Well,
it was bound to happen, and it only took 24 days. My daughter calls me from
college yesterday and I could instantly tell something was wrong. She scratched
her eye taking out her contact lens. It wouldn’t stop tearing, she couldn’t
open it, she had a bad headache, she can’t see to do her homework, it hurts, etc.
I tell her to put on sunglasses, borrow a baseball cap, and have her roommate
walk her down to the infirmary.
It’s
a small college, the infirmary is not staffed on the weekends. Let’s visit this
bit of logic first shall we? When do you think the possibility of the kids
getting sick or injured is greater, during the week while they are sitting in
class or during the weekends when they have 48 hours of free time? Hmm…
So,
Campus Police drive my daughter over to UVM because their infirmary is open
24/7. The on-call puts drops into my daughter’s eye and numbs it, then put in
drops of dye so he could see what happened. Sure enough she has a “paper cut”
on her eye. They write her a script for antibiotic drops and send her on her
merry way.
Somehow
she gets to a pharmacy and gets the drops - $111 for 0.25 ounces. Good Lord in
Heaven! What could possibly justify that price? And, of course, there is no
generic equivalent. Convenient, no? She could have probably driven the half
hour up to Canada and got the EXACT SAME THING for under $10. I’ll be bringing
her passport up with us next weekend so she has it, just in case. There is
something seriously screwed up with our system here!
We
had a nice treat last night. My mother-in-law invited everyone over for dinner.
She roasted a pork and a chicken, had mashed potatoes and a ton of veggies. It
was delicious, but that is nothing unusual. My mother-in-law is a wonderful
cook. It was nice having everyone together, well almost everyone. We were
missing three, and their lack of presence was really felt. Obviously one was my
oldest daughter, but also my youngest didn’t come because she was not feeling
well and my brother-in-law was away on business.
For
many, many years, we used to do this every single Sunday. It was an unspoken requirement.
Making sure you had nothing else planned for Sunday nights at six became very
stressful for everyone, so what should have been a fun and happy event, wasn’t.
I’m not sure exactly how or when the Sunday night dinners stopped, but it has
been at least ten years. Now, when we can actually get everyone together and
have one of these dinners, it is exciting. We look forward to it for days in
advance. We laugh over how it keeps getting more and more difficult to squish
us all around the table. There are multiple conversations going on at the same
time, lots of laughing, catching up, and of course, wonderful food in large
quantities.
Please
don’t think I’m a horrible mom, leaving my sick kid at home while I went out to
dinner. My daughter’s old enough to stay by herself, we were gone for less than
two hours and we were less than ten minutes away, it was not the kind of sick
which required coddling or even much concern, and we brought her back a plate. Before
we left, we asked her if she wanted one or both of us to stay home with her,
and she looked at us like we were crazy. We always offer (this is not the first
family dinner she’s missed) and she almost always says ‘No’. On the rare
occasions she says ‘Yes’, I know she’s really sick and I’ll more than likely be
calling the doctor in the morning.
Today
I am planning on getting several things cooked so we have them for the week.
Yesterday I steamed some cabbage and today I will be making stuffed cabbage and
since the filling is the same, some stuffed peppers. I also got another package
of plums, so I will be making (an unprecedented) second batch of the dumplings.
Everything I will be making makes rather large quantities, so I will be able to
portion things out and freeze them for meals in the future. I LOVE when I can
do that because, let’s face it, there are some nights when I just don’t feel
like cooking. With meals stockpiled in the freezer, I just have to thaw and
heat up. No muss, no fuss, no thought required.
On that note, I should get going. I hope
you have a wonderful day and happy writing!
Your Last Challenge was:
The fever was so high…
Christmas morning, 1972
My mother had to come and wake me,
which concerned her. What young child sleeps in on Christmas morning? With some
effort, she cajoled me to get out of bed. I padded the fifteen feet from my bed
to the living room couch, (we lived in an old bungalow which would neatly fit
in my current kitchen, living room and family room area) curled up in the
corner and burrowed under the afghan.
My mom placed a present on my lap and
looked at me expectantly. Not wanting to disappoint her, I unwrapped the
package, but the effort it took left me too weak to open the lid. I just couldn’t
do it. I apologized, handed the gift back to her, slunk back to my bed and
crawled under the covers, shivering. She was right there, pressing her hand to
my forehead, checking for fever. Sure enough, I was roasting.
In the time it took her to get the baby
aspirin and a glass of water I had fallen asleep. Over the next several hours,
my fever continued to rise and I drifted between sleep and semi-consciousness. I
can recall snippets of memories: a cool cloth covering my eyes, the weight of more
blankets being piled on me because I was shivering so hard, my head feeling
like it was full of cement, the doll on my dresser waving to me causing me to
start screaming. Eventually my fever got so high, they took me to the hospital,
but I have absolutely no recollection.
Your
Next Challenge is:
You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong,
just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to
criticize what someone else has written. Go.
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