Granny My granny went to the hospital last night. My mom called me at 1030 pm and said, "Grandma's fallen and is hurt really bad. The ambulance is on the way." I went to the hospital as soon as I could. I beat the ambulance there. I left as soon as my mom called, and the ambulance hadn't got there yet, and still had to get her stabalized or whatever, and in the ambulance. My mom said three patrol cars, and a fire engine showed up. They were questioning my poor granny, lying there in her own blood, to make sure my parents didn't do it to her. She fell in the bathroom and hit her head. She opened an artery, and lost a lot of blood. She had to have stitches, and she's being treated for a concussion. The CAT scan showed everything normal. She also broke her shoulder. She looked so frail and pitiful lying there, her hair matted with blood, and flecks of dried blood all over her face, haloing her head on the pillow... just... everywhere. She'll be okay we think. Sore as hell, since they can't give her anything but tylenol, but okay. She was coherent. She looked at me and said, "It's good to see you." I said, "It's good to see you too, but not here!" And she replied, "Well, I didn't know the last time you saw me that the next time you saw me would be here." She was worried about her hair. She wanted my mom to fix her hair for her. My granny's pretty amazing. She's 94, and while my parents live with her, does everything for herself mostly. She walks with a cane that she doesn't need and usually leaves standing somewhere. She has better vision than the rest of my family, and only really needs her glasses to read, which she loves to do and does a lot of. She's even started drawing and painting for fun. She writes little poems for people she cares about. She can't hear for crap, but hey, no one's perfect. Her memory is as sharp as a tack for past events, but is a little iffy on recent things, but for 94... damn. My parent's take her to church most every Sunday. She cooks her own breakfast and lunch, and always cooks something for dinner. To her dinner isn't dinner unless she brings beans to the table. Years and years ago, probably 20 years or more, she fell down the stairs to the basement and broke her back. She has a bit of a stoop now, and sometimes it hurts her, but she's pretty spry for her age. She's had half her colon removed because of colon cancer. She broke her arm falling in the living room a few years ago. She's been through a lot in her 94 years. When she was younger she was the school teacher in a little one room school house. When my mother went to college, my grandmother went back to college, too. She taught for years and years in White House, going from a one room schoolhouse to near what it is today, and almost anybody that went to White House schools while she taught there will remember her fondly. She was married to my grandfather for over 50 years. I don't remember how long exactly. He died almost 10 years ago. She's the only surviving member of her extensive siblings. She had 13 other brothers and sisters. She's definitely an amazing woman. Cheers to you granny!

People Suck: Episode 3 The most annoying thing happened to me today. I should start by saying that I look forward, with great pleasure, to the time in my day when I can lock my computer at work, grab whatever book I'm reading at the moment, and go to the cafeteria at my work with a bag of chips or a candy bar, and read in relative peace and quiet for fifteen or so minutes. Normally, around 4 o'clock, it's empty, or if it's not empty, it's very quiet. I'm currently reading a wonderful book I picked up in the Netherlands. "The Discovery of Heaven" by Harry Mulisch, published in Dutch originally as "De ontdekking van de hemel". It's not a religious book, but a philosophical one. It starts with the meeting of two individuals that are thrown together by fate, through the interference of heaven, to help produce a boy that is responsible for getting the Ark of the Covenant back to heaven. Because of free will, the angels responsible for retrieving it cannot directly intefere and must arrange things so that what they want has a better chance of happening. I know, it sounds religious, but I really enjoyed it, and my very very religious mother and father absolutely hated the movie. Probably thought it was sacreligious or something. It's quite a wonderful movie as well, beautifully done, taking you all over Europe. Read it, watch it, enjoy it. You'll be glad you did. Anyway, I'm immersed in my book, and two people, a man and woman, and come in, laughing at talking *very* loudly about... you guessed it... the Bible. I don't really like hearing or discussing the Bible at the best of times. But these two individuals must fill up the intire room with their innane babbling about how other religions are wrong because this book that Christianity is based on says so. And of course, instead of sitting on the other side of the room from me, they get a table right near me. Blarg. People suck.

Pictures! Pictures from our trip in Holland are now available in the pictures area of my site.

Our Friends! On request (of Robbie), I've uploaded some pictures of our friends from Utrecht in the Netherlands, David, Erik, and Dennis.

Erik, David and Daryl


Erik


David


Dennis and Erik


David, Dennis and Erik

Pictures I have pictures to post, but I don't have PSP installed on this computer yet to edit them to a decent size for uploading and viewing and stuff. But there's one picture I just hafta post. It's big, but oh well.

That was in the Sex Museum in Amsterdam. And here's one of me lookin all cracked out that I just kinda liked.

Blog I haven't been able to update my blog while I was on vacation because I was a dork and forgot my password, and I was unable to check the email address I signed up under until I got home to get my password reminder. Anyway.

I'm so glad to be home. Of course, as I type this, I'm not at home. I'm at the airport in Amsterdam. Waiting. But I won't be posting this until I get home, so... I'm glad to be home. This has been a HORRIBLE day. We missed our flight. Oh yes, everything was conspiring against us. Our plane left at 1045. We left our apartment at 730. We should've had plenty of time. Our train was late. But that wasn't so bad. We got to the airport at around 900 or 915. We went to our gate, and got in line. That's where the problem was. There was a HUGE line of people, and only 2 people working the ticket counter. A lot of people missed their flights because of it. Fortunately for us, the airline realized the error of their ways and rescheduled us. So instead of getting home around 600 in the evening as planned, we should, I hope, be getting home around 10 or 11. The only problem is my ride. As I write this, it's still 5 in the morning at home. I hope I'm able to call them before the plane leaves, so they aren't waiting at the airport freaking out.

It's been a lot of fun, but I'm ready to be back in my own home. The apartment was great, spending time with Erik, David, and Dennis was a lot of fun, and I've enjoyed spending time with Daryl. But all good things must come to an end, and I want my own bed and my own computer and my own... STUFF. I'm antsy to go home. Our new flight doesn't leave here for another 2 hours at least. I don't know what I'm going to do until then. This new flight is longer than the one we were supposed to take as well. The one we were supposed to take was only 6 hours, with a stop-over and then another couple hours to wait for the flight to Nashville. This one is over 9 hours, going straight to Memphis. I hope I have some drugs that make me drowsy in my carry-on or this is gonna be a LONG ass flight.

Follow Up Yes, it WAS a long ass flight. But I'm home now. Spent Tuesday relaxing, and now I'm leaving for work. Ta!