Day in Review - Yes, It Can Happen To You.

Hello, friends. I want to start off by saying this will not be a typical Christa post. What I am going to discuss today isn't funny, but I think it is important to share. There are some graphic parts of the post, so if you don't handle things like vomit well, you may want to just skip this post til the end.

If you are anything like me, you generally go through life seeing things happen to other people, but never think bad things can happen to you. I always thought that about roofies and date rape drugs. It would never happen to me. Except it did...Saturday night. Thankfully my friend, Laurel was with me, so the guy who slipped whatever it was into my drink didn't get far, it could have been a bad situation and I think it is worth a quick discussion.

We went out with the best intentions. A fun night at a club in Cleveland. We weren't on the hunt for men or hook-ups, we were just two early 30-somethings looking for a few drinks, some good beats and a fun night.

Much of it was fun. We had a few drinks, they were playing some good dance music, I was shaking my stuff like a rockstar. I hadn't had many drinks. No more than usual. Certainly not enough to get sick or totally drunk. I remember drinking rum and coke. My memory gets fuzzy here. I remember Rhianna playing on the video screen and I was dancing with a guy, though this may have not happened concurrently. I remember no other music and no other faces. We had to have been there for a few hours though. The last thing I remember was a guy smiling down at me and putting a drink in my hand. I don't know if it was a new drink or a drink I already had. After that, I am blank until the next morning.


I will try to make this as "un gross" as possible, but if you don't want to read it, skip this paragraph -

I woke up on Laurel's couch laying on a sheet. I was holding a bowl and covered in this brownish/black substance. It was from my hair and shoulders all the way down to my feet. The brown/black substance was all over the sofa and apparently on the carpeting too, though I found out later it was cleaned up before I was lucid enough to wake up.

I had no idea where I was, who I was or why I was there. I knew I needed to throw up though so as I looked around and observed my surroundings,  it became clear where I was and I made a bee-line for the bathroom, carrying my bowl with me. I didn't even recognize myself in the mirror.

I looked as I would imagine a heroin junkie on the street would look, covered in vomit, bloodshot eyes, stomach and shoulders sore from repeated puking. Laurel filled me in at that point once I got back on the sofa. She gave me some clean clothes. I had no concept of time, day or anything that happened. Everything I know came from her.

My thought process, once my brain started turning on was this: 
My poor dog was still at home and I felt horrible I had left her in her crate all night.
I think I sent some texts and tweets and scrambled to find my phone. Everything was erased...all my sent texts, all my sent tweets.  Obviously I sent something or many somethings I shouldn't have, as I never delete my sent texts or tweets unless I have to. I hope I sent a mean text to that guy who had the "broken phone" from my last post.

 I remember driving home.  I felt fine enough to drive and I had to get home to my dog. It was the perfect window I chose to drive in, because once I got home the vomiting started again. I took the dog out, got back upstairs, grabbed my trashcan from the bathroom, a blanket, turned on the tv, called Chloe and slept for hours...I didn't eat, I didn't drink, just slept. I don't remember waking up until about 6pm.  I felt better, but not right. I fed the dog, took her outside again and fell back on the couch. I slept til 10pm. I took some Advil, got into my bed and slept until 6:30 Monday morning. Seriously, I didn't even know about Osama Bin Laden until Monday morning. I hate that, as if you know me, you know I need the news as soon as it happens.

(You can join up now if you skipped the middle)

Laurel said it was bad.  It was as far as I know, I don't even know all the details. It could have been a lot worse and that's what is so scary. It happened so quickly. I just thank God she was with me.

I want to share this story for a few reasons. One reason is, this could happen to any of you reading this. I always heard of it happening on college campuses and to cute little 20-somethings.  I am 32 and it happened to me. As Laurel told me today, "We will have to be more careful next time". She's right.  We will. If you are reading this, you need to be more careful too. I admit, I don't think I have ever been extremely vigilant on watching my drinks at clubs or bars. I think that will certainly change now. It seemed like such a simple act to slip something in my drink. So very simple...

Lets be honest, I most certainly could have been raped, assaulted, abused, beaten, killed or died from this. None of that happened and I thank God for getting me through it. Don't let any of those things happen to you. I am so thankful to Laurel and so glad she was there with me.

Be aware of your surroundings and never go out like that if you are alone. It happened to me and as Laurel and I saw on Saturday, it can most definitely happen to anyone.

I am OK. I am slowly but surely getting back to normal.  This morning I was still having some waves of nausea and I am still pretty tired, but definitely 95% better.

Take the message you want from this story.  If you are a woman, read it again, except this time, put yourself in my place.