Saturday
El Milagro: I had called and Phyllis the Nurse said come in at 2:40 or so. Here I am pulling into the parking lot at about 2:45 thinking I have been taking advantage of the flexibility about chair time by coming in late too frequently. Now I am one of those people I used to complain about when I started: the people who meander in here whenever they damn well please. Hum? Is it the entitlement of the one-year-tenured-patient syndrome? Or am I just becoming lackadaisical about getting to a place where I get stuck with needles, sit around feeling my butt ache, and my legs twitch? I'll have to ponder this (Al and Richard: remember Ponder?).
Today is
Bob Wills day up in Turkey, Texas. Damn! I’d like to be there too rather than sitting here attached to this machine. Old Steve the crazy English keyboard guy might be there. Today the population of Turkey goes from 500 up to about 9500 and the current Texas Playboys with Johnny Gimble raise their fiddles in honor of “the King”.*Crystal the Tall Tech cannulates me and we briefly discuss our views about seeing reality, living in San Marcos, and being happy that school is almost over for the summer. Melissa the Perky Tech comes by to check my machine and reports she’ll be on the third shift next month. Ron the Nurse, remembering my last session, asks Melissa to watch my BP and let him know if it goes down below 100. Chris the Tech is here today too, with his loud and somewhat depreciating comments shouted across the room to other techs. I believe that in Chris’ world he is raising the spirit of the place with his antics. Its as if he is a sales rep for poseur. And, he should be able to exist in the world with the rest of us… I would only wish he’d whisper.
According to an overheard conversation Ron is having with another patient, there won’t be many chairs on our shift since we are taking on new patients. I see one today, I think. He is a Hispanic guy with a long braided tail down his back, and a yellow shirt. He evidently was here years ago, cause Carol asks him how he’s feeling and... it’s not well. He’s in the corner today, hidden behind a column, so I can’t observe him much. It’s like a grocery store in here today… people coming and going with their blue baskets of paraphernalia. Someone’s eating something I smell faintly… like in a grocery.
I’m reading the new Alex Delaware novel and am totally involved in it. Picked it up in the airport in Lubbock last week. Bad choice, money wise. I paid airport bookstore prices… but I couldn’t help myself. I’m cruising the store tiredly, looking around at the new political tomes and all of a sudden my eyes fall cross the thick new Kellerman** book and its as if it FLASHED neon at me. I was drawn to it hypnotically and HAD to buy it, even at the outrageous airport price. Oh well. I heard on TV last night that I am in the middle of the richest population yet; the middle-aged 60 year old baby-boomers. We buy books in airport bookstores and don’t blink an eye. So there!
Notes: In at 75.5 and out at 72.3... and my BP stayed around normal the whole time.
* “Turkey Will Swing This Weekend” retrieved April 2007 from the Amarillo Globe-News website, http://getout.amarillo.com/content/outings/042707_bobwillsday.shtml
** Jonathan Kellerman retrieved online April 2007 from http://www.jonathankellerman.com/
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