again, overcome by a massive wave of nausea.
I drove the porcelain bus, big time. This is unusual for me. It's not something I drive very often. I think this hasn't happened since 1998.
Something was definitely wrong.

I got very little sleep. I woke at 8am and went through the motions of showering, which took longer than usual and left me drained.
9am was fast approaching as I sat on the couch, unable to move, my energy reserves completely drained. So, I called in sick.
I figured the best thing to do was to sleep it off. I drank my daily glass of Dynamo juice (100% of everything!!) and some water, then went to bed.

The alarm clock showed 12:45pm as I got out of bed. I was feeling rested and my stomach seemed to have settled somewhat.
I called work and told 'em I'd be in at 2pm.
(I'm a contractor. If I don't show up at work, I don't get paid.)
I got dressed and headed out the door. I was feeling fairly light-headed. I bought some food on the way in, and the bus
did me the courtesy of showing up very late and full of people. By the time I got to work, my food was cold. Thanks Green Bus!
Aaaaah, but why didn't you eat the food while waiting for the bus, I hear you ask.
Murphy's Law, that's why.
If you have food and you're waiting for the bus, don't start eating the food. A bus is sure to show up and make you wrap the food back up.
Same with cigarettes. If you're a smoker and waiting for a bus, light up. A bus will magically appear, forcing you to put the cigarette out.
Works every time.

So anyway, I made it to work at 2pm. I was cooooold. Goose-bumps and all. Damn...
I gradually warmed up and felt comfortable, my internal furnace having apparently kicked back on.
And then my thermostat was nudged upwards and I was started sweating like a...
...sweating thing. It was not pretty. Man, I hate being sick.
Then my temperature went back down and leveled off at a normal setting. Aaaaaaaah...
I got some work done, though I had a bunch of obstacles thrown my way.
The test server was slow, and I had to use a brand new cellphone to test on: the LG 7000 on Verizon's network.
It was so new that I had to get brand new programs and drivers installed on my machine to load it and use it.

Right after work, I went to the Franco-Argentinian bakery to get myself a nice big, healthy, fresh sammich.
My chills came back and I sat shivering on the bus bench, waiting for the Green.
Upon getting home, I sat on the couch, half-passed out. I eventually said "da heck wit it" and crashed on the bed.
I got about an hour of restorative rest and got up feeling much better. I had a fever though, so I took some acetomaniphenenenene.
My only dinner consisted of a large bowl of yogurt (Trader Joe's French Village Cream Line - OMGWTFBBQ BEST YOGURT EVAR!!)
chythar and I watched a couple more Starsky And Hutch episodes and found them surprisingly sober. Dammit, this was a good show!
Then I went to bed.
That was Wednesday, pretty much.

Now it's Thursday and I'm about 85% cured. I still get some vague tummy disturbances and I have to eat slowly.
But tomorrow, everything should be hunky-dory.

Oh yes, the 5 other people who got poisoned!
One was a co-worker, another one was Spino's Sweetie, and the other three are people Pascal talked to yesterday.
And apparently, they all had pizza.
(insert Twilight Zone theme here)

I think the terrorists are branching out into chemical warfare. Or something.
No more pizza for me. At least, pizza from big chains.