A week on the wildside

What a week! Why is it that the week Deanne is out of town, the shit hits the fan? Work was just stupidly hectic. (tangent here for a second) Y'know I used to have a sticker that said "My co-workers are idiots." I should really dig that up and display it prominently in my cube and when anyone says "I'm offended by that," I will simply retort with "Oh yeah? Prove you're NOT an idiot." That oughta confuse most of them. Idiots.Anyway, so yeah, Deanne is out of town all week and work was so busy that, ordinarily, I wouldn't have left the office until at least 9pm every night. But I had to leave at 5pm because Will is working in Hayward and I had to pick him up. I felt terrible because I was late every single night to pick him up. Then it was my nieces birthday on Wednesday so I had to pick up a gift, get it wrapped, go to Hayward to get Will, go to my in-laws in time for dinner and then spend most of the night on my cellphone putting out fires at work. The prize winning event happened yesterday when Will and I spent over four hours at the hospital. Yeah. Long story. On Wednesday Will was complaining that his foot hurt, and being the caring big brother I am, I told him to suck it up and take some advil. So yesterday he calls me a little after lunch telling me he can't walk and he's in absolute agony. Uh oh. So I call Mindy (her mom works at the nearby hospital) for advice on whether or not to go to the Emergency Room. After some consideration I decided it was best to go pick him up and take him to the hospital in Pleasanton. Now for the record, I HATE hospitals. I don't know why, they just freak me out. So imagine my delight when the ER registrar tells us that they've just had four ambulances arrive within the last 10 minutes, and things are a little "hectic back there." Fantastic. So we get Will looked, meanwhile three more ambulances come in and wheel sick and dying people past us, as well as a lifeline helicopter arrival. For those of you who don't know, they don't use the lifeline for just anybody...you have to be in such bad shape that a regular ambulance a) can't get to where you are or b) won't get you to hospital in time. Yeahhhhh. So when the orderlies walked past us with blood soaked towels, I decided it was time for me to "go make some phone calls." The most interesting of the arrivals was an elderly lady who was brought in on a guerney complaining about nazis. Will's guerney was out in the corridor by the storage cabinets and one of the nurses came over and hooked a bottle into and IV. He smiled and said "This right here would knock you AND me AND him (pointing to Will) out cold....it's 250cc of Morphine." I was like "DAAAAMN!" He laughed and then kinda stood there and said "She's dying," and walked away. That was like being hit in the face with a 2x4. I didn't even know the lady but man I felt bad. ANYWAY, Will got x-rayed and poked and prodded etc, and was eventually diagnosed with a sprain of the tendon that goes across the top of the foot. Rest, anti-inflammatories and common sense was the prescription. Incidentally the ER staff got a real kick out of Will's answer to "Do you live around here?" Actually it was kinda funny, the lady who registered him said "Ok, so are you still living at 113 Turquoise Way?" We left that address in 1987 :) So Deanne gets back tomorrow, thank God. I've missed her alot, despite seeing her (kinda) last night in San Francisco (long story, not even going there.) The hectic pace will doubtless carry on into the weekend. Joy unbounded.