On The First Day of Christmas, My Best Friend Gave To Me... A Trip to th'Emergency Rooooom

the day started with me taking john to the ER. a friend of his came over last night, dropped a glass coaster and broke it, and john managed to step on a sliver and cut himself fairly deeply. after bleeding everywhere - which i had to clean up, mind you, as the gay boys were all drunk and passing out - he went to bed instead of letting me take him to the hospital. in the morning, it still hurt and was still oozing blood a little, so i insisted on taking him in. the hospital in question - holy cross - was totally worth the trip. not only was it beautiful, with reflecting ponds and lovely mosaics, but very entertaining as well. outside was a HUGE nativity scene. since it was christmas day, we decided to join in with the fun.

after winding our way through the maze to the ER (john simply parked at the main entrance, not the ER entrance), we checked in and then waited to be called. our journey was helped by the adorable signs that let us know where to go.

after a short wait, john's name was called. since there was nothing else for me to do but sit around and be bored, i went with. the triage nurse went through all the standard questions and whatnot, but she was very fun - smartass-y and joking with us. she asked about medical history and as john explained, she jotted it down on his chart.

"now, do you smoke, drink, or do drugs?"

"um, i smoke and drink. i haven't done drugs in a long time, but i used to. wait, i cut my foot - is that relevant?"

"well, i like to ask. it gets very boring up here, and i like to make conversation. it's all strictly for the entertainment of the triage nurse, really."

we both burst out laughing. we were shown to room and hung out for a little while. i spent my time keeping john from accidentally destroying expensive medical equipment until we figured out how to work the tv and put on the travel channel. in the end, john didn't get stitches because he waited too long to come in - he should've come in the night before like i told him - but had an x-ray to make sure all the glass was out and a tetanus shot. it really didn't take long for an ER visit, and was quite entertaining, all in all.

then we had to find our way back to the car. after getting lost twice (once in the "ambulance only" area, where we definitely shouldn't have been), we asked the hot security guard how to get back to the main entrance. turns out, you can't get to the main entrance from the emergency wing without a security card which, luckily, the guard had. we retraced our steps and somehow ended up lost again. but we found a very pretty area outside the cafeteria, with bistro tables and a water feature. and absolutely NO smoking. this time, a nurse saw us looking around confusedly, took pity on us, and pointed us in the right direction. we (finally) made our way out to the car and back to john's to relax for a bit before heading out to dinner. so that was a fun-filled christmas afternoon. never a dull moment...