f.blog

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just how i feel.
friday night.
before bed.
peace.

Chill

Blogged with Flock

i definitely feel better today. im still a bit dozed out with the meds im taking, this strong ubiprofen pills, but its all good. chilling out at home listening to some music. im gonna finish the fourth season of six feet under, eat some zachary’s chicago pizza and sleep.

i have lots to do this weekend walking around all over the place looking at apartments.

at least i can swallow again without pain.

Blogged with Flock

so i had my first ER experience here in the US, and I must say i’m pleasantly surprised. of course, having heard horror stories i was expecting something much worse, but definitely compared to all the other experiences i’ve had this was the best.

so why did i go? i’ve been having this big swollen gland on my throat since sunday. and although i don’t have fever, sore throat or anything weird like that (besides an eye infection, but that’s another story), well this gland hurts like crazy. it’s on the right side of my neck and i can feel it all the time… this small pressure everytime i swallow or move my head or take a deep breath.

what was concerning me was the fact that when i turned my head to the left, the pain was really really enormous. and i’m not that sensitive to pain. it just hurt like crazy when i swalloed. i feel this big sharp thing stabbing my neck or something, really bizarre.

so after getting several cancellations from my doctor, a local pharmacist mentioned i should go instead to the ER. so i did. ended up staying there for almost four hours, most of the time just sitting around waiting for things to happen.

they were great. i couldn’t give more praise to the people that attended me. in the end? nothing serious. i did get some thing that looked like glue that when i swallowed completely numbed my throat… i literally couldn’t feel a thing when i swallowed after that.

they also gave me a steroids shot. haven’t had a steroids injection ever, and it kinda made my butt a bit sore. but it’s all good. will it do anything? who knows. they told me to keep checking to see if i get worse or not and if it does, then i should go immediately to the ER again.

in the meantime i now have an appt with my doctor again on monday, so i think i’ll still keep that one and do a routine exam then if my throat still hurts.

you never know. my official nurse diagnosis is ’sore throat’. sounds weird cause i don’t feel any pain inside my throat at all. we’ll see.

with steroids now who knows haha

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so the day started great. all happy, after helping out a good friend with her garage sale she lended me a towel so i could do my swimming practice in the bay.

so there i was, towel in hand, going to aquatic park to swim. couldn’t be more excited of course. it’s a month till my alcatraz swim and things are looking good. i park my car at this garage nearby, and of course leave all my valuables inside so i could swim in peace. i bring my back with towel and swimming gear, car keys and garage ticket. all ready.

beautiful day. water is great, barely anyone swimming, which i soon came to realize probably because the water was even colder than before. id say about 50F today. maybe 11C? anyway, with my wetsuit, i can do anything, so after a nice warm up session, i pack my bag, hide it closeby and go swimming.

and i swim. and i swim. a lot. i swam an equivalent distance to alcatraz which is just perfect. i even had a cramp midway through and kept swimming. which is great cause now i know what to do if that happens as well when the time comes.

as i swim, i keep stopping every so often to make sure the bag is still visible. every so often. until. i can’t see it anymore. fuck. that’s my first thought seriously. i swim as fast as i can back to the beach and nothing. no bag anywhere. im not a stressful kind of person, so i’m just like trying to think what to do. i walk around the park asking people if they had seen anything. i walk around wearing a wetsuit, cause obviously i don’t have my towel or my clothes to change to. i don’t have my car keys to go back to my car. i don’t have my house keys to go back to my house. i don’t have my wallet to get a cab or call a friend. i don’t have my cell phone to call someone. perfect. at least i left all those items safely inside my car.

somehow a homeless man feels pity of me and offers me an extra shirt that he had. i was freezing at this time, so obviously i accept the offer gladly. it just so happens its a small girls shirt. so there i am, right in the middle of fisherman’s wharf, walking around wearing a small girls shirt and a wetsuit waist down. tourists everywhere. thank god this is san francisco, at least no one really cares.

i can’t find police anywhere, so i try to go to a nearby rowing club. no luck. closed down. i sit outside and finally a member walks by and tries to help me out. gives me a bunch of quarters so i can use a public phone to call the cops. why the cops? dunno. it’s the only number i know by heart i guess, and maybe they could help.

but where’s a phone? i can’t find one anywhere, and i get annoyed and cold walking around with that damn top and wetsuit. another rowing club. wait outside on this one and eventually another member comes in. the thing is closed so no one is inside. they do have a public phone at least, so i sit down to warm up and call the cops. this nice woman is patient enough to try to help me as much as possible. they can’t pick me up and take me home, so she fishes around for my insurance’s phone number, trying to get a 1-800 number so i wouldn’t waste my quarters. she does a conference call eventually with them and explains to them the situation. basically, that i’m broke, alone, locked out of my car and house, with no money or clothes. the insurance lady tries helping me out, but to no avail.

my car is parked in a garage, which means no tow service can come by and pick it up. my car has a special alarm system that if a locksmith would come by, the alarm wouldn’t stop ringing unless they’d break the system. and then, the car would be impossible to use, until i’d take him back to the dealership to get it reset. and obviously, they can’t get me a ride anywhere, cause my wallet is locked inside the car.

fun.

at this point, it’s almost night and my ass is freezing. so i give up and decide that the best option for me right now is to walk out and walk all the way downtown through san francisco to get to my friend’s place. i know she’d help me out and i know she’d drive me home. but i really can’t handle the cold. at this point i’m all shaky, really really cold. so i go to the locker room of this rowing club, splash some warm water around me and i find a towel, a pair of pants and a pair of shoes. they all fit me.

no one is around to tell them, so i just take my wetsuit off, wear the pants and the shoes and dry myself so i can walk all the way across town to get to my friend’s place. i feel horrible. i guess this is stealing, but i know i can bring the clothes back the next morning and ask for mercy or something. either way, i do it. i walk all across town carrying my wetsuit with me, these shoes that are not even shoes, but something like rowing shoes.

i finally get to my friend’s place, and thank god, my friend is there with another friend of ours who has a car. they help me out. i have tea, warm up and we’re ready. we all drive together back to my place in oakland. a neighbor of mine opens the gate for us thankfully, so we can park inside the car. but then i dont have my house keys, so i try to find my manager who doesn’t answer the door. no cell phone with me, means i don’t know his number, so i knock on another neighbor’s door and after explaining what happened she gives me his number and we call him. he’s here! happiness. he hands me the key, i pick up my spare car key and my friends drive me all the way back to the garage in the city.

my car is still there. after paying the “lost” ticket i take my car out and we all drive together ast 11pm to finally eat something. we go to sparky’s, my favorite comfy food in town. open 24/7. good music, great food, nice people. after a bad day, always brings back a smile to me. so there i am. me, tiffany and marissa. and we’re cheering with glasses of water to what became an unforgettable day.

i just hope tomorrow those guys don’t kill me when i hand them back their clothes.