The Next Step

So I’ve been sick since Thursday, and it would figure sleep, that so-called ‘cure for all sickness,’ would do everything in its power to elude me when I need it most. It all started with a cough. A cough that grew into headaches, dizziness, fever, and the accursed “chills” that kept my body guessing as to how it actually felt about the current room temperature. Those thousand-times-damned chills robbed me of the sandman’s sweet blessing for two full nights. And today (well, technically yesterday. *sigh*) I finally decided I wasn’t going to put up with it anymore. I was going to the doctor.

So, with Lauren ever vigilant by my side, I ventured out into the city of Boston. Destination: Massachusetts General Hospital. After an easy – perhaps too easy – ride on the T, we arrived at our destination and entered… the Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary. The illusory building had obviously been placed as a trap, perfectly located to lead us astray and to prevent me from reaching a true physician. Fortunately, at least one soul in that building had not been utterly consumed by its evil, and pointed us toward the elevator-and freedom. I mean the real hospital.

Now the dramatic tone wouldn’t work so well with the events that occurred inside the hospital. I believe that the feeling of frustration in trying to be seen is something akin to the feeling one gets when one has just boarded the space station and is immediately confronted by the Shadow Lord himself, vorpal blade at the ready. Or perhaps the feeling is closer to that of a text-based adventurer, longing only to know that precious magic verb the game so adamantly requires of him. Throw? Toss? Hurl? Chuck? Heave? There are no hints in that graphics-forsaken land. Suffice to say that after hours registering and waiting and waiting and finally being seen, I am fifty-four dollars poorer and one bottle of nasonex and one bottle of something else richer. I apologize for the confusing structure of that last sentence. Go back and read it again if you have to, it’s ok.

And it would figure that tonight, my problem would change. I find it highly suspicious that, despite the doctor prescribing nothing to stop the chills, they went away tonight by themselves. Coincedence? I think not. I don’t know what’s going on, but I assure you it is evil of the highest magnitude. Because now, with all of this doctor’s favorite ‘cough suppressing drugs’, it is just that – the cough – that is keeping me awake tonight. That is all.

Ok people, enough is enough. Yes, the tsunami was a terrible disaster. Yes, I am glad to see that America can be so generous. But honestly, if we can do it now, why can’t we do it all the time? This tsunami hit once, and yes, it killed quite a lot of people, and caused quite a lot of grief, and forever changed millions of lives. But every year millions of people die from bigger problems like, oh, I don’t know, AIDS for instance. And that shows absolutely no signs of going away. In fact, it’s getting worse. But people just can’t seem to focus on a really bad problem when another one is so sudden and dramatic. Is it an American thing that our attention spans just gave up on thinking about the aids problem? Or is everyone so ignorant?

Ok, a little deeper than most posts. I just get sick of not being able to visit a website without seeing a “DONATE TO TSUNAMI RELIEF FUND!!!!!” button.

That’s right. AN UPDATE. I went skiing with Lauren over the weekend at Ragged Mountain and had a great time. The slopes were a little icy, but I think that helped keep some of the crowds away. I fell like six times, but most of those were toward the beginning of the day. I got my ski legs back later on, but Lauren’s still like a million times better than me. Ah well.

I got my first paycheck this week, it was very nice, and I’m going to be using a small piece of it to buy Resident Evil 4 in about half an hour. About time, too. Ethan and I braved the -8 degree wind chill to get to Best Buy last night, only to find out that they were sold out. Stupid Best Buy. Hopefully Gamestop hasn’t sold out since I called 2 hours ago, and I’ll be scaring myself to death tonight. That’s all for now.