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The other day I was walking down the street and a peddlar around my age asked if I wanted an educational laptop for the kids. For my kids. Do I look like a mom? Apparently. Not much later a man said I looked like I was twelve. I thought I looked at least 14, but definitely not like a mom. Well anyway.
Yesterday my aunt, my grandma, and I were at the checkout at Longs Drugstore. My grandma had the shopping cart and she started drifting towards a display of... fans or something in big cardboard boxes, and only stopped when she had collided with the boxes. She couldn't back away so my aunt had to help her, and my grandma looked very pale and distant and started falling forward again, against the cart, so I steadied the cart to stop her from rolling away as my aunt grabbed my grandma. A stroke, my aunt said, and someone called 911. Someone else brought a chair for my grandma and she sat down. I took care of the purchases and the other minor details when the paramedics arrived, sirens wailing and passersby gawking but trying not to stare. More things happened but I know no one's reading this so I can skip that part. My grandma was fine, just dehydrated and ready to pass out. No stroke apparently, but she needed an IV to rehydrate her so off to the ER for us. I got to ride in the ambulance! To keep my grandma company so she didn't worry or anything. She kept saying, "How embarrassing." I can understand how she felt. I asked one of the paramedics on the ride there how to become a paramedic. He told me very eagerly and used plenty of anecdotal details. People reeeeallly like to talk about themselves sometimes. It's funny. Eighteen years and he still loves his job, he said. He warned me that it's hard for women to get hired. Feh! I at least want first aid training, and then after college if I still am up for it maybe I'll be a paramedic for doctors without borders. If I don't die of a heroin overdose. About three or four hours in the ER. Only one visitor at a time and my aunt was the visitor so I sat in the waiting room. Surprisingly the time flew quickly. At some point I got the urge to turn around and I met the eyes of this kid, very obviously a teenager. He and his mother took the seats right next to me. I had my head tilted back and my sunglasses on, to look like I was sleeping maybe. Staring at the walls, zoning out, and then "What are you in for?" yanked me back into reality. I turned to the source of the voice and whipped my sunglasses off and sure enough that kid was talking to me. So in a voice laced with the gravelly monotone of ennui and extended silence I explained my situation and asked, "What about you." And the kid showed me his "gnarly" poison oak rash on his arm. I thought of asking how that happened (camping stories are always fun) but instead I asked if he was reading Brave New World for school, because the book was resting in his lap. Yes, he was. I said I read it in ninth grade and I liked it. The kid seemed pretty intent on his handheld videogame and I didn't want to bother him further. I was surprised that a human being actually wanted to talk to me. That's been happening to me a lot lately. Strangers just start talking to me. That never really happened before. Well, I like it and appreciate it so hoooray. I picked up trash in the waiting room and witnessed a gigantic belch from the man across from me, and my aunt periodically came out for a smoke in the parking lot. Finally hours later we went home and understandably my aunt and I sat around the pool drinking drinking the day away as my grandma went to sleep. It was an hour past her bedtime. What a day. Ugh, and then we stayed up late watching HORRIBLE TV shows. I wanted to stay up late but it was unbearable.
Yesterday my aunt, my grandma, and I were at the checkout at Longs Drugstore. My grandma had the shopping cart and she started drifting towards a display of... fans or something in big cardboard boxes, and only stopped when she had collided with the boxes. She couldn't back away so my aunt had to help her, and my grandma looked very pale and distant and started falling forward again, against the cart, so I steadied the cart to stop her from rolling away as my aunt grabbed my grandma. A stroke, my aunt said, and someone called 911. Someone else brought a chair for my grandma and she sat down. I took care of the purchases and the other minor details when the paramedics arrived, sirens wailing and passersby gawking but trying not to stare. More things happened but I know no one's reading this so I can skip that part. My grandma was fine, just dehydrated and ready to pass out. No stroke apparently, but she needed an IV to rehydrate her so off to the ER for us. I got to ride in the ambulance! To keep my grandma company so she didn't worry or anything. She kept saying, "How embarrassing." I can understand how she felt. I asked one of the paramedics on the ride there how to become a paramedic. He told me very eagerly and used plenty of anecdotal details. People reeeeallly like to talk about themselves sometimes. It's funny. Eighteen years and he still loves his job, he said. He warned me that it's hard for women to get hired. Feh! I at least want first aid training, and then after college if I still am up for it maybe I'll be a paramedic for doctors without borders. If I don't die of a heroin overdose. About three or four hours in the ER. Only one visitor at a time and my aunt was the visitor so I sat in the waiting room. Surprisingly the time flew quickly. At some point I got the urge to turn around and I met the eyes of this kid, very obviously a teenager. He and his mother took the seats right next to me. I had my head tilted back and my sunglasses on, to look like I was sleeping maybe. Staring at the walls, zoning out, and then "What are you in for?" yanked me back into reality. I turned to the source of the voice and whipped my sunglasses off and sure enough that kid was talking to me. So in a voice laced with the gravelly monotone of ennui and extended silence I explained my situation and asked, "What about you." And the kid showed me his "gnarly" poison oak rash on his arm. I thought of asking how that happened (camping stories are always fun) but instead I asked if he was reading Brave New World for school, because the book was resting in his lap. Yes, he was. I said I read it in ninth grade and I liked it. The kid seemed pretty intent on his handheld videogame and I didn't want to bother him further. I was surprised that a human being actually wanted to talk to me. That's been happening to me a lot lately. Strangers just start talking to me. That never really happened before. Well, I like it and appreciate it so hoooray. I picked up trash in the waiting room and witnessed a gigantic belch from the man across from me, and my aunt periodically came out for a smoke in the parking lot. Finally hours later we went home and understandably my aunt and I sat around the pool drinking drinking the day away as my grandma went to sleep. It was an hour past her bedtime. What a day. Ugh, and then we stayed up late watching HORRIBLE TV shows. I wanted to stay up late but it was unbearable.
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