My time to shine: I threw up a whole bunch across the tristate area.

Back then I was commuting from NJ to Manhattan, about an hour-and-a-half door-to-door if everything with the trains ran smoothly (so, never).

I woke up feeling nauseated, but after the shower I felt alright. Got on the train, 10 minutes in I knew that was a mistake, but I hadn’t called out and didn’t have good reception to emergency email, so I tried to tough it out. I made it to work, did some work, then realized I couldn’t hold this off any longer. I ran to the bathroom into the available stall, got on my knees, and violently threw up. The dude taking a shit in the stall next to me was legit concerned and asked if he could help in any way.

Went back to my desk, finished the thing I was working on, and of course my boss was like dude go home. So, walking back to the train station, I got stopped by a pamphlet person on the street, threw up all over their shoes. Two blocks later threw up in an intersection. Finally got to Penn Station, threw up on the escalator, the floor, the bathroom, and the train platform twice. The train to my stop was 45 min away, so I got on a different train that goes two stops away. Threw up twice on the train. This wasn’t the subway, so you couldn’t exactly walk two blocks over to get home. Called my buddy who had to emergency pick me up in his truck, where the shocks were broken. Threw up on the bench twice waiting for him.

He practically carried me through the house and upstairs, and got a bucket for me so I could at least lie in a bed. I don’t remember anything after that but according to him I fell asleep with my head in the bucket, and the bucket got half-filled with vomit, which must’ve happened while I wasn’t conscious.

I literally didn’t eat for two weeks after that. Food was disgusting. I choked down instant breakfast shakes and the occasional protein shake for those two weeks.