Mostly a good week, except for Friday, which was harrowing in the extreme.
To begin with, it was the dreaded psych eval for surgery. First, the damn van service didn't listen when I told them it was Building B--which, as I soon found out, is NOT AT ALL the same as the building I was dropped at. And of course, by the time I was elucidated, the bus had left.
It was a warmish day, and I had to hike a block to the right building. Good thing I'd taken my cane. I arrived panting with exertion, but on time and still ahead of the person I was supposed to see.
She was quite young, but hey, I'm at the age where everyone looks young to me, so I tried to ignore the fact that I'm old enough to be her mum and focused on saying All the Right Things. She was making notes on a laptop as I talked, and THEN she announced that there was a True/False questionnaire on an iPad that I'd also need to do. 350 questions, no hurry.
No hurry, my ass. I had a ticket for
Avengers: Infinity War, bought specifically as a reward for getting through the eval--which I honestly didn't expect to be so fucking strenuous. I mean, I already did their damn 12 page fill-in-the-blank incredibly personal-detail-oriented preliminary, I thought I'd go in, review my answers with some nice therapist for an hour or so, and that would be that. Fortunately, I'm a fast reader, I just had to fight my tendency to overthink.
Taking it, I was reminded of the words of Hannibal Lector, who, when confronted with a similar test, chuckled and said, "Do you really think you can dissect me with that blunt little tool?". Because, really, I've been an amateur psychology buff from a very young age. My mother read books on child psychology, I read them, too, after she put them down. My sainted Aunt Mary had stacks of women's magazines, and I read the articles...usually there were case histories, which are stories, after all--and along the way, I've picked up more insights. (Hello, 13 seasons of
Criminal Minds!)
That made it fairly easy to tell which questions were there to sniff out depression, paranoia, schizophrenia, and the like. Sometimes, if I could tell that which answer was more desirable, I went with that, regardless of my actual thoughts on the subject. I'm getting cynical in my old age, but I did my best to project Optimism! Happiness! Sunshine! Flying unicorns shooting rainbows out their butts!
It was quite wearing, trying to think my way through all 350 questions and still git 'er done before 3, but I managed. And THEN, when I told the young lady I really need the results urgently, she tells me that oh, the therapist gets her notes and the e-test results and she'll send the results to the bariatric clinic. It'll take a few weeks.
I think my mouth may have fallen open; wait, I just poured out the story of my life to some clerk?! I am none too pleased about that. But hey, it was finally over, I got to the theater early enough to get a desirable seat, still riding the wave of optimism I'd poured into the test.
I'm not going to spoil anything, I'm just going to say that if you're at all invested in the MCU, you may want to take tissues and Xanax. And possibly a chamber-pot, because holy cannoli, it's long.
Afterward, I needed something to jolt me out of my fugue, so I was going to walk across the parking lot to the mall...do a little shopping, maybe grab some food...only to find out that there was construction going on, which meant walking way around the building. After the hike to Building B earlier, I had had it by then, so I found a bench and hailed a Lyft.
Usually, Friday is my big TV night. I'd already missed McGyver, a chunk of Hawaii 5-O, and was blah about Blue Bloods. I did tune in for Colbert, who started with an absolutely hysterical sketch about the size of the
Infinity War cast. I needed that!
Friday evening, I was in bed as soon as Colbert was over. Woke around 6, had breakfast...I was wiped out. I ended up laying down for an afternoon nap and sleeping for five hours, and despite my earlier nap, went to bed around 3 this morning--comparatively early for me!--and slept til 10:30.
Today I'm chipper, at least compared to yesterday. My back hates me, but it isn't grumbling nearly as badly as yesterday. I have had a couple dizzy moments, but yesterday it was outright debilitating. And despite being sub par, I've managed to Get Shit Done. I reorganized my hat shelf, which involved a lot of reaching and stretching, shifted some artwork and hung up a couple pieces, more reaching and stretching, and have a load of bedding in the laundry, because my sheets were due and my comforter was overdue. It's been a long winter!
The trees have leafed out--a bit earlier than usual this year--and the temps are playing games--warm, dare I say hot? during the day and into the overnight. Then I wake up (under only a sheet) around 6 a.m. going Fuck it's cold gimme a blanket! (And then I remind myself that Floridians probably already have their A/Cs on, and I don't feel so bad.)
In the spirit of "I needed that" (because I'm sure I'm far from the only one!), I wrote a wee MCU fix-it, total crack: "
It's Not the End of the World", which can be found here:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/14470800. Expect some discrete spoilers, although you won't recognize them as such if you haven't actually seen A:IW.
Meanwhile, I spent the majority of last week working on a happy little brain-eating fic that I naively went into thinking it might run 2 or 3 pages. It ended up being ten pages. Jeepers, as my heroine might say. It's one of those things that was purely a labor of love, since the audience for a Trixie Belden/Three Invesstigators crossover is pretty freakin' small.
The Guy in the Baby Blue Hearse:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/14423703Anyway, that's what's going on with me. Love to all!
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