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March 2, 2004

Day of Mad Dashes

It was one of those days where everything happened all at once, and something had to get dropped (spoiler: it was the dry cleaning). Here's my long boring post about my very busy day:

I got up extra early (6:15 instead of 7:00), took the dog out and then fed her, then cleaned up, dressed, and packed my crap up for the day. I bundled Simon into his carrier so he could go to the VCA for dental surgery, put down the cat food so Ana would not DIE OF STARVATION all day (Simon had to fast all night so Ana did, too), and headed out.

First stop: polling place. I vote by absentee ballot, but this time I could not bring myself to get it filled in in time to mail it, so I had to drop it off at the polling place. I chose to do it in the morning, because if I put it off I know I would have forgotten. So: at 7:25am I left the polling place with an "I Voted!" sticker on my shirt.

Second stop: vet's office. I drove over to Oakland and unloaded Simon on the vet. Filled in all sorts of paperwork and provided all sorts of phone numbers in case of emergency (cats can and do die during this surgery, so they want to be able to get hold of you). Fortunately, this was fairly speedy, and soon I was putting Simon's carrier in the back seat. At 7:50am I pulled out of the VCA parking lot.

The commute: this week, no matter which lane I am in, that is the slowest lane. I crawled towards the Bay Bridge with everybody else, only slower. Fortunately, I was well ahead of schedule, and even more fortunately, I was not going in the other direction, which was backed up into South San Francisco. I arrived at school with 20 minutes to spare. At 8:40am, I started walking towards my math class.

And then I realized that in an hour, I'm going to have to go the other direction on the freeway in order to get to the eye doctor's office. A hasty call to Noel got alternate directions worked out. At 9:00am, I sat down at my desk in the math classroom for a fun-filled hour of integrals.

After math (heh): I sped off campus, taking that alternate route across town. After fighting with traffic and slowness for half an hour, I made it to the eye doctor only fifteen minutes late. I hate being late for appointments; it makes me feel like a flake. At 10:45am I checked in at the opthalmologist's office.

Fortunately, they didn't see the need to give me a second glaucoma test, so I escaped having my eyes dialated. I was told the shocking news that I don't need corrective lenses for my vision because I see clearly, even though I see double (which I tell every opthalmologist every time I see them and they still seem not to believe me). The doctor seemed to think I was there about surgery, which I wasn't, necessarily, but I was willing to hear about it. He told me about a surgical treatment for my eye condition (they sort of bolster the muscle that moves one eye) and suggested that I might want to think about having that done.

I'm not a big fan of eye surgery in general, but I promised to think about it and come back if the condition gets worse, then left with my prescription for prismatic lenses. I was late for photography (but I was excused by the teacher, so this did not cause massive panic like being late for the appointment had).

On my way into class, the vet called and told me Simon came through surgery like a champ and can come home after 4pm. I finished the conversation at the same moment as I arrived at the photography classroom door. Talk about the high-pressure lifestyle. At 12:30pm, I walked into the photography classroom.

We were having a critique of our first set of prints. I was an hour late, so I had to set up on the far edge, but I did get some very nice comments on my prints ("this photograph was perfectly exposed, the film was developed perfectly, and the print was developed perfectly. The texture is absolutely beautiful" said of the vertical photo of Rosie). After having prisms and lenses held up to my eyes for an hour, I was pretty tired, so I bailed on the darkroom session and left after the lecture. I already finished the developing I needed to do, anyway. At 3:00pm I left campus.

I drove downtown and picked up Noel. On my way there, he called and asked if we could stop by his allergist's office on the way home, so I drove him across town. Then spent fifteen minutes circling the block looking for a parking space while he had his allergy shots. I finally stopped in the hospital loading zone. When he came out, he offered to drive the rest of the way home. Yay! Especially because my eyes were really hurting by that point. At 4:00pm I handed the keys over to Noel.

We dropped in at the VCA and picked up a pissed-off Simon (the bill was under $400, and that's for four extractions, so that was a bit of good news). Noel played with a dog in the waiting room while we waited for Himself to be brought out. Some boys. By 4:40pm, we were headed out the door with Simon in his carrier.

You'd think that this was the end of the Things To Do Today, but you'd be wrong. Yes, it's true that I needed to pick up dry cleaning and have simply decided that it can wait until tomorrow, but that's not all. When we got home I got to go under the house and drain the sump. (5:00pm.) And this evening, I'll be doing laundry while Noel goes out to dinner with some friends. I'd love to be able to sit and watch TV or read a book, but my eyes hurt, and I don't want to push it. Even typing this is not entirely fun. My enjoyable evening passtime of reading random blogs will simply not be possible tonight, dammit.

Posted by ayse on 03/02/04 at 6:08 PM