Is sports a religion?

It's summer-time, and that means only one thing at our church--time for CCU. The Chinese Christian Union's summer sports are in full swing, and our church has at least seven different teams participating.

This means that Brian's schedule for evenings this week looks something like this:
Monday: Recreation League Volleyball 7:25pm, 8:55pm
Tuesday: Competitive League Volleyball 6:30pm, 8:15pm
Gold Division Basketball 8:30pm
Wednesday: Bronze Division Basketball 7:30pm
Friday: Youth Division Basketball 8:30pm

Now when the Good Lord was creating mankind and passing out athletic ability, He looked at my family and said, "Why make them embarrass themselves in public?" and passed us over. Consequently, I don't play sports. I scream loudly at any game I go to, but I'm not very "athletically inclined."

But sometimes, this disinclination towards sports makes me feel isolated from the rest of the congregation. I love my church, but from time to time I really feel like a fish out of water. (It's like the plot of a strange reality TV show: Take one redneck woman, place in an urban church in San Francisco...)

For example, at Friday's basketball game, I was sitting next to one of the teenage boys from our church. And this is what I heard him yelling: "Look at the muscles on Tony-he got them from Taiwan!"

Now I know full well that fourteen year old boys yell all kinds of strange things in public, whether or not it's at a sporting event. But what on earth is that supposed to mean?

science ficiton and real life

Through the miracle of modern medicine, Dr. Hsu blasted my kidney stone with a laser today, and now I already feel better. Still can't go back to work until after the follow-up visit next week (or I'm off the Lortab, whichever one results in me being off Lortab sooner) so I'll be minding the offspring fulltime until I get back to work so Brian gets a break.

Tomorrow, we're going to go on an expedition to the wilds of the Ortega St. Library so I can return my overdue books and see how much my fines are. One of those "learn by example" experiences for Shirley. "See, Mimi, this is what happens when you wind up in the hospital and forget what week it is..."

Mind-blowing cuteness!

It's a good thing that Shirley (whom we have taken to calling "Mimi," as in "Do you want to deal with the Screaming Mimi or should I?") is cute. Remember how I thought she was teething a month or so back? The pediatrician says I was mistaken. Apparently screaming herself to sleep for 45 minutes before every nap is just part of her personality.

She's a very social person. The more people paying attention to her, the happier she is. She loves church because someone is always holding her. As far as she's concerned, Sunday is the day we gather together to celebrate her cuteness. (And until she's old enough to understand the real reason, I'm content that she associates church and feeling loved.)

Unfortunately, when we aren't having relatives descend upon us, there's just Brian and I here at home. And we have to do boring things like cooking, laundry, and cleaning the house. So there's a limited amount of time available for snuggling with Mimi. And the comparative lack of an audience is very disappointing to our little drama queen.

Every morning at about 0430, Brian and I have the same conversation. "She's clean, dry, in a fresh outfit, and I just fed her. Any screaming is because she's bored and wants company." Some nights we get lucky and she goes right back to sleep after feeding, but usually she howls for at least a half hour before she falls asleep.

So it's a very good thing that she's cute, as it makes the random fussiness much easier to deal with. Many people comment on her cuteness. And I know much of it's just social programming, but it's still good to know that (so far, at least) no one is going to confuse my child with Sasquatch.
But by far the weirdest praise for Shirley comes from Dr. Hsu, the urologist when he met with us before Saturday's surgery: "What a cute baby--she's gonna be a heartbreaker. Buy a shotgun NOW!"

home again

The procedure to put the stent in yesterday went well. Unfortunately, however, they weren't able to retrieve the stone. But since I'm no longer dizzy, puking, or requiring IV pain meds, they sent me home. Theoretically I'll be having a different surgery in a week or so to definitively remove the stone.

In the meantime, I'll be off work, on Lortab, and trying to manage to get some housework done in between the regular drug-induced naps. Wish me luck!

The view from the inside

The view from the inside is pretty boring. And the people on the People's Court are pretty stupid. However, the CT scan results are back--and I DO have a kidney stone. It's 4mm X 5mm, according to the nice urologist who was kind enough to call me on my room phone to explain what was going on. Weirdly enough, the stone is on the right, even though the back pain has been most severe on the left.

So tomorrow they're going to try to manually retrieve the stone (thank God I'll be heavily sedated for this process!) and put a stent in. Should be interesting.

An insider's view?

At the moment, I'm at the hospital. Specifically, I'm at the one I work for. Unfortunately, I'm a patient right now.

After narrowly avoiding passing out during the morning medication pass yesterday, I spent the rest of my shift in the emergency room before they decided to admit me overnight. The doctors are pretty sure I don't have a kidney infection or kidney stones like they originally thought--but they still don't know what caused all my troubles yesterday morning.

So while I'm waiting for the CT results, I'm watching reruns of the People's Court and knitting a sock. Thank God for free Internet access in the hospital rooms, or I'd probably be going completely stir-crazy.