Doctor's Appt.

I've been having some digestive problems, so my mom finally convinced me a couple of weeks ago to make an appointment with a gastroenterologist; I left the office at 1:30 today to see him. Riding the bus from downtown Seattle to the clinic was an interesting experience. The normal people are all at work and it's still (almost) too early to start drinking, so passengers at that time of the day are all sort of degenerates; I overheard one man ask another if he moved, since he hadn't been around for the past few months. The second man replied: "I was on house arrest!" But I made it to the medical center by 2:30 and then waited for the nurse to take my vitals, then waited for the doctor, then waited for a second nurse to draw some blood. I had a feeling I was going to faint when she did it because I was pretty hungry by then. The hospital is just around the corner from Piroshky on Madison (only open until 5 and only on weekdays) so I ate a light lunch figuring I would get a piroshky when I was done. The piroshky are pretty big, and they're so delicious that you want to savor all of them, so I didn't want to crowd my stomach with lesser foods. I hadn't accounted for the appointment taking as long as it did (1 hr, 45 min, most of it waiting) or on having my blood drawn, so of course I fainted. The nurse said she had some "smelling salts", which were actually a piece of gauze in ammonia: I thought it was going to be lavender or something nice! Nope, they want to shock you awake. I still have that smell in my nostrils. They also scheduled a colonoscopy in a couple of weeks. Yuck.

I couldn't come home right away or get a piroshky because I had a phone conversation at 4:30 with this woman from a non-profit that I applied to work for and it was 4:15 when I left. So, I went to Starbucks and talked with her for a while about her organization's work. They place exchange students with host families; my job would be to find the host families. I'd be paid a stipend based on the number of families found, and because of this I don't think I'm interested- it sounds sort of sleezy. I walked home, cold and piroshky-less. Lesson learned: leave work extra early next time and get the piroshky before the appointment.