I spent the afternoon and evening at the ER. For the boyfriend. I'm fine. Diagnosis: a kidney stone. It'll pass on its own in time. But now we know. Also, some dehydration, but that one was not a shock.
Three hours in the waiting room where there were NO MAGAZINES. Have you ever heard such a thing? NONE. Not even one years old People. So, I hung out and tried to make eye contact with the staff and watched various judge shows on the waiting room TV.
Then we spend another hour or so in the first exam room before I spotted a Time magazine on a shelf! And it was only from early August! I didn't even get to finish it before they came and moved us to another room.
The new room was directly across the hall from the magazine rack. And that was where I scored big: a New Yorker from June. I read a fair bit of it and then the boyfriend got to feeling better (and therefore suddenly realized exactly how boring the room actually was in practice. He understood in theory before that.) so I went back and read a couple of stories out loud.
I offered him the New Yorker before I started reading it, but he said no and I wasn't giving it up. And he didn't want the Time. So outloud was a reasonable comprimise. Plus I like reading aloud and don't get to do much of it since I stopped being a camp counselor.
So, that's how I spent most of my day. Just hanging out at the hospital. And everything's okay.
