A bleeding head wound, an irregular heartbeat, a swollen and infected ear, kids sick and cranky with fevers, a woman on crutches with a wrapped up foot, two men immobilized with back pain, a guy writhing with a kidney stone, a woman with a neon red face, a guy smashed by a baseball. This was the cast of characters in the ER today.
After a wait of more than four hours, a sweet and patient doctor briefly discussed the current issue of the New Yorker I was reading and then lanced the infected lump on my mom's face. Oxnard is perfect during the day I told him. At night I'd give just about anything to be transported to New York. Yeah, he said. Oh yeah.
So maybe my mom is on the mend with a new antibiotic and a anti-nausea drug to combat the effects of the antibiotic. Maybe not. I told her she has to stop plucking the errant bristles on her chin, the stray eyebrows, the little pimples (that I think she imagines) and the brown spots. She's often perched over her magnifying (20X) mirror when I pass by her room. "Your death certificate will read: Cause of Death: magnifying mirror," I told her today as she lay in a uncomfortable ER bed. Not my most compassionate moment.
This evening as we scrutinized the labels on her new meds, I advised her that the anti-nausea drug may cause dizziness when alcohol is consumed. "May," she said. "I'm having my martini."
And also in the household: C, coming down with scratchy throat. M, finishing up a sinus infection.
My current fantasy: Hiking in Greece (or fucking anywhere with a bunch of people who feel fucking fabulous.) I will sprout chin hairs and a unibrow while wearing a shapeless black dress flaunting my waistless spreading body. Power to the crone, I will screech when I reach the mountain top.
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| I actually took this picture of a goat in Greece! |
Dinner: Pizza. I took a long, long walk on the beach after my post ER trip to the pharmacy.
Alternate fantasy: Doing an Icarus in an ultralight.
