The Day in Review - Wednesday, 20 June 2007

Another day, another headache, another triump! A day full of the good, the bad and the ugly and I loved it. Loved it!

The day prior, I ended with having work done on my teeth. Baby's fourth crown... not exactly an amazing homage to my caretaking of my teeth. I always hated listening to my parents about that, and I took not-so-great care of my teeth then - and that was with them watching over me! Imagine what happened when they weren't... I didn't. That was fine until I hit around 15 - between that and the endless amount of candy I ate, I began to get cavities. Admittedly, I did not get my first crown until a couple of years ago. Last year was my first root canal. And they were all completely painless. This one... was not.

My mouth hurt on waking, and increased as the morning wore on. It was not pretty, and I was a complete wretch. Most people didn't notice it but I was very quiet, and stayed in my office when not getting tea. Mitch noticed (which was very nice) but then I realised I had to do something about this instead of living in pain. So I took a couple of Aleve (three, actually) and began to finally feel a little more human. I never did feel completely OK, but I felt better and able to function, which was a lot harder before.

I went downstairs for lunch, and there was no chicken with salad, so I asked Greg to make me something that wasn't hard and wasn't chewy. Seems pretty straightfoward. He managed it, too. I had chicken without any charred marks, on a bed of cous cous, and some hot stuff (I think it was soup). I went out to the lunch room, for flatware, and Joe, Anna and (I forget her name) the programmer who is in the Business Office once or twice a week were sitting there, watching the news. I sat down with them, and had a nice lunch. We chatted about stuff, and no one noticed that I wasn't saying very much and it was good, companionable and pleasant. (The news wasn't, though...)

While we were there, Troy and some of the wait staff showed up with dessert that some members hadn't eaten - three balls of sorbet with a garnish of two leaves and a raspberry in an edible cup... oooohhhhhhhh... for us! We all grabbed one and happily dug in to the mango, raspberry and pear favoured sorbet. Yum! It was wonderful. I can't remember the last time I had such a delicious dessert! We were all thrilled with this windfall. I guess some members went without but that was what they wanted and we were delighted to take the offering.

After this, I was able to get a lot more done. A full (but not stuffed) stomach, a lovely dessert, and a bit of chemical help and I was quite improved.

I weeded through the major medical stuff and found errors that needed fixing, got a few things off of my seemingly endess to-do list and updated my manager on things. Conversations with him are interesting, fun and always educational. But mostly fun. Still, the best was to come...

I went out to Play Deck in response to a message on my voicemail and there was Reta, one of our Grounds interns from Canada (I love the pronounciations - "out" is more like "oot" - it's very typical but we don't hear it often in this area). She and I chatted about different things and then she said I should do a work shadow with her. Well, OK! I agreed to a Work Shadow day on Saturday, 30 June - a week from this coming Saturday.

I went to the Play Deck and asked to speak to one of the Locker Room guys. I was waiting for him and Jeff (I think it was him) said that there is a butterfly on the back of my chair. I turned slowly and there he was! Not a monarch, but something similar - black body and head, read and white designs on a black field. I was besotted. I managed to get my hand slowly to the back of the heavy wooden chair and he stepped onto my palm!

I very slowly brought my hand over the chair and in front of me. He sat, not moving, but not frozen on my hand. He must have stayed there for about 35 seconds. He was wonderful! I held my hands in front of me, and I guess it must have looked weird to the people in front of me - Reta, Kevin and some members at the top of the play deck; but in my palm, calm as could be, was a perfectly lovely creature that flittered around and just sat there for a few moments. Much to my complete delight. Delight! I loved it. I still feel shivery at the memory of it. I doubt I will ever forget that.

It was magic.

I finally finished up and packed it in around 1715. On my way out, the interns were in the breakroom (which is called the Family room for reasons passing understanding). They started chatting with me and I had an enjoyable time talking to them. Reta reminded me of our work date. I said goodnight to everyone and headed out.

As usual I howled to music while driving home - "Kiss Me", "Flying Horses", "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic", etc. I did not care that there was traffic where Route 24 West heads into Route 287 North - I had my music to enjoy. I arrived home, happy, feeling great, around 1805.

I pulled into the driveway, headed out and while I was getting the mail, I heard my name ( sort of - "Aaaaaaaash-Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan") and there's Stee Tissot, my old crewmate from when I rode on Wednesdays, sitting on one of the crappy picnic tables. I walked over to the squadhouse to sit with Steve, talking about all sorts of things for over an hour. I really enjoyed it. I miss him. Like Danny, he is crude and oversexed and right on the money. And we always had a good relationship and had a fun time riding together. He may not be on the squad much longer, and that will really be disappointing. I'll miss him, since I won't see much of him if he stops riding. He was my first friend at the squad and I don't think I will find another like him.

I came home at 1930, fed the kitties, and then ran across street to get dry cat food (it would have been a VERY long night without it). I went to bed shortly thereafter. A very good day, indeed!