Food On Sticks

A few weeks ago (that seems to be a theme in my recent posts) a bunch of camp friends and I were going to go to the Minnesota State Fair. I was really excited because I haven't been there in six years, and I really love food on sticks, especially if it's deep fried. However, my involvement in the plan hit a snag.

Since this was near the end of August and school was right around the corner, I decided I should probably check my school email. I hadn't done that since shortly after Summer had started. Sure enough, I had a decent amount of emails, though most of them weren't important. There was one, however, with a bunch of medical stuff that I needed to get done before classes started. Fortunately, I had gotten a physical before Summer started and I was up to date on all my immunizations. However, it said I needed to get a TB test. I had not had one of those ever. For a TB test, you get a little shot right under the surface of your skin. Between 48 and 72 hours later, you go back and get it checked. If there are no bumps around the area you got the shot, you're good to go. The 48-72 hour thing was the major setback, because I read this email on Wednesday, and the State Fair outing was to be on Friday. I set up an appointment for 2:00 on Wednesday, meaning I'd have to wait until 2:00 on Friday to get it checked. We were meeting at 11:00 at the Fair on Friday. Clearly, I would be late, especially considering my appointment was in Litchfield, which is an hour and a half away from the Fairgrounds in the cities. "Oh well," I thought. "At least I'll get to be there for a few hours."

When I got to the doctor's office on Friday, I was told to sit in the waiting room, as is the standard protocol for doctor's office visits. It turned out that they forgot about me, apparently, because I waited for over an hour, which is really fun at the doctor's office because they have...um, magazines! So I read the "ESPN The Magazine" magazine all the way through, then read the longest article over again. I also sat and listened to the old people talk. It is a fact that over 80% of people in a doctor's office at any given time are old. I mean like "over 70" old. One old lady also had to wait for a while, apparently, because she was upset. A nurse finally came for her, and I could hear the lady as she walked back to the room: "I am very upset. I have been waiting and waiting. I am very upset."

"I know, I understand. We're sorry for the inconvenience. Now if you could just step on the scale and we'll measure your height and weight..."

"I came in two days ago and I had to do that. I won't do it. I will. Not. Do it."

"Okay, well, we'll just get your weight then."

After starting that really long magazine article (which was about Matt Kemp of the Dodgers, so I wasn't even that interested in it) for a third time, I decided I should probably see what was going on with my wait. I went up to the receptionist and said, "Excuse me, I've been waiting for over an hour, and all I need is to get my TB test checked."

"You're still here?! I told the nurses three different times that you were ready! I'll take care of this." She left, and I went back to sit. I felt like I handled that really well considering I was furious because I just wanted to eat food on sticks. About a minute later, a nurse hurried in and called my name. The appointment literally took one minute. I held out my arm, she ran her hand over it and said, "Okay, you're good," and I left. It was about 3:30 when I finally left. I pulled out my directions to the Fairgrounds and began my journey. Unfortunately, my directions were from google. You'd think I'd have learned by now. I followed them perfectly until it was literally impossible to do that. They told me to turn left on some street South, but follow the signs for some street North. I couldn't even...I didn't...I had no idea what google was trying to pull, so I just turned left. I drove past the Fairgrounds and ended up parked in some cul-de-sac. I called some camp folk and asked how much longer they would be there. They were just getting ready to leave, which was fine because then I didn't have to pay for parking. They said they were looking for some place to meet up and just hang out, though, which was perfect because I really wanted to see them. We met at a Perkins and ate. Me more so than everyone else because I had anticipated eating a ton of food on sticks and, thanks to the ACMC in Litchfield, MN, I was unable to do that.

Classic: Power Outage

Yesterday was pretty hot, yes? Also humid? Consequently, a lot of people had their air conditioners on, which is perfectly acceptable. However, in my mom's neighborhood, since so many people were using their air conditioners at the same time, the power went out. Twice. Let's delve a little deeper, shall we?

When I woke up yesterday, I wanted nothing more than to watch sports. I turned on the TV and flipped it over to ESPN, because that's a sports channel. Much to my chagrin, Wimbledon (that's tennis) was on. "Well, I guess I'll settle for whatever is on ESPN2," I thought. Oh no - it's Wimbledon here, too. Bad news bears. There was nothing else on any other channel that interested me, either, so I watched some tennis. Guys, tennis isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was. That's not saying a whole lot, though, because I thought tennis was the most boring sport to watch. It's not, but after a while when I saw that the replay of the Twins game from the night before was on, I did not hesitate to switch to that. I already knew we had won the game, what the score was, and how we scored, but I didn't actually see us score the runs, so I thought this would hold my attention. I really wanted to see Josh Willingham and Trevor Plouffe hit their home runs, because when the game was actually happening the night before, I turned it on right as Willingham was rounding the bases and again right after Plouffe touched home plate. It got to Willingham's at bat. I said to my mom, "I bet Willingham hits a home run right here," and that's when the power went out. Classic. All I wanted to do was see the home run. Just my luck. I guess I have it pretty good, though, if I use the phrase, "just my luck" because I missed seeing a home run that had already happened. I guess it could've been much worse, but I'm not sure how. The power came back on a few hours later and that was that.

At two in the morning, however, the power went back off, presumably because of the same thing, i.e. people using their air conditioners. As soon as it turned off, I woke up. How do I know this? Because I watched the blades of my fan slowly spin to a stop which brought tears to my eyes because it was like my fan had just died. Also because I was now awake and was very aware that the temperature would rapidly rise, which it did. Despite the fact that this power outage woke me up, made me hot, and prevented me from falling back asleep, I was still more distraught about the first one. That's actually mildly disconcerting and makes me question my priorities.

And now, a relevant joke:

Q: When does Sean Connery go to Wimbledon?
A: Tennish.