Consequences of Failing to Exercise a Veto

Last night, our Wednesday night club met at a restaurant called Tokyo Steak. I went there for lunch with the lawyers and we had sushi. It was tough, warm, and flavorless, and left this reviewer cold.

But for some reason, one of the partners seemed to really like it and wanted to go back. I should have vetoed the idea after the bad sushi experience. But I didn’t want to make waves and the partner seemed pretty enthusiastic about the place. So I went and figured that rather than have the bad sushi again, I would get a cooked dish. I ordered steak yakisoba. It was warm, noodly, sweet and tangy, and actually quite tasty.

It also gave me food poisoning.

Round about four in the morning, I awoke in bed to the certain knowledge that deep within me, something had gone very, very wrong. I lay in bed for several minutes trying to figure it out; it just seemed like a vague discomfort in my belly. Then, the pain hit. Suddenly, I was doubled over like an overcooked shrimp, literally writhing in pain. The feeling of fifty-seven dagger penetrating my chest and gut made me think of a fateful day in March, lo these many years ago.

Now, Loyal Reader, fear not. Yes, every system was working in “full reverse,” but beyond that I will spare you a description of the events of the next twelve hours. Suffice to say that there was absolutely no way I was going to go to work. I could barely stand. I pulled on some sweats because I periodically had bouts of the chills, and was able to get about twenty minutes of thrashing, non-restful sleep at a time before the next round of daggers. This kept up until about noon.

You’ll have to use your imagination to understand why, but at one point this afternoon, after The Wife had left for work, I discovered an urgent and highly undignified need to wash my sweats immediately. Unfortunately, I forgot that I was carrying my cell phone at the time. You know my sweatshirt has these wide, unweidly side pockets from which things are continually falling. This had to be the one day in the past four damn years that I wore that sweatshirt that my cell phone did not fall out of the pocket.

So, I washed my cell phone. I no longer get to tease The Wife for doing that last year (not that I did tease her a lot about that). Well, I needed a new phone anyway.

At about two this afternoon, I was finally able to retain some food and that helped my mood immensely, although not all systems are yet fully under control. Hopefully, I will feel good enough tomorrow that I can go back to work. I’m sure an unexpected day off has done nothing I will like for my inbox.

In the meantime, I’ve learned several things:

1. Daytime TV is really boring. Thank goodness for the DVR and back episodes of the Daily Show.
2. The dogs sleep all day long.
3. It’s surprisingly easy to forget where your cell phone is and run it through a washing machine, ruining it and cutting off your only line of communication with the outside world.
4. Asprin is not good for an upset stomach.
5. If you have a serious objection to a place to eat that your group is considering, you need to assert yourself.

As yummy as the yakisoba was, I am never, ever eating at Tokyo Steak again. One experience like this is quite enough, thank you.