Emergency Rooms, And Fireworks, And D-Bags, Oh My!

It's been an exciting couple of days. I started taking a new medication about a week and a half ago, and have had some minor side effects (not too crazy about my uber vivid dreams). When I woke up Friday morning the left side of my face was tingly and a little numb. I thought that this was probably due to my mutinous sinuses, but when the numbness in my left arm (I slept on it) wouldn't go away, I got a little concerned. I knew that if I went to the urgent care clinic and told them that I had numbness in my left side they would send me to the ER, so we decided to skip that step and just head to the ER first.

The closest hospital to us is St. Joseph's. The hospital is surrounded by farmland and there were several dozen cows across the road from the entrance. It felt a little like the Appalachian Emergency Room bit from SNL.

It turns out that my sinuses are so messed up and inept at draining properly that the pressure and lack of drainage caused all of the numbness. WTF!? After some steroids, pseudoephedrine, and a day of tingly numbness, my left eyeball no longer felt like it was trying to escape its socket.

Since I was feeling much better and was reassured that I was not having a stroke, we went to our local fireworks show last night. The show was a lot of fun and watching Charlotte was even more fun than watching the fireworks. She told us that "everyone is a little gared (scared) of the fireworks". About half way into the show she was not longer scared and provided a running commentary on the colors, shapes, and size of the fireworks. She literally chattered non-stop for the whole thing.

We got to the park early so that we would have a good spot, and as the evening progressed we got a few "interesting" neighbors. A guy showed up and with great bravado started wrapping a strap around the tree behind us. He hollered to people sitting by "you probably think that I'm nuts, just wait". Even if we hadn't turned around to look, his loud conversation with himself would have informed us that he was setting up a hammock. Satisfied with his accomplishment he announced "I have the best seat in the house. No shirt, no shoes, no problem". We did not turn around for that.

Later in the evening hammock guy tried to convince one of the college students sitting behind us to get in the hammock. Here's part of the conversation.

hammock guy: "It's really comfortable, you should get in"

college guy: "No, that's OK."

hammock guy: "Give it a try."

college guy: "Nah, I'm too big."

hammock guy: "It can hold up to 400lbs."

college guy: "I weigh 405."

hammock guy: "This is the double nest, that's why it has so much fabric. There's a single nest with less fabric. I got the double nest so that I can cocoon myseld when I'm outside so that I don't get attacked by bugs."

college guy: "Hmm"

This continued for a few more minutes until hammock guy finally figured out that no one was really listening to him.

We also had a very large group of people in front of us. They were not drinking, and therefore had no excuse for their behavior. As soon as it was dark, one of them took out a large camera and proceeded to snap pictures of his companions ceaselessly, blinding us with his flash in the process. One of his companions, presumably motivated by the camera and the Village People playing on the loudspeakers, began a weird "humpy" dance replete with arm movements, but luckily no singing. Seeing humpy guy's dancing being rewarded with picture taking, several of his companion stood up and began to imitate him.

I can just imagine Monday's water cooler conversation.

camera guy: "You should have see us at the fireworks. It was a wild night."

co-worker: "Yeah? What happened?"

camera guy: "Marty got all crazy and started dancing to the Village People. I got the pics to prove it."

co-worker: "Hmm..."

camera guy: "Then everyone got up and started dancing. It was crazy."

co-worker: "Is he still staying with you?"

camera guy: "Yeah. His wife hasn't allowed him back in the house, since she filed the paperwork."

I always feel like an anthropologist when I'm around a big crowd of people.