Four days of "whaaaa??"

On Friday, I had my first Animal Behavior exam. I have to admit that I could've pushed myself to study harder, but I got complacent and a little bit cocky and thought I wouldn't need it, plus I was cleaning like a fiend for the impending arrival of Jammy Jam. So on Thursday night I gave my book the finger and snuggled under the covers around 1am.

I woke up on Friday at 6:30, pretty much the second I have to be out of the house. I rushed a shower, threw on clothes and ran out the door. I sped to the T and studied all the way to Davis. Somehow I had the tremendous luck of arriving in Davis Square at 7:55, which is nothing short of amazing considering how slow the T normally is. I waited for the bus for a bit, then had to brave the frozen sidewalks.

I took the test in sharpie (seriously idiotic) and then read on the exam directions that any text outside the answer boxes would not be graded. Great, I thought, about half my exam is outside the box, but it was too late. This made me a bit frustrated, that and the fact that my professor refused to let anyone leave the room until all exams had been handed in in order to limit "disturbance.'' Ugh. I left sufficiently irritated. I started to walk to the bus stop and of course, the Tufts shuttle isn't there. So I walk to the MBTA bus stop. I wait til 9:40 and no bus. Having waited nearly 40 minutes the day before for a bus, I decided to just walk to Davis. I made it maybe 1/4 of the way there when I realized I only had one glove. Dammit, I thought. I weighed getting to work on time against the importance of the glove for a few seconds and decided I would walk as far at the bus stop and if I didn't find it, I'd go to work and abandon the missing glove forever.

Just as I spun around and started back up the sidewalk, I see out of the corner of my eye a strange motion. Then, as if in slow motion, I see a taxi turn awkwardly, cross the double yellow line and whale a small black pick-up truck. There was no sound - no brakes screeching, no skidding, just the horrible sound of two large glass and metal objects hitting each other. I stood frozen to the sidewalk for a few seconds, my mouth hanging open, ipod blasting in my ears. Holy crap! Two students were right next to the scene when it happened, and I expected them to help. No. They shrugged and walked away. This was so horrifying to me! What if people were hurt!! No one passing by in cars pulled over either. This made me so angry. Not that I have any first aid experience beyond what I learned in lifeguard training, I do know what it's like to be in a car accident and be scared, so I figured at the very least I could call 911 and reassure the people that help was on the way. As I reached the scene, I noticed a spiderweb crack in the windshield in front of the driver. Sh*t, I thought, the driver hit his head. The driver leaped out of the seat and practically ran into traffic saying "he hit us!!" I approached him. "Sir?" I said "Did you hit your head just now?" "No!" he cried, feeling his head, "Am I bleeding, am I hurt??" "No," I said, trying to be as calm as possible, "but I am concerned about the crack in your windshield. Usually a crack like that means you hit your head on it." "Don't worry about me just help my wife!" Um, where would she be? I wondered. I approached the truck. Slumped over in the passenger's seat, eyes closed, was this man's wife. I swear to you, I sent three wishes to the heavens above when I saw her: please be conscious, breathing and NOT bleeding. "Ma'am, can you hear me?" I asked. "Yes" she answered fairly calmly. Score. Breathing and conscious, check. "What hurts?" "My ribs hurt so bad." "Are you bleeding?" "No." Score again. My mind races. Ribs - could be broken, could puncture a lung. Could also be her side hurting from a ruptured spleen. And a whole bunch of other crap that I have no idea about. Survey says: don't move, no matter what. "Ok, I'm gonna ask you to do me a huge favor," I say, "you absolutely can't move, unless you think that you can breathe better in a different position. You just need to hang on for a few minutes." "Ok" she says. Eeek. A woman driving by casually asks if she should call 911. OH MY GOD WHAT DO YOU THINK??? "Yes, please" I say. "Do you need an ambulance." Now I'm getting annoyed. "YES" I yell at her "A woman is HURT." Meanwhile her husband is saying to me "why'd he hit us, he just came out of nowhere. why did this happen, is she ok? why?" I am uselessly patting his wife's arm saying 'you're doing great, hang in, just a few more minutes' while simultaneously telling this man, who I'm sure has hit his head and is hurt a lot more than he realizes that I saw everything, that I'm staying with him until the police arrive and that his wife is doing great. I turned off his truck because it was running ragged and I'm sure the vibration wasn't too great for his wife. She eased her seat belt off too. "See?" I said to the husband "your wife had her seat belt on. That is the most important thing here, that is the best case scenario." I realized that I was slightly talking out of my ass, but hey, if he felt better, that's most important. Finally the Tufts Campus Police arrive. Hooray! I thought, someone with training! HA yeah right. The officer sticks his head in the car "Ma'am, where's it hurt?" "My ribs!" she says. "Yeah ok, um hang in there." He looks at me "stay with her, ok?" Um HI, you're a police officer (Tufts has bona fide police officers, not fake cops) don't leave me alone with injured woman. It turns out he had to deal with the taxi driver, who was of course, denying everything. Finally EMS arrived and started working on the crash lady, whose name was, of all things, Elvira. I gave the Tufts police my business card and patted husband on the back and told him his wife would be ok. "God bless you, thank you so much, oh God bless you, I love you" he said. Awwrr, poor guy. I walked on my way, back down the icy sidewalk to Davis.

Once at work I got back into platelet donation. It kicks the crap out of me when I do it, but I have a high platelet count, and so many of the patients I deal with need platelets. It's my way of helping them out, since I'm not a doctor or nurse directly involved in their care. I got to watch the Discovery Channel for almost 2 hours so it was worth it. Then because I was full of self-pity for the insane day I had had, I walked up to "Nail Spa by Time" (don't ask cause I don't get it either) where I had a much-needed pedicure. The girl who did my feet went all out because I waited for nearly 45 minutes and she felt bad. I tipped her well because I realized that I had been a jerk while waiting and had given people evil looks. Before I left she oiled my feet and wrapped them in plastic bags, then helped me put on my socks and sneakers. Awesome.

I called up Rachela and asked her if she wanted to meet for drinks cause Jam's bus was delayed. We agreed to meet in Copley, and after wandering for a few minutes, we decided to head to Stuart Street because there are several drinking options there. We settled on a Chinese food restaurant Jam and I had drinks in once before. It's a cozy little spot with a nice bar upstairs. A very swanky-looking crowd was finishing up dinner when we arrived, and I think my tipsy and loud voice kind of drove them out because I was getting the evil eye from one of the guys. OH WELL. After a round Rach and I were sufficiently warmed up, and then of course I pressured her into another round. By then, we were feeling really happy. We bundled up and took off, much to the sadness of the bartender, whom I think we were entertaining, about 5 minutes after Jam texted that he was in Boston - eek! We were hunched over like old ladies walking down Tremont to Park, laughing like hyenas the entire time. As we went up the escalator at South Station, our general noise and ridiculousness caught Jam's attention and he watched us, horrified, as we giggled up the escalator. We talked him into venturing out into the city for some food and ended up back at Stuart and Tremont for a quick bite at Bennigan's. I hadn't been there since about the 8th grade - good lord was it delicious. It's not anything THAT special, but it was perfect for us. After seeing Rachel off, Jam and I returned home and passed out. Lovely.

The rest of the weekend flew by. There was some excellent parallel parking practice. We visited Amy, who's house sitting a few towns away. Jam drove and did an excellent job of it. We made homemade pizzas, watched National Geographic's "In the Womb: Multiples" and "Ugly Betty" on TiVo, then headed out to catch "Norbit" which I found hilariously funny. "How YOU doin?" Heh. A sad attempt was made to watch "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" but I fell fast asleep. Sunday was quiet - we went to see "Babel" which I thought was freakin' brilliant, and Jamaal drove a lot once again. I told my coworkers that I made him drive me to Whole Foods, and Laura said that that was about the cruelest thing I could've done because the parking lot is INSANE. Tee hee, well he needs experience in all of life's situations, and he did well there :) My mother made a turkey dinner which was amazing, and I made dessert, and I will absolutely pat myself on the back for it, the apple crisp was delicious.

On Monday I had to bring Jam to the bus (sadness!!) but we managed to get him there early for a change, so I was glad that he wouldn't be rolling in at midnight or some other ungodly hour. I then went home and attempted to start sewing about 1, 582 times but was interrupted. At 4pm I started piecing a quilt for my friend's birthday (it's in 2 weeks. aaand I don't think she reads this blog. Ek, I hope not at least!!!) I finished all the blocks at 10 and was so pleased. I then laid them out and thought they were rather fugly. I'm stuck though. I'm not going to remake the quilt, I don't have time, as I have a Conservation Bio exam I have to dedicate the next 8 days to study-wise. See it's super fugly in pictures (to come, I promise) but maybe not so bad in person? I can only hope. ek.

Today I'm so tired and cranky. I admit it. Quilting last night f*cked up my wrist something awful, and now I have quilting class tonight. Errrr. Guess I'll just have to deal with it. I keep cracking it, which is probably bad, but it feels totally frozen. Damn sewing addiction!