Monday, August 25, 2008

Adversity

The weekend is over already? It feels like just a day ago I was guzzling beer like they stopped making it at a Serbian church festival listening to a band play Quiet Riot.

My weekend was interesting. Football, beer, a hospital visit, work, the aforementioned Drinking for Jesus, and a trip to see my newborn nephew.

What do you want to hear about first? Beer? Cowboys football?

The hospital visit was not for me. I got a call at 5:44 on Saturday morning from my brother announcing my mother was in the hospital. My first reaction was who the hell is calling me so fucking early on a Saturday. Then it was if someone was calling me so fucking early on a Saturday it can't be good. Then it was why didn't I turn my phone off so someone wouldn't call me so fucking early on a Saturday.

Mom had an accident causing her to pass out and get seriously dehydrated. She spent some time in the hospital getting rehydrated before she could go home. Thankfully this time it wasn't too serious.

I don't like hospitals. They give me the creeps. Usually you are not going to a hospital for anything that is fun or worthy of celebration. It is always bad.

As I walked into this particular hospital, I noticed how new it was. The layout was rather homey, not like what you see on TV or expect a hospital to look like. It was like walking into a nursing home. Open, spacious.

I started walking down the hall towards the area I believed I needed to be. I found it interesting how no one was around and how the security guy at the front counter didn't say a word to me. Anyone could walk on in and move around. The section I was walking to didn't even look like it was operational. Guess the hospital is that new.

I then began to wonder what proper hospital etiquette is. Is it wrong to look into every room as you move down the hall. If you do look in is it wronger to yell "Eww! I hope I don't catch what he's got!" and look away? I tried to keep my eyes straight ahead just giving minor glances to the side to check out room numbers. I found where I needed to be and met up with the rest of the family. Didn't stay too long as my mom wanted to get some sleep. Her stay won't be too long. I just hope it doesn't happen again. I couldn't help but notice how old she looked laying in that bed. Not a good feeling.

That may be why I drank as much as I did on Saturday night. To put the weight of the world to the side and allow myself some of life's pleasures. You never know when adversity will appear. Or when the phone will ring so fucking early on a Saturday morning with bad news.

Note to Lolita and Ben: My prayers are with you. Sorry about your loss.

2 comments:

J. Gambino said...

Sorry to hear about your Mom. We need to remind her to take better care of herself.

AletaR said...

Sorry to hear about Mom. We'll keep her in our prayers.