Boxing Day Gifts

I had another orthopaedic appointment today. A few hours before I went in I received a phone call stating that the surgeon, who I was supposed to meet with, was in performing a surgery. I had the option of rescheduling or seeing the on-call orthopaedist. I decided to keep my appointment since X-rays needed to be taken.

The X-rays went smoothly, no need for additional films. The on-call surgeon was actually the surgeon I had for my first surgery. He reviewed my X-rays and told me “soon”. Soon things will be happening such as weight bearing and the removal of the fixator. He told me that he would leave the X-rays for my current surgeon to review. My next appointment is in a month (or possibly sooner).

I needed a refill of one of my prescriptions so we Anonymous, Sean and I waited in the pharmacy just off of the orthopaedic ward. While sitting in the waiting area a woman and her husband sat down. While turning in my seat to see if my name had been posted on the pick-up board I noticed a bracelet the woman was wearing. Instead of beads it was glass tiles in a row. I told her that the bracelet was beautiful and she told me that she had made it.

A few minutes later she held out her bracelet and said, “I want you to have this”. I was dumbstruck and said, “Are you sure?”. She nodded in the affirmative and got up to pick up her prescription. I was still in shock and saw that her husband had returned I motioned him over. I asked, “what is your wifes name?” he told me that its Keilani (a Hawaiian name). I told him that I was very touched by what she did. He told me that “she just felt something, giving it (the bracelet) to you felt right”. I wished him and his wife good fortune for the new year.

After Kaiser the Anonymous household went and got something to eat. While Anonymous was picking up the meal a woman with a baby ambled over. It turns out it was a woman whom I had met during one of Sean’s well baby check-ups. The pair of us were in a room be evaluated on our breastfeeding techniques. Her son is day younger than Sean and its amazing to see the contrast. I knew Sean was big for his age but it didn’t hit me until I saw him side by side with another 4 month old!

After eating it was another Costco run, I’m becoming a veteran at this! An event happened that hopefully Anonymous/Exculpatory will write about since I cannot do it justice.

Lovely Ghosts

The ghosts of Christmas maybe visiting people tonight. If the ghost of Christmas Past paid me a visit there would be images of my brother and I. We would always rent horror movies on Christmas Eve and stay up and watch them.

Christmas Present is challenging. I love my husband and our son but I hate my busted leg.

Hopefully Christmas Future will be filled with family, laughter, bipedalism and perhaps a horror movie!

Drug Bust

Awhile back Anonymous husband and I had were reminiscing about elementary school days. Playing teether-ball, four square and the like. While we were talking about school yard injuries and games, I remembered a game, from the fourth grade, from my elementary school called drug bust.

I grew up in San Joaquin valley, not a real hip place. Where I lived there were farmers and gang members. At my elementary school kids rolled up post-it notes to make fake cigarettes. Some kids emptied out their crayon containers, with the flip-top lid, to store the “cigarettes” so it would look more like a hard pack. At recess a group of kids would be the drug dealers and the other the narcs.

The drug dealers would hide and the narcs would bust them, complete with frisking. Or the drug dealers would “sell” to an “undercover narc” and chase would ensue. We loved playing this game since to us kids it was more intricate version of hide and go seek or tag. Unfortunately the faculty did not see it this way and we were forbidden from playing.

I think that the faculty should have taken a more anthropological look at what the students were doing. We were engaging in mimicry. Mimicking events or ceremonies without having the full understanding or meaning of them.

X-mas Brick

With the Silly Season approaching please listen to your loved ones. Here’s an anecdote from my youth. I remember being 12 and our family, along with our grandparents, went to San Francisco. After being in the car for hours we stopped at a cafe for something to drink. My grandfather asked me what I wanted and I said “water”. He said, “Are you sure you don’t want a coke?” I shook my head in the negative, he said “Go on be a devil”. I said “Just water”. I ended up with a can of orange soda and the recurring feeling that no one listens to me. (Please note I love my grandfather very much)

It’s not even the 25th of December and already I’m frustrated. Anonymous hubby has a great post on Christmas vs. X-mas. If you have not read it and are wondering about X-mas I suggest you read it. I too loathe X-mas for me the loathing has to do with good intentions gone awry.

All of us have been victims of good intentions gone bad. You know it the sweater that your grandma knit for you out of carpet remnants. You don’t want to wear it but you do it out of guilt or because your Mom made you. Some might say the logical answer would be a list.

Ahouseholdkate once told me that lists are not a conceit it’s a tool, I wholeheartedly agree with this view. With lists the creator is showing what they would like and if you follow it no ones feelings get hurt. You can even dare to deviate from the list if you are wise. You can ask the spouse/significant other/family member/friend/co-worker/ if the person would like X. However, you must do your reconnaissance or have the balls to ask the person flat out if they would like X.

Many people do not do reconnaissance because they are convinced, in their minds, that what they are getting the person will love or doesn’t already have. I once received an item for my birthday and then received the exact same gift for X-mas. A quick phone call would have solved this problem (I ended up re-gifting the item).

Many people love it, I am one, when their loved one unwraps something! Unwrapping gives a great opportunity for a picture. What do you do when your loved one doesn’t want anything for X-mas? Enter the X-mas Brick! An ordinary brick that can be wrapped in tissue, wrapping paper or boxed.

The brick provides for the perfect photo op and eliminates the awkwardness that goes along with knick-knacks or duplicates. The brick is also a green commodity since it can be reused season after season. The brick is perfect for those that ask you what you want, ignore what you have to say and do what they want anyway.

The phone call

Recently there was post on Eclectic Nerdery about a really bad morning. I couldn’t remember off the top of my head if I had a similar morning. Ahouseholdkate reminded me of a phone call I got early one morning so this is for her.

My anonymous husband and I do not have a land line and it is rare that I receive calls to my mobile. Early one Monday morning, and I do mean early, around 2:30 my phone rings. I don’t recognize the number but I proceed to answer it. I manage to groggily say, “hello” the woman on the other end of the line immediately launches into “I’m never going to see him again what am I going to do?” The voice of the woman is not clear and its obvious that she is very distraught. I ask “who is it” and I get a response that sounds like “Debby”. Well I do know a Debby, a very close friend who I have known for over 21 years in fact shes like a second mother to me. The last time a call came from Debby very early in the morning one of her sons had just died in an accident.

I get out of bed and proceed to the bathroom so I don’t wake up my anonymous husband. I ask her to calm down and tell me what has happened. Once again the response is an almost unintelligible “I’m never going to see him again, what am I going to do”. Now my husband is awake and from the look on his face he knows something is going on but doesn’t ask me since I’m still trying to figure it out myself.

The slumbering fog is starting to leave my brain I ask in a forceful tone, “What is going on, what has happened?” My answer was a whining “I’ll never see him again he’s never going to lick my pussy again”. I yell out “WHAT!!” she responds in very distraught wail “he’s never going to lick my pussy again what am I going to do?”.

My addled brain has now figured out that this woman is not the Debby I know. I ask again “who is this” and now the woman has a slight sobering inkling that perhaps I’m not the intended recipient of this drunken confession. However, this is not a big enough deterrent for her to end the conversation with me. I once again ask “who is it” this was a mistake. She bleats out “He’s never going to lick my pussy again…you sound nice can I lick yours?”, I hastily broke the connection.

My husband asks “what was that all about?” so I tell him and he’s as puzzled as I am. I can see he’s about to ask me something when my phone rings again. I look at the number and sure as shit its the crazy-lunatic-drunk-psycho woman again. My husband answers the phone and I guess hearing a man gruffly answer “Yes?” was enough to get her to hang up and not call me again.