~Thursday~ Joe picked me up at 7:00 this morning and took me to his doctor’s office, where I was to have a “Fun-with-people-coming-out-of-anesthesia Day.” The waiting room had free wi-fi in it, so I actually got some work done, mostly [still] refining my presentation for 1:00 today.
Several people—around four of them—came in after Joe, had their procedures done, and had their loved ones called back to greet them. I started wondering what was going on with Joe back there, and I asked a nurse who had come out to get her next patient, but was having to wait a minute for her while she did something with her purse—my point being, and I do have one, that I was not interrupting her doing anything but waiting—and she brusquely said, “I don’t know. You have to ask at the front desk. We don’t know everything that’s going on with all of the patients back there.”
She could have stopped right after the second sentence. The rest was just attitude. Frankly my dear, I couldn’t possibly care less what your internal process is “back there,” never mind your telling me what it is as if I’m some kind of moron for not knowing it. Have a blessed day.
Joe was careful not to ask me too many questions when I got back there, because he knows what a kick I get out of people who repeat things when they’re just coming out of anesthesia. The thing is, I’m not laughing at the person, what’s hysterical to me is how these things are delivered, as if there a totally original thought to the person, right after they just said them. I’m not going to enumerate the instances.
We stopped at Panera Bread on the way back to Joe’s place, where he treated me to a bagel and coffee. We both had their most delicious Cinnamon Crunch bagel with their Lite Honey Walnut cream cheese. Yum. Yum.
I got home in time to run through my presentation in PowerPoint’s “rehearsal mode,” to get a feel for how long it was going to take, or what slides I might move a little faster on if it started to go over the hour allotted for my presentation.
I parked in the Van Allen Deck, which was pretty empty, because it’s Fall Break (today and tomorrow), which is one of the reasons that the group I was going to present to were able to take an hour out of their work for the workshop. They’re the people who run the Student Health Center at the university.
I got up to the room with 30 minutes to spare, and Leslie was the only one in the room. She was starting up desktop computer and the projector I would be using with plenty of time to spare in case it didn’t go smoothly. This was precisely why I was there 30 minutes early, too, so I very much appreciated that.
Leslie gave me a very nice introduction, and I was off and running. About halfway through, my mouth got so dry, and I said that, and about two minutes later, one of the people in the audience came up and handed me a big cup of ice water and a little bit of Diet Coke, which was so incredibly thoughtful, and for which I was most grateful.
We went about 15-20 minutes over the allotted time, which was a good sign, because it was all spent in asking questions and continuing the discussion.
When we finally did stop, a woman from the audience came up and said, “Thank you so much. That was such a good presentation and so helpful. It makes me want to go back and get a Master’s in Technical Communication myself,” which I thought was a huge affirmation. It turned out that she was Dr. Mary Bengtson, a physician and the Medical Director of Student Health Services.
Shortly after that a gentleman came up to thank me, who turned out to be Robert Hayford, Associate Director of Student Health Services. He later sent me and e-mail that said, “Thank you again. That was very beneficial!”
I took a moment to again thank the lady who’d brought me drinks, and a couple of other people said what a good presentation it was and thanked me on my way out. Needless to say, I left there on a high.
I walked back to my office, and worked there for the rest of the day. I did a quick, final edit on an accessibility brochure that a team of us has been working on for way too long now.
Casey and I dropped off Joe’s car at his house on our way to Durham. Joe gave him a quick house tour, since he’d never been there.
Before heading to Manbites Dog Theater, we dropped by Robert’s house for a quick visit, where Casey got another tour, and where Robert had graciously cooked some Oatmeal Scotchies, my most favorite cookies of all time. Thank you, my sweet!
The three of us saw Breadcrumbs, for which it was Premier Thursday Night, also known as Pay-What-You-Can Night, with a $5 minimum.
A regional premier, written by Jennifer Haley and directed by Jeff Storer, is described as: “A reclusive writer struggling to complete her last story must depend on a lost young woman for help. From the author of Neighborhood 3, a moving new play about mothers, daughters, and the moonlit woods of the past.”
As is just about everything Manbites has ever done, this play was well-done, thought-provoking, and worthy of consideration hours afterwards, and even into the next day. My kind of theater. It could be yours, too. More information, including ticket information and purchasing.