A Swollen What?

This past weekend, the Burleson clan made a quick trip down to the wonderful city of Corpus Christi for a concrete, plaster, and lathe convention. Sounds like a load of fun, huh? Chip (Will's brother) was the only lucky one that didn’t have to trek down to that awful excuse of a “beach-town.” That will be my first and last trip there. Ever.

Aside from the surroundings, the weekend wasn’t too bad. And in typical Mimi and Will fashion, there were a few exciting things that happened.

We ended up sharing a room with Jake and Mary (Will's youngest brother and his fiance). I wasn’t looking forward to that, being the only one that couldn’t drink on this trip, but it turns out that it provided me with a lot of entertainment. On Friday morning, Jake woke up and went into the bathroom. He immediately came back out, sat on the side of the bed, and said, “I think something is wrong with me.” (This story could go in so many different directions from here.) Well, the thing that hangs down in the back of the throat is apparently called a uvula, which sounds much more like a girl-part than something that helps you from regurgitating your food, and Jake’s was swollen. I’m not talking about a little swollen, it hurts when you swallow, give me some Tylenol swollen. I’m talking about SWOLLEN. Someone grabbed my uvula and pulled it out of my mouth and stretched it across the room SWOLLEN. This thing was HUGE, and it was so long that it rested on the top of his tongue, like a basset hound’s ears.

Of course, I panicked, and immediately starting googling to find out what in the world he needed to do. And I came across this site. Really? Someone has created a blog for swollen uvulas? And he’s asking for donations to the “poor dude?” Well, his description of Jake’s activities the night before was right on…drinking, smoking, and snoring PROFUSELY ALL NIGHT. The more I read, the more we laughed, and then I got to the comments. I couldn’t believe the number of people who thanked this “poor dude” from saving them from a trip to the ER.

Like all of the other Swollen Uvula readers, we took his advice and ordered ice cream from room service, and then sent Jake on his way to the first session of the day – SubContractors: Your Blood, Their Glory!

The only other highlight of the weekend was the Texas State Aquarium gift shop, where Will found a 1987 flashdance top and proceeded to play dress up.