Saturday, May 03, 2008

Sick and sleepless...still happy.

Oh, good grief...I'm SICK. Double ear infection/sinus infection sick. Up half the night sick.

The good news? Antibiotics, Puffs Plus with Lotion, and a great book--An Emergent Manifesto of Hope.

*Doctor story: I had to see a new doctor because the world's best P.A. (Jerry Bingham, the one who put me on the "Sugar Busters!" diet) was booked. She walked briskly into the room, asked me why I was there, and I told her that it sure would be awful if a sinus infection ruined a highly-anticipated 3-day weekend...oh, and I have blood pooling in my left ankle that is ugly and HOT to the touch. She took my left leg in her hands, turned it to check both sides, peered into my face, and said, "Are you a teacher?"

HOW DID SHE KNOW???? (Is this like when my friend Kelly filled her bedpan to the brim and her Labor & Delivery nurse laughingly said, "You're either a teacher or a nurse."?)

Maybe Dr. Hamilton knew schools were closed for Alternate Staff Development this Monday. Maybe my whole presence--even when dressed in shorts & a tie-dyed t-shirt I bought at Eeyore's Birthday in Austin--screams "TEACHER!"...or maybe most of the pale women with connective tissue disorders and bad veins who turn up in her practice each day are the educators who spent their careers standing on concrete slabs! (No complaints...I'd become a teacher again even if it meant my legs turn completely Smurf blue!)

So, anyway, I made her laugh when I told her that my divorce was final in December so my weird veins and hot blood ankle pools were now nobody's problem but mine. She told me that the extensive varicosity (sp?) in my left leg means I have to wear support hose from now on. Oh, she also said that traveling could be very painful if I don't stop frequently and move around...and even EXERCISE between driving spells.

~~~Yeah. It's like the whole world is conspiring to make me an eccentric spinster librarian in support hose and bifocals who briskly exercises when driving to see her parents in Virginia and who rides her bike to school (WITH basket on the front handlebars, of course!) and who recycles and takes yoga classes and is the Neighborhood Crazy Lady completely devoted to her horrible dog.~~~

Stuff that makes me deliriously happy, no matter how sick or eccentric I am...

*Cooked all night last night. Had the kitchen to myself and BLASTED the taped Thursday night NBC comedy lineup while I chopped & stirred & grated & boiled & stuffed shells & sipped Merlot (who cares about Sideways? i love merlot...it's cheap/red/delicious!). When I ran out of comedies, a fascinating documentary came on about the Sistine Chapel & Michelangelo's hidden messages. (Falisha is coming in with friends today and specifically asked for my shells...made the homemade sauce Thursday night, made more sauce and stuffed 4 pans of shells last night, and they're in the oven baking right now so they won't heat up the house this afternoon.)

*Making breakfast before 5:00 a.m. means that KACU is streaming the BBC.

*Yesterday, our whole school squeezed into the gym to watch the Faculty vs. Student Basketball Game. At half-time, the principals presented our wonderful custodian, Mr. Steve Hawkins, with the announcement that we had raised over $22,000 for his new home in our Madison Extreme Home Makeover! Kirsten and I served on the Lawn Chair Drill Precision Team (light on the precision, heavy on the team); even though I was out sick yesterday, there was no way I was missing out on that!

*Here's a passage I read & enjoyed at 4:30 this morning, written by an Australian man who now lives in a communal society in Kentucky (and has apparently embraced the word "y'all"):

"Our devotion to Jesus requires us to form interdependent relationships with people around us, and in so doing we more accurately reflect the mysterious image of the divine community--Father, Son, and Spirit. Paul reminds the church at Philippi that they must work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). The language he uses here is plural. In the South we might use the word "Y'all" to get the same effect--'work out y'all's salvation.' It is our contention that salvation is more than personal renewal; it is at best a collective experience...This angle on salvation has reframed our experience of evangelism and mission. Through practices such as caring for AIDS sufferers, feeding the homeless, protesting the wanton destruction of the environment, or welcoming newly arrived refugees, we find salvation that is closer to the shalom of Scripture. These disciplines lead us deeper into the compelling and radical ways of Jesus. As educated, wealthy North Americans, the greatest saving might come to us as we are liberated from our unholy apathy and poisonous indifference to the majesty and misery of the world that God so loves."

--Geoff Maddock in An Emergent Manifesto of Hope

2 comments:

Tmom said...

Hey Kristy- I have enjoyed your posting's on Robert's blog so I decided to look for yours- what a delight! Sort of like our conversations- all over the map- I was going to ask you to lunch but you sound tied up- I hope you feel better soon- I am holding on to your posters and Maximum Ride- tell me where to deliver and I will drop it by.

Terry

Ferny. said...

I guess that means that we'll just have to backpack our way up to Virginia, yes?! yessss!