Stop the Excitement!

I think I've mentioned before that I need to stop complaining about how boring my life is because I don't like it when it gets exciting. Yesterday was one of those times.

I stopped by my parents' house after work and my dad says that his hand is tingling, and because he hasn't heard back from his doctor's office, he's going to the emergency room. Instant stress. I drove him and my mom to the hospital and I'm worried the whole time that he's having a heart attack. He was worried he was having a stroke. And we had to wait before they took him in and checked his blood pressure, pulse, etc.

Then more waiting before they took him in for a CAT scan, then more waiting to see the doctor to get the results. Really, really, really a lot of waiting. Even when they called him back to a room, the waiting wasn't over. They wanted more tests and that took another 2 hours worth of time. In total, we spent 6 hours in the emergency room last night.

My dad is fine. They think it's just a pinched nerve, thank God. He has a follow up appointment with his own doctor next week just to be safe, but it sounds like all is well.

Because I didn't get home until late last night and then it took me quite a while to relax enough to sleep, I didn't hear the alarm this morning. :-( I woke up ten minutes before I had to be out the door. I took the fastest shower ever and I did make it to the Evil Day Job (EDJ) on time, but I didn't have a chance to check the web or read email, let alone answer anyone.

So, please bear with me. I'll get to all the notes and comments before I go to bed tonight, but I'm running behind in a lot of areas right now.

Culture Talk

I found out yesterday that the Pompeii exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota is open. I'd heard this was coming, but I was on deadline for In Twilight's Shadow and I completely forgot about it until I saw the article in the paper yesterday.

There was some other Pompeii exhibit that went through Chicago like a year or two ago. I heard about it after the fact, though, and hadn't gotten the chance to drive down to see it. I was disappointed by that because it sounded really interesting, but driving to St. Paul is much better than going to Chicago. :-) So it's all working out just fine. I'll be waiting to go until after the kids are back in school. :-) I'm thinking after Labor Day sometime.

I also discovered yesterday that the Guthrie Theater is doing a production of 1776. That's one of my favorite musicals ever! I even own the movie on DVD as well as having a couple of copies on VHS tape.

The Guthrie used to send me a mailing every year to let me know what shows are playing for the season, but I didn't get one this time around. :-( And when I went to check ticket availability on the theater website, all that dates I wanted to attend were marked "limited." :-( Guess I won't get to see 1776 live. That's a huge disappointment.

I found out about 1776 because the Guthrie Theater is on MySpace and sent out a bulletin. Now that's modern theater!

Revisions continue and I think they're going well enough. I'm actually thinking I might, just might, end up with enough time to do a straight read through for nitpicky smoothing stuff. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I have one more big, time consuming issue to tackle, and if that ends up being more difficult than I anticipate, that extra time might disappear.

Too Much Excitement

I always complain about how boring things are and that nothing exciting ever happens. Then, if something does, I usually comment about how boring isn't a bad thing. Well, here we go, boring isn't a bad thing. I'll start from my beginning.

Yesterday morning, I left for work around 5:30am like I do every day. As I'm pulling out of the driveway, I see this one tire track cutting through the snow between my driveway and the street. I'm like, huh, someone must have used my driveway to turn around and misjudged when to turn their steering wheel. When I arrived home from work, I took a closer look and was relieved to see there'd been enough snow piled up there to protect my sod. Hey, that stuff isn't cheap and I did endlessly haul hoses around last summer--I feel emotionally invested in this lawn.

It wasn't until later that I found out that my neighbor across the street and three houses down had things stolen out of her car. Then, if that weren't enough, I find out the neighbor across the street and one house down had his SUV stolen out of his driveway. =8-O

This neighbor said they think it happened between midnight and six in the morning, but I think the window was probably smaller than that. I was in my kitchen by 4:15, probably a little earlier than that, and the windows over my sink face their driveway. I would have seen any lights there and it was totally dark. The other reason I think it happened earlier was that tire track in my yard. I think it was the thieves. It makes sense. They needed to turn the vehicle around, I have a little jut-out in my driveway so that I can turn my SUV around. So I bet they pulled in, turned around, and in their rush to getaway with grand theft auto, they took the turn too tight.

This is incredible. My neighborhood is quiet. The last time we had the police here was like four years ago when the kid across the street had a huge party and it took six squad cars to break it up. Nothing happens here and that's the way I like it. Of course, I immediately flashed back to the night I forgot to shut my garage door last fall. I've been kind of paranoid since then, double checking it every night before I go to bed. Last night, I checked it a few times.

This didn't stop me from sleeping last night, and sleeping hard. :-) I'm too exhausted right now to stay up worrying about it. Besides, I figure rifling through vehicles in people's driveways--even stealing a car out of a driveway--is a big step below breaking into someone's house. And if I'm wrong, please don't tell me! I'm happier believing this.

Things can go back to boring any time now. I'd far prefer it.