About Wednesday

Wednesday, this week's Day of Testing, did not begin auspiciously. Oh, all went well enough before I left the house in the morning, but after that things went downhill. The first bus I was supposed to catch never arrived, so the bus I did board was well and truly packed (I'd compare it to a tin of sardines, but sardines may have proportionately more room for their nonexistent elbows). Arrived near the transfer point just in time to see the next bus driving away. So I called the office to say I was probably going to be late but had no idea how late since I was unfamiliar with that bus route. They offered to reschedule for early afternoon and I babbled in thanks.

As it turned out, a bus showed up sooner than expected and I arrived just a few minutes after my appointment time, so the first test was done with only the standard medical appointment "We're sorry you had to wait and we hope you enjoyed the six-month-old magazines" delay. After that test was over, I waited in the lobby for a while only to discover that the second tech was expecting me for the afternoon appointment. Uh-oh. She did agree to deal with me before her lunch, though, for which I was grateful.

It was interesting to see the contrast between the two tests I had on Wednesday--or rather, the contrast in the questions asked beforehand. Before one test, there was the standard radiology thing of, "Are you sure you're not pregnant? Are you sure you're sure you're not pregnant?" Before the second one, the form to be filled out included a space for "Age of last period." After taking a moment to process that, I filled in my current age.

Tech, looking at form: Your last period was at age 39? Did you have a hysterectomy?

Me: Nooo. It was last month.

Tech: Oh? OH! Hey, are you excited about turning 40 this year? I am! My birthday's six days after yours!

Apparently each of us had been assuming we were significantly younger than the other woman, which must be some kind of testimony to the power of denial.

After everything was finally over, I hurried to the nearest place selling anything resembling food, which happened to be a McDonald's. McDonald's food is still McDonald's food (and the Angus burger with bacon & cheese is far from health food), but on the plus side I had some mixed drinks for the first time in ages. Unsweetened iced tea + Coca-Cola FTW! (animangel isn't sure that iced tea with Coke really qualifies as a "mixed drink." What do you think?)

Afternoon went much better than the morning did. I wandered to a thrift store, bought some clothes, looked at the books. Since I have a huge pile of books here at home, I of course did not buy any books at all more than five. Ahem. Then I looked in an Indian music & DVD store, went to an Indian grocery where I picked up some nice, exotic junk food, and came home feeling accomplished.

About Wednesday Night & Thursday

So on Wednesday night, tired after a productive day, I was going to go to bed nice & early. But then an imaginary person who has been trying to turn into a character started poking me. She is not supposed to be a character. She was never supposed to be a character. But she turns out to be pretty darn pushy, so I got to bed later than expected.

When I finally went to bed sometime after midnight, I kept hearing music. Now, nobody in the house was playing this music and it went away whenever I opened my eyes and got out of bed, so I presume that this was some exhaustion-induced hallucination. Hallucinatory or not, though, when it sounds like an Aussie rock group is playing a concert near your home, it does make it harder to get some sleep--especially when the lead singer's voice keeps alternating between something like Peter Garrett* and something like the guy from Yothu Yindi. Terribly distracting.

Thursday's weather was good for this time of year, with plenty of interesting clouds and not too much heat. I got out for about a two-mile walk, but otherwise spent most of the day sleeping. Never got online until this morning, so now I have some catching up to do. How are you?




* At least he wasn't singing "Beds Are Burning."