Home again

We’re back from the hospital. My ankle surgery went well. I think I overheard the nurses saying that I had 4 incisions instead of the planned 2. It was supposed to be outpatient but they kept me overnight because they didn’t think I’d be able to make it through the first night without morp.hine. I did. I’ve been pretty good about my pain meds. I don’t like the way they make me feel so I’m sticking to ice and elevation for pain management. R has moved out of our room for the time being. Taking her bedside table out gave me more room to make it to the bathroom safely. She also moved a recliner into the bedroom so I can have a change of scenery. I like sitting much more than hanging out in bed.

I feel disgusting. We’re going to venture out on Monday after my acupuncture appointment and pay some poor soul to wash my nasty hair. I had a bit of a sponge bath today. I have vowed to wash and get dressed and put on a bra every day so I don’t feel like such a slob. 

I really need a time consuming hobby. Any suggestions?

Seven Years Ago Today

I had just moved to Am.ish County, PA. I was 150 miles away from the World Trade Center, 85 miles away from the Pentagon, and 165 miles away from Shanksville. Proximity doesn’t change how it made me feel. It was my second day as an office supervisor for Borders. My office was a concrete box behind the cash registers. No one ever visited the office so I knew that something was up when my manager came bursting in the door.  He told me that there had been an accident. A plane had hit the wor.ld tra.de cen.ter. At first I didn’t believe him. He has already established himself as a prankster with a macabre sense of humor (if you could even call it that, he really had a sick mind). I thought it was odd and went about my work; counting and reconciling the tills from the day before. He came 20 min later or so to tell me that another plane had hit. At this point my mind started racing. Did I know anyone that lived or worked in the area? I didn’t think so.

We all huddled in the break room. We had a TV but no cable. Someone found aluminum foil to add to the antenna so we could watch the news. Unfortunately they got the TV working just in time to see the South Tower collapse. People were making phone calls; trying to track down friends and relatives. No one was really talking. We were together but I felt really alone.

I went back to my office and finished the deposit. The mall closed early that day and I left to go to my other job (Bl0ckbuster). New movies come out on Tuesdays and usually it’s really busy. When I first got there we were unusually slow. More and more people started coming in to rent movies as it got later. The constant news coverage was too much. They needed something light to watch. They needed to escape. I understood.

What astonished me was how people reacted on Sept 12th. At Borders we sold of newspapers within minutes of opening. Everyone wanted a souvenir copy. They were buying as many as they could get their hands on. When the papers were gone they started buying anything that had the W T C on it. Gone were the NYC calendars, travel guides, puzzles, posters, books, and anything with the NYC skyline. Then they started buying up Nostradamus books. People were ordering some book that was supposed to have predicted the attack. People were spending tons of money on this stuff. It really bothered me. It wasn’t any better at Bl0ckbuster. After the shock wore off people were renting Nostradamus documentaries and disaster movies. Americans can commercialize anything, even a terrorist attach. Flags, posters, t-shirts, hats, those annoying fucking yellow ribbon magnets. They were everywhere! They’re stuck stuck to many cars, peeling and fading. What if, instead of buying all that crap, Americans had donated money to a (legitimate) charity to help the families of the victims? What if that money had been put to good use? Think of the impact that would have had in the first few days after 9/11. I can’t imagine how annoying it must be to the 9/11 survivors to see the way that day has been used to line the pockets of those who made bumper stickers, we will never forget hates, fake NYFD t-shirts, etc. American’s sure know how to blow money…

Happy (Belated) Birthday to Me

Yesterday I turned 29. A woman at work asked me if I was turning 29 for the first time. It made me laugh. I don’t generally get too hung up about my age. In college I was always older than my classmates. There were a few of us “nontraditional” students so I was never the lone one old enough to buy beer. I’m not scared or worried about getting older. What does bother me is that I’m not where I thouight I’d be at 29. I thought I’d be a few years into my career, living in our own home with our family. I’m not as financially stable as I’d like to be and I’m not a mother. I never thought I’d be married though. More because it wasn’t legal, not because I didn’t think I’d find anyone. I skipped my 10 year high school reinion last year. I had just graduated and didn’t have a job yet. I didn’t want to have to answer all the questions. Where did you go to school? Where do you work? Are you married? Have any kids? I didn’t have a job. I was embarassed that I didn’t make it through more than 1 year of college right after high school. I didn’t want to have to come out over and over and over. A few people knew I was a d.yke in high school. There were rumors too, but in my small home town I would
have definitely been ostracized, even in 2007.
Plus, I had enough of questions during my senior year of college…are you going to grad school? What do you want to do with your degree? What field of chemistry are you interested in? I didn’t know the answers to these questions then and I’m just starting to figure them out now.
What I do know:
I am not done with my education.
I do not have enough human interaction in my current field.
I am not happy as a chemist though I love chemistry.
I have decided to go to nursing school. There are quite a few
accelerated B S N programs for people that already have a bachelor’s
degree in another field within a reasonable commute from where we live
now.
I am going to start taking prereqs in January. It will take a year of
before I can start the nursing program. I’m looking to complete the
program in 2011. Right now that seems so far away to me, but it’s doable. My end goal is to become a mid.wife. It will require a master’s in nursing. See, that GRE wasn’t a waste of money! I have to hustle
though. Scores are only good for 5 years and I kicked serious ass on the GRE so I want to make sure I get to use my scores.
My lovely wife is only applying to law schools in cities that also have a school with a nursing program for me as well.   I just hope we each get into a program in the same city.