Big Things and Little Things

Last week, my dad cut off two of his fingers on his right hand in a hedge trimmer vs. hand accident. I got the call at 3:40pm when I was 40 min into my rush hour trip to Seattle for the Swedish table. He called me before the ambulance to tell me he was bleeding in the driveway and that I needed to come get him. I told him to call 911 and that I would get there as soon as possible. I drove home as quickly as I could (legally and safely), just in time to hop in the ambulance, which headed to Harborview for an attempted revascularization and reattachment of the two fingers. I stayed with him during the first few hours of being in the Emergency Room and getting all of the preliminary pre-op stuff.

His current girlfriend, J.J., was there too. I spent the evening and night with her there in the waiting room, until my dad was done with surgery and such at around 4 am. His surgery lasted about 5 hours. We left the hospital around 4:30 and she took me back up to Everett. This was nice of her, especially since I hadn't met her before that day (what a way to get introduced). My mom had come up and cleaned up all of the leaf cuttings and the mess, which was wonderful. I think I would have been too tired to take it at that point. I also had to get up early-ish the next morning to take my dad's diabetic meds down to him.

Since then, I've been pruning (by hand, I don't use electric tools) like mad to get as much done as possible before my dad comes home. I also babysat almost-one-year-old Trevor from Friday-Monday. I missed the ferry. Twice. I've been paying the bills for my dad and forging his signature because his right hand is too bandaged to write with. I've been going down to Harborview every day with deliveries of shampoo, shoes, news, letters, flowers, snacks, etc. Sometimes in rush-hour traffic. I've also been getting the house all cleaned up and stocked up with easy-to-eat food for when my dad comes home. I had to do some last-minute planning lest my upcoming trip to Utah wouldn't work out. My brother needed keys and instructions on how to get into the apartment in Stockholm (he's leaving for a trip soon) so I delivered those to Kirkland. The dryer broke, but I fixed it. I lost my sunglasses. My dad dropped his phone in the toilet at the hospital and I had to make an emergency trip down there with a hairdryer to dry it out and a temporary spare phone. The door hinge broke when my dad ran in the house, and I'm about to fix that. My dad had just bought a whole bunch of flowers to plant, so I got them all planted today so they won't die, because he won't be able to do them. I ran out of mousse. I ran out of sunblock. I feel like it's finals week.

Basically, it's been a week of it.

BUT... I have wonderful friends and they have helped me out a lot. (Thank you!!!) My mom is amazing and has also been super helpful. John was super nice and read me a story on the phone until I fell asleep. I got to go to a "luau" on Sunday on Whidby with Joo's family. It turns out the trip to Utah is still a go, and we're leaving tomorrow morning as originally planned. Everything that needed to get done, got done. Right now, it looks like my dad's fingers are attached and doing well (he's in the hospital for a few more days for evaluation). My brother is now back in town. The weather has been beautiful, and I haven't gotten sunburned. I finally got to prune the lopsided dogwood. I made it to Fred Meyer by 11pm tonight (5 min to spare) to get a new pair of sunglasses for the trip. They also had the sunblock I needed. I learned on the radio in the car that dancing is a particularly good way to relieve stress, and that made me smile. And finally, I got 10 cents off on my gas at Safeway, paid $2.91 per gallon, and since I wasn't TOTALLY on empty, I filled up for under $20.

And things are now feeling pretty good.

To everyone that I'm delayed responding to via phone or email... I promise I will reply soon! There just wasn't time for any computer time this week. Tomorrow I'm going to be on a 14 hour road trip, then I'm going to help Jess and Brett move houses in Utah, but I'm going to John's parent's house on Sunday, and it is certainly internet-connected.