Evaluation, Day 1

It was a pretty easy day today as far as appointments go. But I really wasn't feeling well and had a very hard time. I'm kind of cranky about it. But I did take some potty pictures, with I realize is Rayne's thing, but I wanted to give it a try and see how cool it was:

The hoodie from the first pic is the one I was describing in my blog entry, Anatomy of a Hoodie.

There was a kid, maybe around 15, who was in the waiting room of the Multi-Organ Clinic when we were (due to lack of chairs I had to sit on the floor and, being the chivalrous person I am, offered my cane-bearing mother the cushy chair) who looked exactly how I felt. He was wearing bedroom slippers, his arms were pulled into his shirt and was was curled up in the chair trying to sleep. It was obvious he was sick; his skin was yellow and there were dark circles under his eyes. He looked kind of like...me, except I'm not quite so yellow. I guess he was waiting for a liver transplant. The boy touched my heart because he seemed to be going through something like I was. I wondered if he had to deal with his liver always hurting or fatigue so bad you can hardly walk straight. I wanted to go over and say something encouraging to him, but I didn't. Instead I watched him out of the corner of my eye.

At the end of our appointments I waited outside while mom went to get the car. I'm working on knitting some socks right now and that's what I was doing while I was waiting. At one point two guys, probably around my age, walked past and started whispering about something. I thought I caught something like, "That girl! She's the one!" I hoped they weren't whispering about me because, well, they didn't exactly look trustworthy. Turns out they were talking about me because seconds later they walked up to me and said, "We have a question." Oh God, please don't let them be hitting on me, I thought. I can hardly walk right now, let alone outrun two perverts.

Apparently one of them had been doing a crossword puzzle that morning and there had been a five-letter word for a knitting stitch and they could not for the life of them figure it out. Since they saw me knitting they decided to ask me. I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to help them with their dilemma. I couldn't think of a five-letter word for a knit stitch so they thanked me for my help and walked off shouting their room number and floor at the hospital in case I thought of anything. They were laughing when they said it so I'm pretty sure they had other things on their mind besides crossword puzzles. I heard one of them say, "She has a nice smile." Looking back on the whole thing it's actually pretty cute.

In other news, my rat Lin, who has been sick because of a spinal injury passed away today. We got home from Omaha and she was long gone. It's weird because I never once thought that this sickness would kill her, but for some reason I wasn't surprised. It's like subconsciously I knew it was going to happen. Minutes after we found Lin our vet called to check up on her.

Lin was one of the sweetest rats I've ever met. She was one of the Nebraska Wesleyan Xtreme Rat Challange rats and we adopted her in late April of this year. Lin's favorite thing to do was to sit outside with me. She'd start bruxing before we even got out the door. She was a very, very snuggly and loving rat. I'm going to miss her. I'm writing about Lin in a different color to give her special honor in this blog. Is that weird?

I learned the other day that, if someone give you instructions about something while you're on codeine, have them explain it to you very specifically. Otherwise you end up telling your friend how great Tim's pancakes are when, in actuality, Tim and the family are meeting you for waffles at a local coffee shop. You might also end up driving around town a lot, wondering where everybody is. My mom says, "When you talk to Becca you have to ask her when she's last taken narcotics."