I remember in my early 20s, enthusiastically making a Mexican beef casserole for my parents.  It had been a popular meal when I worked at a church camp as the cook.  Kids and adults alike loved it, even though it mostly consisted of noodles, tomatoes, salsa, chips, and cheese.  My mom took one look at it, wrinkled her nose, and said, “Is that spicy?  Because your dad and I both get really bad heartburn.”

I didn’t really think of the casserole as spicy.  The kids at the summer camp had loved it and, I reasoned, if it was really spicy, they would have hated it.  Two decades later, I totally understand why my mom hesitated to taste the casserole.  I, too, get horrible heartburn if I eat or drink the wrong things.  Last night, my husband made quesadillas because we had an avocado that needed to be eaten.  I drank a few beers and sampled some lovely Armenian brandy I just got yesterday.  I fell asleep at about 11:00 or so…

At 1:30am, I woke up with a start, my guts on fire with acid reflux.  I’ve endured my share of reflux, but last night’s was particularly bad.  I got up and took a Pepcid-AC.  Oddly enough, I bought my first box of that stuff for my dearly deceased beagle, Flea, who had some problems with reflux.  It works well for dogs.  A few years later, I was taking it myself.  It works pretty fast; usually within a half an hour, I’m okay again.  But when I get heartburn in the middle of the night, that can be a very unpleasant half hour.

I remember during our first cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas, I got a scorching case of indigestion in the middle of the night.  It was so bad, I was moaning.  I only had one antacid with me.  I took it and it did the trick, but then I was afraid I’d get really bad heartburn again.  I think we were in Denmark at the time.  Royal Caribbean, for all its many perks on its ships, didn’t have a small drug store.  They had all kinds of merchandise for people to buy, but no basic over the counter drugs.  And, of course, SeaDream has nothing at all that would help me if I get heartburn on our cruise.  You better believe I’m stocking up for our upcoming trip.

Now that I think about it, I had both a headache and an upset stomach when we got off the plane in Amsterdam a few months ago.  I ended up having to find a pharmacy in the airport and came away with Dutch drugs.

I really need to improve my diet.  I’ve been working on it.  I quit drinking diet soda, which is a big deal because I was an addict!  I try not to buy sweets, except for high quality chocolate, which tends to be dark because my husband prefers dark (I like milk).  I need to stop drinking so much, because I think that has a lot to do with my tummy troubles.  Besides, drinking is fattening…

But I do enjoy drinking and I like the way it makes me feel.  And it’s something that my husband and I do together.  I lead a boring life and alcohol seems to make it less boring.  I don’t know why.  If I socked away the money I spend on booze, we could probably travel more often and in better style… or at least make headway into eventually buying our own house.  On the other hand, I don’t even know if I want to buy a house.  It’s a big commitment and I’ll be really old by the time it’s paid off.

I dunno.  Anyway, it’s already Wednesday…  On Sunday, we’re outta here.