Irony or just a crappy coincidence?

How the heck are you?  It's been a while, hasn't it?  I've missed you these last ten days!

I hate excuses, but I'm going to make one.  First off, I was sick last week.  Second, it's Christmas and (surprise, surprise) I have challenged myself to see how many ridiculous tasks I can pile on top of myself without having a nervous breakdown.  You see, I haven't just taken a vacation from my blog, friends.  I have taken a vacation from sanity this Christmas season.


iro·ny  noun \ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē\ a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity

I have always had a problem with people misusing the word "irony."  Though I am an Alanis Morrissette fan, the most ironic thing about her song, "Ironic," is that very few of the events she sings about in the song are actually ironic.  Having ten thousand spoons when all you needed was a knife isn't ironic.  It just kind of sucks.  A crappy coincidence, if you will.  But Alanis' misuse of the word irony is not really what this post is about.  I more wanted to discuss whether or not the cause of my initial absence from my blog is ironic or not.

A week ago Thursday, I went on a shopping trip to Whole Foods.  You see, from about October 21st to November 6th I was moving and/or traveling.  Then we were settling in at my parents' house.  Then it was Thanksgiving.  It had pretty much been a junk food marathon and I was ready to cleanse and get back to my normal eating routine.  So, I went to Whole Foods and stocked up on lots of fresh, organic produce.  For lunch that day, I had a delicious Gillian McKeith-style salad with cabbage, arugula, radishes, pine nuts, scallions, carrots and alfalfa sprouts.  It really was good.

Thursday evening, I went to my cousin Lisa's to enjoy a glass of wine.  After one sip, I broke out into a sweat and thought maybe she had a thermostat dialed up a little high.  I went home with progressively worsening indigestion.  A few hours later, things got ugly.  I was almost completely incapacitated for the next 24 hours with what I only assumed could be food poisoning.

My mom and I started doing internet research and concluded that gastric disaster had been caused by the alfalfa sprouts on the salad I had for lunch.  We promptly threw out everything that I ate for lunch that day, just to be safe.

So, my question for you is, is this ironic?  Is it ironic that I went and bought and ate organic produce and ended up with food poisoning?  Perhaps.  I certainly got the cleanse I was looking for.

As it turns out, it may not have been ironic, but instead, just a crappy coincidence.  The next night, my mom was stricken with the same illness and the day after that so was my husband.  So was my sister and her boyfriend and possibly my dad.  Super fun times.

Following my 24-hour cleanse, I was woefully behind on my three-page Christmas to-do list.  I can't show you everything I've been doing until after Christmas, but as my next few posts demonstrate I have been whittling away at my long list of holiday to-dos.

After Daddy recovered from his 24-hour stomach virus, he and Kellan spent some quality time together reading "Goodnight Gorilla".