Saturday
Drive to Dallas: Must mention the drive north from Austin... I fizzled out and had to stop at a newish Texas Rest Stop and let Lizzie drive... was feeling nauseous and dizzy. She took over and I laid back my seat and tried to sleep. I am from West Texas, where the men are men and the women sit shotgun. So, you can imagine how badly I felt to let the little woman take the reins of the Sienna. I can say I was feeling so lousy
it was actually satisfying to give up the reins and let the little lady drive. We pulled up for a late lunch on the 'circle' in Waco, at our regular pit stop; Health Camp. After a simple hamburger with everything on it, and a few onion rings, I am starting to feel better so we head on out and I let Liz continue driving so I can snap pics and "rest".
Dallas East-UTSHS: My chair is ready at 3 and here we are
driving thru De Soto in Saturday traffic and I have to call and tell Pete the Nurse I'm running late! Lizzie is driving and I'm taking pics to illustrate my blog. Here is the traffic and here is the giraffe blowing a smoke ring marking the entrance to the Dallas Zoo.
We get to the center easily and I get hooked up by a talkative tech named Chaco. Is Chaco the Talkative Tech Hispanic? I ask by inquiring, "I know that Paco is short for Frank and Chico is small or little... what is Chaco?" This question starts him going... "Chaco is from Jacob in the Aramaic and there is a long history of early Christians coming to India and naming their children in the tradition of naming after early characters in the biblical tradition. ...Chaco is like Jacob and my family is from southern India." "Huh?" I respond. So, we have a nice conversation about kids in college and now out, Austin versus Dallas, students at UT Austin from India, Chaco's wanting to be a lawyer early on but by strange twists of fate he is now in the medical field... as a tech. Finally, I say... "I want to read my book now..." and he meanders away to talk to another patient. There are only about three or four patients here today. Lots of empty chairs.
Pete the Nurse comes over about a half hour later to do my nursing eval, have me sign the permission to die without suing forms, and to say "HI". Pete remembers me from last year... not much has changed here he reports. I could get into a conversation about how empty they seem but decide to just take off the "cub reporter for blogs" cap and wear the "I'm just a weary traveler reading my mystery novel" cap. I read on. Alex and Milo are getting closer to figuring out the back story behind Kat Shonsky's murder.* I read for awhile and then doze off and then wake up and read... and doze... and wake up and turn on the swiveling TV's they have here and watch a fuzzy version of Charade** which just started at 7 so I can see the whole thing if I want... do I want? I've seen this movie so many times I know basically every line of every character... but the characters ~~ James Coburn as "Tex" and Walter Matthau as Hamilton Bartholomew always draw me in and they will again today. I decide to keep it on while I read my book.... and, of course, eventually just watch the charade unfold.
Soon Lizzie shows up to get me, looking wintry in her black, wool coat and colorful scarf... she is a nice sight walking across the shiny linoleum floor... kinda soft in a scene of hard light metal. I sigh and am ready to be done with this Dallas Dialysis. I introduce Chaco to Liz while holding my poke holes and she puts up my stuff in my now shabby DaVita bag. As we leave and I weigh out I maintain my tradition of being the last to leave, apologize to the staff who slough it off and cheerily bid farewell to Pete; and they heard me exclaim as we walked out of sight, Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night.
We zip on down Buckner to Northwest Hwy, take a left and curve around north Dallas all the way to our right on Preston and the final left on Orchid... we're home... where Lizzie has a nice warm plate of veal marsala from Penne Pomodoro... ah yes... this food is to die for... or, at least it is mucho delicioso right now after having your toxins taken out. Their sauce of dark brown thick mushroomy heaven is a taste treat on the thinly sliced veal that almost melts in your mouth. What can I say? A day well ended.
Notes: In at 78.6 and out at 75 even.
*Kellerman, J. (2008) Compulsion. Ballantine Books, New York.
** Charade online at Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charade
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