Table of Contents: The Big Bike Accident - September 1, 2004

I had a very lazy day, since I wasn't able to do very much. Writing this eight days later, I don't even remember what I did. I do remember that near the end of the day, I was feeling pretty tired, but was watching a movie on video. Our friend Jason Boss called, and said he was coming over shortly. I was surprised - he'd said before that he couldn't make it to "church", so I wasn't expecting to see him. But I was pleased. He said he could only stay until about 6:30, and people were supposed to come over around 6.

Fortunately Ian came home, because I was feeling rather unpleasant -- tired, headachy -- I wouldn't have been much company for Jason. But with Ian there, it was better since I didn't have to do much but curl up on a blanket on a couch out in our screened in porch. Jason hadn't seen me yet, but he had no real reaction to my face, and we didn't talk about the accident.

Jason's been a very busy man lately - going back to school, working, and had been trying to find a better job. Just yesterday he'd gotten hired by Ian's lab, and was just elated to finally have a job in his field. He's been in a pretty frenetic mode lately. He'd called me several nights ago, saying he was feeling "low-energy". He then proceeded to talk my ear off for about 20 minutes. I thought this was hilarious, and told him I was afraid to meet him when he was "high-energy".

Not long after Jason arrived, Martha showed up. She was kind of a wreck - very stressed out. I was really hoping that the evening would give her a little respite from the stress. I've always found that church is great for that. Usually, no matter how crappy I am feeling when I arrive, I leave feeling relaxed and happy, ready for the weekend, and that has been true with or without the help of alcohol. That's one reason that church means so much to me.

I encouraged Martha to recline on one of the two couches on our porch. We'd had church here last week, too, and the first thing she'd done upon arriving was to recline on one of our indoor couches. Our porch contains two couches and one very large, round, scooped-out, cushiony chair. As the evening progressed, many of us ended up reclining on one of these, stealing someone else's seat in the process.

I started slowly perking up. I don't know whether it was my drugs setting in, or whether I was absorbing energy from my guests. We'd been noshing on the cheese from Ian's Mom, brother, and step-dad from his birthday. That cheese had seen us through last week's church, too. It was very good cheese from the famous local deli, Zingerman's.

For the drinkers in the crowd, which tonight would not include me, though I dearly wished it could, I brought out all of my ammunition. I had four kinds of rum; good gin; and wine. Jason embarked on a rum-tasting adventure, and Martha poured herself a gin 'n tonic. I had to stick with water out of a bottle, since I could only drink laying down.

In the middle of everything, I heard someone saying my name at our front door. Ian was there, and someone was dropping off a huge bouquet of flowers. I had not expected anything like this, and was surprised, but pleased. It took a little while to find the card that would reveal the identity of the sender. I'd noticed a little "gee, who could that be from" innocent look on Martha's face, so I thought she might have something to do with it. It was from the people I'd sent email to at work - Martha, John Cady, my boss Gordon, my project manager Linda, and another close co-worker, Pat.

The card was burst-out-laughing funny, which I did. I hadn't even read the words, but the picture was so funny. It was of a runny Humpty Dumpty with two knights and horses trying to figure out what to do. They all looked confused, Humpty looked distressed, and one of the horses had egg-yolk all over his hoof. The final touch to the package was a floppy stuffed plush horse. I remarked to Martha that it had been an awfully long time since I'd gotten flowers, and I was going to have to start thinking of less dangerous ways of earning them!

Later, Jason Sonnenschein arrived, and after that, Bill Doster. Jason B. was supposed to leave at 6:30, but we persuaded him that it'd be much more fun to stay here with us. All in all, the turnout was much bigger than I'd expected. We had so much fun that night, and I felt so good, I was just so glad that I'd decided to have these folks over, not knowing how'd I'd be feeling at the time.

Martha eventually relaxed, although I think that the stressed-out part was just under the surface - even alcohol and tons of laughter couldn't chase it away. We had ordered a single pizza, which was a very thick and filling. But when Bill showed up, we now had an unanticipated mouth to feed.

I was just a bit hungry, still, and I figured I might not be the only one, so I suggested we procure some ice cream. So Ian and the two Jason's trotted off to the party store, leaving me, Bill, and Martha. Somehow, inexplicably, we lost Jason B. on that trip. He took off after they came back from the party store, and had shouted his goodbyes from the sidewalk. Bill, Martha, and I hadn't heard what he was saying, so for us he just vanished. We had our ice cream, and then people made moves to leave for the evening. Martha stayed a little longer and she and I talked a little longer about some deep subjects.

Martha left sometime after 10, and Jason had arrived before 5:30. I'd had no idea I would have lasted that long. I ended the evening with energy to spare. But the thing that had really impressed me was that all evening, no one reacted negatively to my face. All eye contact seemed completely normal. If I hadn't known anything was wrong with me, I could not have told from my friends' faces. I thought that this bode well for my future re-entry into the rest of the world.

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Table of Contents: The Big Bike Accident - September 1, 2004