dynamic elf

I would like to announce to the world how ready I am to no longer cancel plans due to last-minute illnesses. Frome here on out, I will make sure to schedule our illnesses at socially convenient times.

We went in with N for a quick checkup at the weekend pediatric clinic and wound up going through the ER and checking in to the hospital for a day and a half, since she apparently had pneumonia. N is a stoic little extrovert, so as soon as we had some visitors in the hospital room, she got up and started running around. We're home now, half a day early, and I am going to take a really really big nap in my really really big bed with my really really snuggly baby.

I just dropped my car off at the (reputable) auto body shop for repairs. Among the forms they asked me to sign was one that said, essentially, "all repairs have been satisfactorily completed by [body shop name]". I said, "well, I don't really feel comfortable signing this; can I come back in to do that?" and was told "oh, don't worry, we hang on to it until the end. It's just for insurance purposes."

"Uh, I still think I don't feel comfortable signing it..."

"oKAY, but, we're not letting the car go until it's paid for."

Well, sure, I wouldn't expect anything else. But she seemed so startled that I didn't want to sign, I have to wonder how many people don't read things they sign. I mean, I knew that that's how most people worked, but I figured they would at least notice something like "yes, you have already completed the work that I am just now asking you to do".

D: Oh good lord.
M: What?
D: She just grabbed both ends of the alarm clock and pulled it toward her face to gnaw on.
M: Tasty!
D: Terrifying.
M: Yes, maybe the desire to chew on everything and the love for electronics don't mesh so well.
D: Yeah -- maybe this is the period of time where buying electrical cords with blue LEDs in them is a bad idea.

[pause while M reflects on the cable she bought with blue LEDs in it the other day]

M: But it was shiny!
D: EXACTLY.

So, on the way home from fennel's tonight, I got hit by a car. That's not the interesting part. I'm fine. The entire driver's side of my car, bumper to bumper, is pretty well fucked, and I had to bend a panel a bit to get my door to open, but I was able to drive the car home. Really, I'm fine.

Here's how it went: I was driving up the street in the right lane, and a sedan full of drunk teenagers (one standing up out of the sunroof) ZOOMS forward, cuts a hard right, and bangs his front end into my door, spinning me 180 degrees. Sunroof guy gets a sunroof in the stomach and sits down, and the driver takes off. I note 5 out of 6 license plate digits (dammit!). Some car goes zooming off after the sedan and honks its horn a little, and I recover enough to pull my car off to the side of the road.

I immediately phone dilletante to say "I just got hit by a car but I'm fine", and before I can even finish the thought, a cop pulls up. I give him the part of the license plate I have, but apparently that's not enough. Crap. The witness who called it in didn't see the plate at all, so he files it as a hit and run, giving me an incident number to give it to my insurance company. We were heading back to our cars when a big shiny black SUV comes SCREECHING up behind us; apparently, this was the honking vehicle. They'd chased the Ship Of Assholes through a couple of towns to get the plate. Sadly, they misremembered one of the digits, too, but they had the make and model and color of the car and stood around discussing the incident with me and the cop for a while. They were adorable: a big guy, all "It was an Audi A4, dark blue. I KNOW CARS, man, it was an A4," and his tiny excitable girlfriend who'd tried to take a photo with her cell phone. "Yeah! I hope they catch 'em! You don't just DO that! You don't DO stuff like that! Fuckers!" She bounced. A lot.

A car full of reckless drunk assholes is apparently easy to spot, especially if you know what the car looks like, since not five minutes later, they'd been pulled over. Ha-HA! Ha ha ha. Neighborly SUV to the rescue!

Anyway, after all of that, I carefully sealed myself back in the car and drove the block and a half back home. You know what my first thought was, as soon as I realized I was being hit at high speed? Nothing about me, or seatbelts, or the car, or the assholes. It was "holy fuck, I'm glad N isn't in here."

Unexpected side benefit: Now I don't have to pay out of pocket to get that front left fender dent removed!

photos from my treo, because I can't email photos directly from the rebel:





both were taken before we learned she was in the scary range of jaundiced, and she was put in a light box. At first, the plan was to have her come out to breastfeed, but the time we tried that, her bilirubin levels spiked. It was looking like she was going to need to be transferred to MGH, but they eventually came back down a bit. Short story: little Natalie stuck in a blue box, possibly through tomorrow night, but getting better.All the nurses comment on how strong she is. We're going in to pet her and say hi every now and then, and mostly just waiting. All is well, and certainly better than it was this morning.

Please excuse the crappy formatting: posting from a phone is kinda sucky.