Late For an Important Date…

No one in my immediate life remembered my injection this morning. Not even Tracy and she is so keen on my injections. I was sitting in front of my computer at 9:30am when I realized my shot was due. I almost panicked. I hurriedly put on some clothes with time of the upmost importance and essence. The longer I waited, the busier Kamath Medical would grow. I could be sitting an hour waiting on a nurse.

I was then driving down the Valley to my father’s former pharmacy at a speedy rate – putting my trusty Honda Civic through its paces.

“What are you doing here?” my father asked worriedly looking over his counter.

He thought something dire had happened for me to be at the pharmacy so early.

“My injection is due this morning,” I replied, proud of myself for remembering. 

I even puffed up my chest in bravado a little bit as well.

Dad checked my appointment card that he keeps in his wallet and looked up and said, “Good for you, Andrew!!!”

“I was just about to call you!” Rebecca, my nurse, told me as she called me back to an examining room. “I was just waiting for the clock to hit ten and I was going to be on the phone.”

I thanked Rebecca so very profusely for looking out for me.

I know it is psychosomatic, but I am already feeling better this morning.

Mean as a Timber Rattler…

I was passing Walmart on 29 when my cellphone loudly rang. I looked at the screen and answered. “Hello?” I usually hate talking on the phone while driving, but it was Tracy so I felt it must be important.

“Are you headed to get your injection?” Tracy asked. “I forgot to remind you this morning.”

“My ETA is 5 minutes,” I told her.

Tracy doesn’t miss a beat. She’s deft on me getting that injection ever since what happened mentally a few months ago.

Dad and AJ were in the front of the pharmacy when I arrived to get the Risperdal Consta box.

“Tell AJ what you say about me and my temper,” dad told me looking amused.

“He can be a mean little son of a bitch sometimes,” I told AJ

AJ and dad both burst out laughing.

The conundrum for the day was to ask my nurse, Rebecca, whether she was pregnant or not. She’s gained a lot of weight lately. I decided to play it safe and not ask today.

In and Out…

I was a little early this morning when I arrived at the pharmacy to get my injection.

“I have to wait until nine to run it through your insurance,” my father told me.

I took a seat as this elderly lady took me under her wing and immediately started to make small talk with me. I was relieved when dad said my injection was ready. I made my way to Kamath Medical just down the highway.

“What do you do for fun?” Rebecca asked me grasping for answers this morning as I sat in an examining room.

“I play role playing games on my computer,” I told her. “They are much like interactive books. I can’t stand the run and gun type games that are so popular with the teenage and college crowd.”

“The kids keep me busy, but I like to curl up with a good book after they’ve gone to bed.”

I told Rebecca how industrious I’ve been about cleaning my house and car lately.

“I always say I am going to vacuum my car, but never get around to it,” Rebecca replied. “It is in pretty bad shape.”

When I arrived back at the pharmacy, Charlie was there. Charlie has the gift of the gab that I do not possess. When he steps in a room, he immediately becomes the center of attention. Charlie was there to pick up a prescription for Horsefly before he drove to Dadeville and work. 

What’s a Prick or Two Between Friends?

“Andrew, you can come on back,” Rebecca said this morning as I sat anxiously in the lobby.

No sweeter words have ever graced these ears today. They are all so kind to me down at Kamath Medical. I was not very spritely this morning having woken up way before my usual time.

“You’ve still got a lot of congestion,” Rebecca said worriedly.

“And a nasty, hacking cough,” I added.

We talked for a long time about sleeping habits. Rebecca said she still hasn’t shaken the sleeping habits she has had since her children were babies.

“It seems I wake up every hour on the hour,” she told me. “I look at the clock and fall back asleep.”

“My usual habit is to watch Amanpour & Co. on public broadcasting at eleven and then put on classical music around midnight and I fall asleep around one after dozing off and on in my recliner for an hour,” I told her.

She gave me my injection and I was soon on my way back to the pharmacy. I felt exhausted just listening to Rebecca describe how she sleeps.

A Bountiful Monday…

My new video card arrived all the way from New Jersey yesterday. My UPS scenario played out just as foreseen. I plugged it in it’s slot last night, the PCIe x16 slot, and my main computer fired to life after connecting the two 8-pin power cables to the card. There is not a flicker to be found so that means the other card was indeed defective. Tracy also got that job at the small animal clinic. She reports to work for her first day next Wednesday. She was just giddy with glee over the phone last night.

There’s a Pimple On Me Bum…

Ah, injection time – a time where I get to commiserate with my favorite nurse in the whole wide world. I didn’t go to bed until 1am, but somehow miraculously woke up at 8am this morning. I called dad and let him know I was up and going.

“I’ll see you at the pharmacy at nine,” I told him.

“Good deal, Chuck,” he replied and we got off the phone.

I rousted Tracy from the bed after a fitful sleep and told her I was sorry but I didn’t have time to fix breakfast this morning.

“There are some strawberry Poptarts in the kitchen cabinet,” I told her. “And cinnamon rolls in the breadbox.”

I took a really quick shower and then she soon followed behind me. She had to be at work at 9am my time.

My injection went without any problems or mishaps for the most part. I sat in the lobby for far longer than usual and I could feel those old panic attack feelings creeping in. Kamath Medical was busy this morning and the parking lot was full. I was nervous for some reason. I guess there were too many needy sick people sitting with me – people who also didn’t want to wait long for the doctor or a nurse. I must’ve taken precedence as Rebecca called me back before any of the others. Most likely Dr. Kamath was running late after morning rounds at the hospital. I only needed an injection – something a nurse could handle.

Ah, small talk – a thing that used to mystify me. I get better and better at the craft. I knew to ask about Rebecca’s children’s Christmas and how it was.

“It is truly magical to kids,” Rebecca told me of Christmas. “They had a blast. It was a Lego themed Christmas this year.”

I told Rebecca that I, too, loved Legos when I was a kid. They weren’t as fancy then, though. I would have loved Star Wars Legos.

Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas…

I decided I wasn’t going to be alone on Christmas Eve this year. I took a shower and dressed in the nicest clothes that fit me and headed to my father’s house. There were a crowd of folks in attendance, but I managed to muddle on by socially. I was terribly and woefully underdressed, but nobody seemed to care. It made me feel self conscious and uncomfortable, though. Charlie had already fixed me two plates brimming with food to carry home with me. He was going to bring them to me along with my gifts. I stayed only about a short hour and a half. My sister helped me load up my car with gifts.

I was really blessed this year. My sister basically bought me a whole new wardrobe of clothes that fit wonderfully and that are stylish. I got about five shirts and three pair of pants. I also got a fleece lined jacket that is the most comfortable jacket I have ever owned. Charlie gave me two shirts that feel like silk they are so soft. My brother and his wife got me a spindle pack of 50 burnable 25GB Blu-Ray discs which just thrilled me to death. I needed them badly having only a few left. Time to start backing up computer files in the next day or two. I need a Techmas and not a Christmas.

Tracy is at work right now. She gets off at six my time and is dying to see me or so she said when we talked on the phone earlier. She is going to run by my house on her way home. I can’t wait to see her as well. It seems like we haven’t seen each other in over a week. I told her I took good care of Wheezy while she was gone. That was a long drive everyday to water, feed, and pet a cat. I made sure to spend some quality time with Wheezy before I headed back home every day which entailed me petting her while she lay in my warm lap and I watched the television or fiddled with my tablet computer.

Glittermom, I regretfully never got around to putting up a Christmas tree this year. Maybe next year. Dad and I kept procrastinating about getting it and then it was too late.

My injection was this morning and it was certainly due. It was actually due on Christmas Day. I got to feeling really shaky last night – a jump out of your skin feeling. I went to bed early and headed straight to Kamath medical in the morning. My shot was already in my fridge and I was ready to go. Rebecca took really good care of me this morning. She was in a joyful, happy mood and it was contagious.

For the Love of a Princess…

It would be just my luck that my next injection falls on Christmas day. Rebecca said they are open the 26th and she will be there. I just have to tough it out for a day. I told dad to be sure to give me an extra Risperdal pill just in case for Christmas. I don’t want to spend Christmas miserable with my not so friendly friend mental illness.

My eyes opened this morning and Tracy was propped up on her elbow watching me sleep. Good morning she said with a giggle as I yawned and stretched. She’s my little princess I tell you. Despite my trying to dissuade her from coming, she came anyway last night. She didn’t get here until almost ten my time. I went to bed at eleven and she soon followed me after using my computer for awhile. She was trying to decide what course to take next term. She took my advice and is only going to take one class next term instead of the two she took this time. She took two doosies too – biology and chemistry and their corresponding labs..

I couldn’t dawdle this morning. I told Tracy she would just have to excuse me – that I was all business. I had warned her the night before and she still came. Dad called me at 8:30 to make sure I was up and getting dressed. Soon, I was on my way with a 9:00 am rendezvous with the pharmacy. Dad already had my prescription filled so I was ready to go. Kamath Medical was my next destination and my shot went without a hitch.

Christmas will be here in two weeks and I still haven’t bought Tracy’s gift. I know she loves and collects turquoise jewelry so I think I am going to get her a turquoise neckless and matching bracelet. I better get on the web and order that right now while I am thinking about it.

My Ladies Get Me In and Out…

The setting was another injection. I had to be up bright and early at 8 am. I signed in and went to sit down when Rebecca opened the door to the examining rooms and called me back. Pat and Dee Dee had already greeted me when I walked in.

“How was your Thanksgiving?” Rebecca asked as she led me to the examining room.

“It was fair to middlin’,” I replied as we say in the South.

“How was your Thanksgiving?” I then asked Rebecca.

“It was okay,” Rebecca replied. “We drove to Birmingham to my parent’s house. I hated that long drive.”

We talked a long time about how the holidays can be hard on the infirm and mentally ill. Those kind of folks tend to get left out or marginalized.

“Big prick!” Rebecca then said as she inserted the two inch long needle.

I didn’t even feel it except for a little pressure as the fluid expanded within my gluteal muscle. I bid Rebecca farewell and told her thank you as always. I grabbed my next appointment card from Dee Dee and headed to the pharmacy.

“That was really quick!” my father exclaimed. “You were only gone twenty minutes.”

“My girls take care of me,” I replied with a thankful sigh and a grin.

I asked dad to step out from behind the pharmacy counter to tell him something in private.

“If you call on my home phone then let it ring twice and I will call you back,” I told my father. “It is best to call me on my cellphone. Tuleana is driving me crazy calling all the time and she thankfully doesn’t know my cell number.”

“Don’t you let her harangue you into carrying them around again,” my father said with great caution.

“I’m not,” I replied. “That’s why the two ring rule is going into effect. The 1st is Saturday when she gets her government money and she wants me to take them all around on their rounds paying bills, getting prescriptions and buying groceries at Walmart. It would be like a seven stop trip and they certainly won’t put gas in my car.”

I felt better with that little detail taken care of and I headed home to my Magster who was waiting in the window for me. My dear darlin’ of a dog.

Eastbound and Down! Loaded Up and Truckin!

Dad called me at 1:00 am last night sounding panicked. I was still up watching the television and fiddling with my tablet listening to the rain pitter patter on the eaves of my roof..

“Your shot is in the morning!” he frantically said as if we had already missed it.

“It’s no big deal,” I replied calmly, assuaging his worries. “Just call me at eight and make sure I am up and I will drive down and get it. It won’t take but 30 or 45 minutes. You just have the prescription filled when I arrive.”

Dad called me right at eight this morning. I had just popped two unfrosted strawberry Poptarts out of the toaster. It was like handling hot baked potatoes.

“You okay?” he asked worriedly. “You and I both haven’t had much sleep.”

“I am ready to roll!” I replied exuberantly.

He chuckled and told me I was a good man.

Guess who was back? I hadn’t seen her in a month! Rebecca, my coveted nurse, welcomed me back this morning to administer my shot. She had gained a lot of weight I noticed. She still looked the sexay in her dark blue scrubs. Seeing her was the icing on the cake. I have a slight crush on her.

The shot went without nary a hitch after much small talk and banter and I was soon on my way back to the pharmacy. Dee Dee had me all set up for another two weeks. I just had to grab my next appointment card off the counter.

“You look nice this morning, Chuck!” my father told me – a man who doesn’t give compliments lightly.

I thanked him for the compliment and headed home in a pouring rain. It is supposed to keep raining until tomorrow night. Yikes, but I enjoy the interesting weather to be honest. 

Where Art Thou, Rebecca?

Injection Time! Do you prefer coffee or tea with your injection?

It was downright cold this morning as I set out for Kamath Medical and the pharmacy. The temperature was 41° degrees according to my car. I was pleased I had donned my very warm suede leather jacket. I couldn’t see out the windows of my car worth a poot due to all the dew that had formed, though. It was a crap shoot traffic wise until my car got warmed up and the windows cleared. The morning sun was also just blinding as I drove.

I got nurse Tara again today. I leerily gave her my injection as I sat down to watch the process gritting my teeth along the way. Amazingly, she did fine this morning. I was worried for nothing. She insists on injecting me in my hip and not my buttock, though. That always worries me. I told Old Fuss and Feathers I can’t help it when I got back to the pharmacy. I am like my mother in a lot of ways. We’re both very literal and we follow the instructions.

“Where is my Rebecca?” I deftly asked Tara this morning.

“She’s got a doctor’s appointment,” she replied. “She will be back in the next two weeks.”

“Oh, okay,” I said. “I was just worried about her. She has been giving me this injection for ten years.”

“She’s been here a very long time,” Tara replied blithely.

“I had worriedly thought she had quit working here,” I told Tara.

Rebecca would get in touch with me, though, if that had happened. She would have at least called my father at the pharmacy.

The Sweat Shop…

“I am way so over dressed,” I told Rebecca this morning embarrassingly. “My house was freezing cold this morning so I put on a hoodie only to be met with a hot and humid Southern morning when I walked out the door. I was already running late so I didn’t have time to change.”

“Well,” Rebecca replied. “A lady at my daughter’s soccer practice yesterday was wearing a sweat suit in 90 degree weather. It must be something in the water.”

We both laughed and laughed. It was so good to see her this morning on this our mission of mercy for me. Rebecca gave me my injection and Dee Dee greeted me in the front office.

“What about our Tigers, Andrew?” she asked.

Dee Dee has always been under the delusion I am some wild, rabid Auburn fan. It doesn’t help that half of my apparel is Auburn related like what I wore this morning. Of course, I can talk the talk and walk the walk.

“We don’t seem to have that high powered offense we are so used to,” I replied. “Our offense seems flat and uninspired.”

“We need to get better as some tough games are headed our way,” she said worriedly.

I agreed and bid them all farewell and headed to the pharmacy after obtaining my next appointment card which Dee Dee dutifully filled out.

“Samantha left you a gift on the chair on the porch,” my father told me without fanfare sitting behind the pharmacy counter. “I put them in a Ziploc bag.”

Samantha is my father’s cat.

I left the drugstore wondering just what did Samantha leave me as I headed to my father’s house. Well, dad had put two dead chipmunks Samantha caught in a Ziploc bag on the chair. I called him when I got home and he just laughed and laughed. Such a sick, twisted sense of humor. I should have brought them home so Maggie could eat them and she would have. Maggie loves dead, stinky things. Samantha just catches them and leaves them as gifts and trophies at the back door.

Injection in the Morning…

Let us hope this goes a long way to making me feel better. I feel as if my long acting injection ran out long ago last week. It will be good to see Rebecca’s rosy cheeks in the morning. I’ve already called Old Fuss and Feathers and got him to fill the prescription so I am ready to go. I just have to drive by the pharmacy, grab the shot, and head to Kamath Medical in the morning.

Glittermom, I got Old Fuss and Feathers all hooked up and he is watching that Auburn football disc incessantly. I am glad I don’t have to live with him or he would be driving me crazy right now.  He turns the volume up so loud it rattles your eardrums. He is already hard of hearing and he likes it loud anyway on top of that.

My dearest Maggie has been wild tonight. I like to see her feeling her oats. Something has unlocked her inner puppy. All her chew toys are scattered about the house and she keeps running outside to bark awhile and flies back inside to keep up with me and what I am doing. She’s on a down moment right now licking her paws as she lay on the rug next to me and this computer room computer. That means she is sublimely content. It will take the slightest noise outside (squirrel fart) and then she will be tearing out the dog door to go bark another thirty minutes. If I were to say, “Here Kitty, Kitty,” she would go absolutely nuts.

Bloodwork? BLOODWORK?

Dad called me very late last night and said, “You have bloodwork in the morning. I had almost forgotten about it. I’ve got everything set up with the nurse practitioner, Leigh Anne.”

“Great!” I replied very aggravatedly and sarcastically. “Thanks for giving me some fair warning.”

“Oh, you can sleep the rest of the day,” he replied tartly and not very encouragingly. “I have to work all day.”

I set my trusty cellphone to wake me up at 6:30 am.

So I was up at the crack of dawn getting ready for an 8:00 am appointment. I had a prescription to get my lithium levels checked. I stood in the shower this morning like some kind of zombie letting the warm water trickle down through the hairs on my chest. Let me tell you, I was so sleepy on the drive to Kamath Medical. Luckily, my nurse, Rebecca, was there and made things go smoothly. She scurried back into the catacombs of Kamath Medical to make arrangements and soon I was called back.

“Hello, my name is Patricia and I am a student at Southern Union Community College. Would you mind if I practiced and drew your blood?”

“Oh, why not,” I said with a welcoming smile.

She did really good and I bragged quite a bit on her. If a young black lady could blush she would’ve been blushing.

“Y’all fix me up a room,” I told Rebecca who was now sitting in the office talking with the office staff. “I will be moving in this afternoon.”

Dee Dee, Rebecca, Pat, and Kim all chuckled and laughed loudly. 

“I am down here enough. I might as well move in. It would save a long drive. Y’all just give me internet access and I will be happy.”

“Don’t forget to bring Maggie!” Rebecca exclaimed and we all loudly laughed some more.

Lord knows, she’s heard me talk about that dog enough over the years.

Inflation or Daylight Robbery?

My father just informed me this afternoon that the cost of my injection jumped from $300 to $700. Isn’t that just amazing and disturbing at the same time? I won’t dare tell Rebecca that as she will worry she will botch an injection and have to pay for it. Still though, that’s just astronomical in price.

I did get some awesome news in the mail today. It was from Social Security. They have decided not to review my case for another three years. Thank god and what a sigh of relief. My father let out a big sigh as well as I read the letter to him.

SNAFU My Dear…

“I got so worried about you when you didn’t show up for your injection this morning,” Rebecca, my nurse, told me. “I called your dad at the pharmacy and he filled me in on what was going on.”

“I could’ve slept in this morning,” I said with a broad grin and a chuckle. “I was up at 7:30 giving dad a wakeup call and getting ready to leave at nine.”

“Let’s get you injected and on your way home,” Rebecca said as she led me into an examining room.

“How’s your diet going?” she then asked me

“Kind of status quo at the moment,” I replied. “At least I haven’t gained any weight.”

Rebecca has gained some weight as well. She has always struggled with her weight in the ten years we have been doing this. We are kindred spirits on those regards.

My shot didn’t burn today and I didn’t bleed so I guess that is a good thing.

“Bye y’all!” I said to the office staff who were all smiling and waving goodbye.

I grabbed my next appointment card on the way with a rendezvous with Old Fuss and Feathers and fussy he was when I asked if they had ordered my $400 computer monitor.

“We might get to it after work!” he snapped at me. 

The Cycling of a Different Kind…

I looked at the clock on my computer and it read 8:55 AM. It was time to drive down to the pharmacy and then go get my injection. I was giving them some time to open the store and get my prescription filled. Maggie had a hissy fit that I was leaving and going somewhere in the car.

“What about our tranquil morning in the computer room listening to ambient music?” she seemed to impart.

Dad shortly handed me the Risperdal Consta box and I was good to go. I signed in at Kamath medical at 15 after 9. My appointment time was really 9 AM, but they allow me some leeway.

“Does your life ever go in cycles?” I asked Rebecca as she dutifully prepared my injection this morning.

“What do you mean?” she asked me with an inquisitive glare.

“Right now, I am going to bed early and getting up really, really early,” I replied. “I was wide awake at 6 AM this morning.”

“The kids and work dictate my cycles,” Rebecca then told me. “Breakfast, off to school, work at eight, etc.”

“I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be a parent,” I replied wistfully.

“It can be a handful,” Rebecca told me with a chuckle. “But I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”

Rebecca injected the Risperdal which was extremely painful this morning. I bled a pretty good bit as well and there was blood on my Band-Aid. I didn’t say anything about it as it would just worry her for naught.

An Injection With a Twist…

“My babies have gone back to school,” Rebecca told me lamentingly this morning.

“It is just too early to be going back to school,” I replied very worriedly.

School was a horrific experience for me so I am biased. A time filled with countless superfluous homework, social anxiety, bullies, rote memorization and meaningless exams.

“We should have sent you to a school for the arts,” my father says in these later years.

“It is rather ridiculous to be going back to school the first week of August,” Rebecca agreed with me.

“I might be wrong, but I remember going back to school around Labor Day in September,” I told her. “We didn’t have air conditioning in our classrooms when I was in first and second grade.”

Rebecca gave me my shot and I thanked her profusely. She was all business this morning so our conversation didn't linger as it normally does. I told her she made a big difference in my life and I exited into the office. I left her with a smile on her face. Pat quickly made me a next appointment card.

“Here you go, Andrew. You have a great two weeks,” Pat said to me.

“Thank you for being so kind to me,” I replied and I headed to the front door.

I was handing my father my next appointment card when Ralph, a new pharmacy employee, offered me a chicken biscuit from Burger King.

“I ordered two butter biscuits and they put six chicken biscuits in my bag,” he told me of his bounty.

Dad was happily munching on a chicken biscuit sitting behind the counter. I ate my biscuit on the drive home and it was delicious and an unexpected treat.

Andrew? Come On Back!

“Those are the best words in the world,” I told my nurse, Rebecca, this morning with a big Cheshire grin.

She replied that I made her feel good – that it seems she is making a difference in my life.

“And you are!” I told her. “Without this injection I couldn’t function like a normal human being.”

Small talk today was about her kids going back to school in two weeks.

“They shorten summer for kids every year!” I exclaimed exasperated. “Kids need to be playing in the yard and not sitting still for hours in stuffy school rooms.”

You could tell Rebecca was biting her tongue – probably ready for the kids to go back and give her a break from finding childcare during the day when she and her husband were at work.

“You’re all done,” Rebecca then told me of my injection.

“I didn’t even feel it,” I told her and she said I made her feel good again.

Old Fuss and Feathers was waiting on me when I arrived back at the pharmacy. I handed him my next appointment card, grabbed two diet Cokes from the cooler, and told everyone goodbye. 

Oh Happy Day! Rebecca Returns…

Dad had put a LOT of trust in me about this injection this week. I was determined not to screw things up and let him down. Charlie called me at eight this morning to make sure I was up. I immediately showered and washed my hair good – scrubbing clean my dangly bits. I then headed down through the Valley with my injection on the passenger’s seat at 10 minutes till 9:00 AM.

I had just taken my seat in the lobby after signing in. Mary, a nurse, poked her head out and said Rebecca had just arrived and would call me back shortly. I was so excited to see her. Rebecca and I have been doing this for ten long years and have developed quite a rapport between us.

“Andrew, come on back,” Rebecca said sticking her head out the lobby door.

“Oh, you are a sight for sore eyes,” I told her with a big grin.

“It is good to see you, too,” she replied. “I felt like I was gone for weeks.”

“What did you do on your vacation?” I asked.

“I sat out on the beach in a lounge chair and read books,” Rebecca told me. “It was so relaxing!”

I explained to Rebecca how all my surrogate nurses wanted to use the small deltoid needle instead of the 3 inch gluteal needle. She laughed.

“They can’t believe I want that monstrous needle,” I told her.

I think Rebecca may be pregnant again as she looked like she is showing, but I kept my mouth shut in case she just overate while she was on her vacation.

The shot stung like a bee sting today, but I didn’t say anything. It would just worry Rebecca that she did something wrong. That’s just how the ball bounces sometimes in this inexact science that is my Risperdal injection.

The Arduous Things Andrew Must Endure…

Two weeks ago, Rebecca had told me she would be on vacation this visit for my injection. She had told me not to fret as the other nurses would take good care of me. I had forgotten and my hopes sunk to the floor when Dee Dee informed me that it would be awhile before a nurse came available. The lobby soon began to fill up making me nervous – all of these coughing, sniffling, sickly people.

“Rebecca won’t let you get your seat warm before she calls you back,” Dee Dee told me with a smile and a chuckle.

I laughed back weakly in agreement.

“Rebecca spoils me rotten,” I told Dee Dee in response.

The nurse practitioner in residence, Leigh Anne, finally stuck her head out the office door and welcomed me back. Leigh Anne is so very sweet and wanted me to be and feel comfortable. She’s only administered my injection one time before.

“I promise I won’t hurt you,” she told me with a warm but worried smile.

You could see the worry furrows in her forehead form. 

“I’m fine,” I promised her. “I’ve been doing this for ten years.”

They always try to use the short needle and are surprised when I insist on the 3 inch needle.

“The short one is for the deltoid muscle,” I told her. “The longest one is for the gluteal muscle.”

“We need to get that medicine deep as we can into my butt muscle,” I then told her in layman terms.

“What took you so long?” my father asked upon my arrival back at the pharmacy. “I was beginning to worry you drove back home and got back in the bed.”

“I had to wait in the lobby for 30 minutes,” I replied to my father. “Rebecca is on vacation.”

“I was about to call down there and see what was happening,” my father said dotingly.

The Hard Sell…

Dad and I both spent $95 dollars on our groceries last night. I spent $10 dollars on chicken salad alone. I also spent $5 more dollars on that decadently delicious Qui French style yogurt. My biggest expense was car care products as I washed my car the other day and I wanted it to look nice. Tire slick, trim finish, etc.

“I can’t say anything to you about it as I am just as bad in what I spent,” my father told me consoling me about the lofty price.

“Damn,” I said as we escaped the jaws of Kroger. “I forgot my journal writing sodas.”

“Here’s $5,” my father told me. “Go through self checkout and buy them really quick.”

We were headed to our cars when a strange, rail thin black fellow with a wandering eye approached us.

“Excuse me sir!” he kept saying as we kept walking. “Excuse me!”

He hit my father up for $20 dollars very aggressively and menacingly getting right in his face.

“I just want a sandwich from the deli and a soda,” he told us.

“First, back away from me. Let me finish loading my groceries into my car and I will go buy you a sandwich and a drink,” my father told him.

Well, he didn’t like that one bit and just walked off without saying one more thing.