living as if

Yesterday was an absolute gullywasher of monsoon proportions around here and there's more on the way, but for today it's cooler and the sun is out and halfway warm. This time of the year always reminds me of the time I watched March Madness from a step-down ICU room after my husband's heart attack. Following an EKG picture of "tombstones" he was given a super duper clot buster and it returned to normal before he ever got flown to the cath center. He was 39, and I almost didn't go home to check on him that day until I talked with an ER nurse who said "Nobody with chest pain should be left alone." By the time I got him into the middle of town, he was kickin' the dash and telling me to run red lights like an ambulance. Sometimes you just gotta trust your gut.

I got to spend lunch with some friends today that I haven't seen in awhile and it was nice to catch up. The staff there knows everybody and their mama'n'them so it's just a big old laid back gabfest with cute waiters and waitresses who know how to please customers. Even in the lean economic times that our community is facing, there will always be a need for something like that. You gotta eat. We tend to eat quickly in the break room rather than taking the time to get that real "break" from work. The phone still rings and questions still get asked even if you are eating!

I got a call from a friend early today who had been involved in a wreck and needed somebody to meet her in the ER, which I did. Her parents and daughter were all out of pocket and she was pretty shook up with a good case of whiplash in the making. An elderly driver plowed into her at a stop sign and tore the hell out of her car. I remembered as I was sitting with her listening to the monitor beep that I had been pissed on the way in because I couldn't get the freaking chap stick open I had just bought. "Why does everything have to be so hard?" I said to myself. Pretty damn quick, I gave myself a little tap on the ass and put the big girl panties on to face my day. It's either that or lay down and quit trying, and I'm too stubborn for that.

TGIF and I have beer and nowhere to go.