I arrive at LAX with plenty of time for lunch and an insipid cup of coffee. I really haven't had much of an appetite since I arrived. I got hungry once at Rosarito Beach and after a couple of days of nachos, refried beans with lashings of melted cheese that never failed to make the meal look like vomit, I felt like some unadulterated food. Back home I'd been watching what I'd been eating for months, a huge cut back on carbs and dairy so corn chips and cheese were a bit of a shock to the system. I'd seen this amazing looking steakhouse and I thought that was just what I was craving. And it was excellent, the best meal I'd had so far.
So at Lax I order a chicken caesar salad, can't go too far wrong with that. Hmm, the salad consisted of a mountain of lettuce and that's it. I ate up and went to wait at departure gate for about an hour or so. About 10 mins before we were due to board I start getting pains in the stomach. By the time I'm sitting on the plane they are getting pretty serious. But as the plane has already started moving, I can't leave my seat let alone use the toilet. The plane has moved but it comes to a stop, it's waiting for the okay to use the runway. So I too am waiting. Waiting, waiting. The pains not subsiding, getting worse. Finally, I get the okay to leave my seat. And sure enough the pains were no idle threat. This was food poisoning. I return to my seat hoping that's the last of it, but the pains soon reappear. I'm sweating and then I'm shivering. It is not fun. I'm going to have to go again, but it's a short flight and now we are beginning our decent. We must belt up. Again I have to hold on. I just hope and pray there are no delays getting off the plane. I don't have overhead luggage so I should be able to get up and out pretty quickly. The seat belt light goes off and I'm up. I excuse myself as I try to squeeze past the people in front of me. Not the done thing I know but hey... Apologizing profusely, saying it's an emergency, I push my way through. One woman turns and snaps at me, we all have to get off the plane! I'm sorry I say, I just didn't want to vomit down your back! Some people make way for me and then I come to this man who just refuses to move, and I can't recall what he said first but I snapped and he called me a stupid bitch. He just wasnt going to move for me. Then, still in front of me once off the plane and going down the narrow hallway, he intentionally blocked my way. I wished I could have spewed on him. But all I could muster was some top swearing, you fucking arrogant prick. Finally we're at the Terminal and I can storm past him. I get to the loo, and I burst into tears at about the same time I burst elsewhere. I am sooo not a happy camper.
I collect my bags and make my way to the shuttle buses. Originally I'd booked a hotel in San Francisco but I cancelled when a lady I'd met on couch surfing (google it if you don't know what it is, but basically it's a friendship site for worldwide travelers) insisted I could surf her couch. She seemed nice so I cancelled the hotel but kept the booking for the shuttle bus as the hotel was not for from this woman's apartment.
When I get off the plane I see that somehow the battery in my phone is in the red. Don't know how that happened, it's not like I was using it. I thought i would try and contact my couch surfing friend and suggest i stay the night at the hotel after all. The thought of prolonging my journey any longer than necessary not appealing to me at all. But the only room the hotel has got has a share bathroom so i make the call, i will go to this womans place afterall. But when I get there, there is a security gate between me and her front door and no intercom. I hope there is enough charge in my phone to ring her. I go to my contacts, and shit, I haven't put her number in! I could have sworn i had. Her number is in my emails but without wifi, I can't access anything. I try rattling the security gate. Remember I'm still getting hot and cold flushes and pains and would desperately like to have the safety of a toilet nearby.
I am really distraught and close to tears again for the second time in one day. I know I have her number written somewhere amongst my paperwork. Please don't make me have to unpack my luggage on the footpath. It is a busy area. And then, she comes out the door. She hasn't heard me, she is on her way out. Im later than we Both though id be and she's made other plans to go visit her new boyfriend who is sick too. It's a bit awkward. I explain I'm sick. I say I'm quite happy to just go inside and lie down, more than anything I just want to lie down somewhere. But she says no, she doesn't think it's a good idea for me stay there if I'm sick! Really? I suppose I can sort of understand but my true reaction is I'm gobsmacked. I try to imagine myself in the same situation. Would I turn someone away who's spent all day traveling and is sick? I'm sure I wouldn't!
It's okay she says and points to a hotel a block away. She's walking that way she'll walk with me. We say our goodbyes, maybe we'll catch up over the next few days she giggles. Not bloody likely girlfriend!
It's a freaking huge Holiday Inn, so I can't believe it when they say they are full. Whaaaaa, there's those threatening tears again. The receptionist is nice enough to phone through to some info line who tells me where the closest subsidiary hotel is. Whaaaaa. Back out to the cab rank. A passing homeless gentleman opens the cab door for me. Bless you kind soul, I manage a smile. I head to the next hotel. And yes, they have a room. Thank goodness, hooray. But says the lady, it's quite expensive. Oh, I don't want to know, because I know I do not have another skerrick of energy left in me to try somewhere else. How much I ask. $300. $300. $300!!!! I have never paid that much for a room, and nor am I likely to ever again. But I handed over the credit card hardly able to believe that soon I could sit on a toilet, have a dam good cry and then hit the sack. And my, what a beautiful bed it was.
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