Quest Labs Is Not Quest Love

That's the only picture I've taken today and it's of Miss Sophie, Jessie's dog, and that's how she likes to relax to watch and see what's going on outside. 

I was in town because I need to get blood drawn before my annual appointment with Dr. Zorn and because I have absolutely no sense whatsoever, I did not make an appointment beforehand. Now, in my defense, last time I went to that lab I did have an appointment but they were so far behind due to a staff shortage that it still took well over an hour before I was ushered into the inner-sanctum where they keep the needles, tubes, rubber tourniquets, and all that other paraphernalia. So why bother to make an appointment. 

BECAUSE, YOU DUMB SHIT, WITHOUT ONE YOU'LL NEVER GET SEEN!

This is the lesson I learned today. Painfully, and slowly. 
Painfully because sitting on my ass on that chair was not kind to my sciatic nerve and slowly because it took me about an hour and a half to realize that walk-in's are really not going to be seeing the piercing chambers. It wasn't really horrible. I mean, I hadn't eaten or had any coffee but that's not a biggie. I did not enjoy the very old lady who took it upon herself to sit down beside me after her labs had been done to explain to me why I should have made an appointment ("You can do it on a computer or on your phone!") when she had just heard one of the employees give me the entire speech about how they deal with walk-in's (never). Then she got up on unsteady legs, and as she walked towards the door she said to me, "You really should have made an appointment."
Well, no shit Ms. Sherlock. Thanks so much for pointing that out. 
And then I proceeded to wait another twenty minutes and then I left. As soon as I got in the car I made an appointment for tomorrow and have text confirmation of that and so I shall be back tomorrow. 

The rest of the day wasn't bad. Some of it was really good. Jessie and I ate lunch and then I went to Publix and saw Lily and got groceries and then I went to Costco and the very nicest thing happened there. When I was walking in, an employee that I did not recognize passed me going the other way and said to me, "You are so pretty!" and I can't tell you that last time that happened. I was wearing my aqua blue linen dress that I do always get compliments on whenever I wear it but no one ever calls me pretty. I was so shocked that for a second I didn't respond but then I said, "Thank you!" and "So are you!" I didn't even really see her long enough to have made a real judgement about that but I had noticed that her eye shadow was very fancy. Not as beautiful as Brenda's mermaid eyes are, of course, but she had definitely taken care and taken time to make herself attractive which I had certainly not done. I had on no make-up, a plain pair of earrings, aqua-blue flip flops that match my dress, and that was that. Oh, my hair was pulled back and held with a hair stabber so tightly that it was this close to giving me a headache.
So anyway, that was the sweetest thing and another woman told me that my dress was a beautiful color and it is and what am I going to do when I finally wear that thing to shreds? 
Well, I'm not going to worry about that. I'll probably be so agoraphobic at that point that I'll never leave the house anyway. 

I got to see Jessie's little chicks who are all getting their wing feathers. I held one of them and sniffed it. I do love the way baby chicks smell. One of them is at least twice as large as the others and may well be a rooster. I am excited for her that she is raising chickens again. 

I am so tired tonight that I am wondering if I am still experiencing the after-effects of Covid. I know it's quite possible. Or do I have a terminal illness? I guess we'll see if I ever get my blood drawn. I was thinking today, while I was in the lab place, of a guy who worked at one of the places I did a clinical experience in when I was in nursing school. It was an unusual assignment, really. It was in a gunpowder factory in St. Marks, which is near the coast about forty miles from Tallahassee. So my nursing partner and I would travel down there together on the days we were scheduled to be there and the whole thing was just rather bizarre. The reason they had student nurses going to a gunpowder factory is that this place had a clinic with a registered nurse. Not only did she take care of any and all medical problems that didn't require a doctor, she also had to test the employee's blood every month or so for lead levels because guess what? There's lead in gunpowder. There were a lot of strict rules about all of this. A doctor came in once a week to discuss problems that anyone was having and looked over records. I'm sure this was all OSHA directed. I have a few good stories about this place. My partner was a good friend of mine and oh my god. We made each other laugh so much that it was hard to be appropriate at times. 
But the nurse who worked there was an older woman who had seen it all and probably done most of it. One day when she was doing blood draws for the lead levels, a guy came in who had been addicted to heroin which he had been introduced to when he was in the Viet Nam war. He offered this information freely and the nurse was not disturbed in the least. The problem was, although he'd been clean for years, during his active drug use, he'd blown out all his veins because he had used intravenously. I mean, ALL his veins. That poor nurse could not get a good vein so he began showing her the places where he thought she might be able to stick that needle to get some blood. They worked together on this project in a friendly, non-judgmental way. Perhaps this is why I'll never forget that experience. I can't remember whether she was ever successful or not but I do recall that he tried to get her to let him try to hit a vein and she just could not go that far. 

So that's your story for today. 
We'll see what tomorrow dredges up in the muck of my mind. 

Love...Ms. Moon