HA! this week has been one disaster after another, but everything still seems to be on course and everyone is pretty much fine. R had a cold, S caught it and started running a fever. We sat with him in the ER from midnight till 4am last night. Now I have the cold. I got rear ended on the day that I had to take a vacation day from one job to work a full day on the other of which I did not get enough work done and should probably take another day or two off. I'll get a new bumper, i guess, eventually. I had to take a few hours off today to recoup from last night's ER visit. As if R didn't already have enough going on taking care of her and S, she lost her wallet so we had to do the whole transfer money out of the ATM account and keep close tabs on the credit card statement, but luckily she found her wallet so that worry is done. Her computer was on the fritz and the parts for which she had to drop everything to go buy were incorrect. So, I wound up fixing the broken part with solder and tape while we ordered a replacement online and had to return the wrong part today on my way in to work (late.) I am falling behind on all 4 of my jobs to the point where all I can do is sit back and laugh. There is so much work I think Keeping Up is an unrealistic expectation. So, I stay the course. That's all I can try to do. I laugh as I type this because even though everything is falling apart, everything and everyone really is fine and there are no real worries. Everything is just a silly mess soaked with vomit and poo right now. Nothing more. This isn't supposed to come off as sympathy seeking or complaining even though I know it does. It is more of a setup for a side-note:

ER waiting areas really are something, aren't they? I work at a hospital so I'm exposed to them (and the places just outside where smokers sit) almost every day. The concern, tears, pacing and phone calls you see happening in these areas make them (the ER waiting areas) feel to me like the front row seat to the last, raw, true glimpse of human beings. Catching a shaky, one ended phone conversation that starts out with, "We lost him" and is punctuated by quick draws on a cigarette by someone sort of hunched over with one arm akimbo probably isn't right but accidentally catching that moment while walking between work areas (really, just cold, grey rooms filled with cubes.) on a generic workday is wow (this is something that someone else can do a better job of describing with real words that mean something but I'm a quitter who settles for wow.)

Last night, after committing various moving violations on the way to the hospital, I dropped S & R off at the door so they could rush inside while I parked the car. I got a good spot then walked with a woman into the ER. She beat me to front desk and asked about so-and-so and the ER nurse said so-and-so was getting a CT and they couldn't say anything more but that there was a whole group of friends there already who knew everything. She pointed to a dozen or so fresh faced HS kids each with that look huddled in chairs, texting and hugging. I eventually found S & R and R said, 'wow, did you see all those kids? I walked in behind 2 parents, i think their son tried to kill himself and those were all his friends.'

wow. yeah, i think my week hasn't been half bad.