What Do You Really Think About Me?

Tonight I had my first trig test, while tomorrow I return to the painful, embarrassing, demeaning chemistry lab and I get my yearly evaluation at Gestapo. It's like I stumbled into a dark carnival of judgement. I have to discuss how to perform my job better with F-bomb, and I made a list of objectives for the occasion. I plan to give him the list* and ask him to pick three. I hope he picks my objectives to come to work drunk once a month, get a substantial raise, and punch argumentative people in the throat.

*This all bears on his mood, mind you. I'll be gauging where he fits on the cranky/happy continuum in the morning.

I spent a couple of days camping in one of my favorite state parks with some of my favorite people. There was a lot of eating and hiking and general mirth. MacGyver and I camp a few times a year, but we rarely go with more than one other person. So I packed my normal gear, and came up short. Turns out, I didn't consider that other people don't eat out of the cooking pot. While MacGyver and I rarely pack more than spoons and chopsticks to eat with, some people take advantage of civilization's tool and use plates and stuff. However, we did pack TWO Frisbees, because we believe in Frisbee preparedness. It's almost our religion.

For one too-short portion of the trip, I went horse-back riding for the first time since I was 14. More accurately, I sat on the horse and it walked around. It was a good horse, albeit a crooked horse, and I will never forget her. Or was it a him? Damn, I forgot to check, and Dusty is a pretty gender neutral name. Well, the beast was not obviously male, as a few of them were. Maybe she was a boy and just didn't live up to the simile.

Unfortunately, I got a call from mom on the first night. She had pains that landed her in the ER, and the doctor said she had pneumonia. Then another doctor said she had blood infiltrating her lungs. And then some other doctor took a guess and they all played paper-rock-scissors to diagnose her. Whatever it was, they kept her for a couple of days and made me worry. This is not the first time I've left town and she's been hospitalized. It makes me feel extra bad and discourages me from traveling. But, what do you do? I called her the next night to check on her and visited the day we returned. I reminded her a few times that she comes first. So she took advantage of me and now I have to clean her house for the rehearsal dinner.