Dear Reader,
One of my most memorable business trips was when I almost didn’t make the meeting at all…
It was late in the evening when I flew into Ontario, California. After I checked into my hotel room, I strategized about the best method for getting my body adjusted to the 3-hour time zone difference (I live in Florida). I knew I wouldn't be able to go right to sleep, because I'd overshot that window of "tired", so I called room service and ordered a Caesar chicken salad and a piece of carrot cake. I hadn't eaten, so I figured food would help put me to sleep.
Then I put on my eating clothes (PJs), filled up my hot water bottle (I know, I know, it's weird, but it's comforting to me when I'm on the road), devoured my "snack" and drifted off to dreamland...for about an hour.
When I woke up I was feeling really strange. At first I told myself that I was just tired, maybe a little anxious from traveling. But when it started feeling like someone was surfing in my stomach--the waves rising and falling in a sickening syncopated rhythm--I realized something much more serious was going on. I'll spare you the details, but if you can imagine me retching and crawling around on my hotel room floor, you'd have a pretty accurate picture of what I experienced.
Did you know that there is a company called American Hotel Doctors? And true to their brochure, they do deliver "Emergency Medical Service--Fast, Friendly, and Professional" to you 24 hours a day. In fact, it was about 3:30 in the morning when the doctor knocked on my hotel room door.
Food poisoning was the diagnosis. A shot in the "behind"; some medicine for the morning; a swipe of my credit card ($325.00--it was a bargain, I would have paid the man anything); and I woke up about 9 a.m. almost as good as new and I headed for my meeting in Los Angeles.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
* Congratulations to the winners of The Face Laughs While the Brain Cries by Guest Author Dr. Stephen L. Hauser: Diana H., Nairy F., and Lonnie E.
- This month's Penguin Classics is To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf. I have a copy of the book to share with a lucky reader, so start reading and enter for your chance to win
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