Day 1 of Family Reunion

My paternal grandparents have been planning this family reunion for over a year now. Growing up, we would go to Lake Powell every summer and everyone loved that. Then on top of that, we would have additional family reunions every couple of years. We went to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming one year, we went to Ohio to my uncle's house, and everyone came to our house in Miami. But as all the grandkids grew up and got busy, those fun family get togethers became few and far between. So this gathering is a big deal.

They decided to hold it in Eugene, Oregon because my aunt and uncle are mission presidents here. For this past year living in Provo, I have been helping Grandma work on the computer and get everything ready, so I'm excited for the event to actually be here. When I originally booked my plane ticket, I thought I was booking it for Thursday (the correct day to arrive). But it turned out that I actually had made arrangements to arrive on Wednesday. After I realized it, I tried to change it but they were going to charge me over $1000, which is absolutely insane. So I just decided to get a hotel room and come a day early. I was hoping Blaine would be with me, but he ended up not being able to since he's in his first semester of Dental School and is stressed with a lot on his plate.

On that note, Blaine took his 2nd test this week and he got another A!! Yay Blaine! He's such a diligent studier and can do anything he puts his mind to. I miss him and understand why he couldn't come, BUT I do wish he was here with me. Just listen to my day:

This morning I got up at 5:30am and Blaine drove me to the airport to catch my 7:25 plane to LAX. I had had a big tension headache for 2-3 days and had only slept about 4.5 hours of sleep the night before, so I wasn't feeling too well. On the drive, I kept telling Blaine that I felt nauseous like I was going to throw up and he kept trying to calm me down and tell me to stop thinking like that.

So I got on my flight and tried to fall asleep... but it just wouldn't happen. Then all of a sudden I knew it was coming. So I asked the guy next to me if he could let me out to go to the bathroom and I ran to the back of the plane. So obviously, I threw up in the nasty airplane bathroom. After that, I felt good and thought, "ok well thats over. Now I can feel good and move on with my day as normal." But then 30 minutes later, I started to not feel well again and then got that sudden and horrible urge and made my same run to the bathroom and slammed the door open. This time I didn't even care and I knelt down on the nasty floor and just let whatever happens, happen.

And I thought, "wow! Twice in an hour? On an airplane?! But it's gotta be all out now." So I return to my seat again and the guy next to me says, "ok this is your last time. Not getting up again." I'm pretty sure it was meant to be funny, or at least partially, but it did not help my situation any. And then 30 minutes later, right on schedule, I make another quick run to the bathroom and this time the toilet seat was shut, and I started to throw up on top of it. So I cleaned it up, washed my hands, and went back to my seat for the last 30 minutes.

Once I landed, I thought I was fine and called my mom. But after about a minute of talking, I had to hang up on her and run to the bathroom. There was a couple people in line ahead of me, so I had to stand there and do the typical "i'm about to lose it all on this floor" thing from the movies. My cheeks would fill up and I would hurry and cover my mouth with my hand and swallow. It was awful. So I finally made it into a stall and threw up for the fourth time in 3 hours.

So then I found a corner, laid down on my bag, and was able to fall asleep for about 40 minutes.. AFter that I felt a lot better than before, but didn't think too much of that since I was worried about making my next 30 minute throw up session. I headed over to my gate and saw my cousin with her husband and kids who were also heading up to the reunion, so that was a funny surprise.

So... day 1 of the trip was not so fabulous. But at least I'm not sick. I blame the stress of travel and lack of sleep I guess. And on the upside, I think I've lost like 20 pounds in 6 hours. Day 2 is sure to be better because my family is coming!!!

(Sorry there are no pictures, but I was a little more concerned with some other things today. I did take one picture of myself on the floor of LAX when I just wanted someone to put me out of my misery, but it was not attractive.)