. . . the nightmare end to a nice day. I swear, I'm paying for all those years where I just cruised . . . nothing bad happened . . . friends, family . . . the usual tiny crises but no one died in a plane crash, no one broke their pelvis, yada yada.
But this year has literally been Annus Horribilis, to quote our darling Queen.
Today was no exception.
It began nicely -- as you can see from my last posts. Sunshine. Beer. Happy! Then, barbecue! Brigitte and I had a plan to barbecue some shrimp, some steak, some corn on the cob . . . perfect conditions! Hardly any wind! Happy temp!
Then Tony called. He's a 40-something friend who's going through some stress. No prob, feed him some shrimp and wine and he'll be okay.
But he wasn't. Halfway through the meal he started panicking. "My left arm is numb. Take me to Emergency."
You can't be serious, thought I. But he was. So we did.
Emergency is a very sorrowful place, people. It's a real horrorshow. There are seriously ill people in Emergency. I never, ever want to go to Emergency again, though I've been a patient there before.
Midnight in Emergency. Just where I want to be at this point in my life! After the year from Hell. Corpses just waiting to be cremated lying in hospital beds. Businesslike hospital staff. You know the drill.
I wrote a story about it when I was a kid. Some guy gets in a horrendous auto accident, then is conscious the whole time while he's operated on. Yeah, yeah, sorry, my perversity again.
But it's real. I witnessed so much misery tonight that I wish that I'd had a more powerful drink than the wine I had in my sippy cup.
Then, we had to repark Tony's car because it was in a no-park zone. But Brigitte can't drive a stickshift. So I had to, even though I haven't driven one for 25 years. Plus, his car is a piece of shit Volkswagen, it was dark and I couldn't see anything. So I reparked it, with much difficulty (thank God for the wine -- sober, I'd never have been able to do it) and then it was determined that the new place was equally as bad (Montreal parking laws are insane. You have to be Muslim on a Tuesday in February to park on a four-foot section of any given block) so I had to do it again.
Hey, I aced it. What can I say? I'm the champ.
But Tony languishes in hospital and it was a miserable end to a great day.
What the hell more can happen this year?
So how's Tony?
ReplyDeleteChrist. He took a cab here this morning. Chipper as a bluejay. "Couldn't get a wink of sleep!"
ReplyDeleteHellloooooh, it's the Jewish General Intensive Care Unit. Like, can you say "cardiac arrest" every ten minutes?
Just your ol' garden-variety panic attack. Pulse rate 142. You've been there.
Anyway. All's well but I was seriously derailed.
And you know how I hate being derailed.
Routine is Good. Non-routine is Bad.
But thanks for asking!