Post Surgery: 2 Weeks + 6 Days

There is not a lot of news on the hip front today except that all throughout the day, I felt my leg pain trying to creep back. I only have two pain pills left, and I reeeeaaaaallly want to save them for when I'm, like, in agony, so instead I drank a gin and tonic late afternoon. ;-)

The sort of funny thing about the gin and tonic is that it wasn't as easy as it sounds. My husband decided he wanted a G&T, only we didn't have any gin, or tonic water, or limes, lol, so he asked me to go to the liquor store, because he was busy doing things around the house that I cannot do, like shoveling gravel out of the back of our truck onto our walkway. Normally I don't mind going to the liquor store, but helllloooo, it is not easy to go to the liquor store on crutches. It is not easy to go to any store on crutches, but it is somehow less embarrassing to go to a store on crutches and buy something at least semi-important, like guinea pig food, than it is to go to a store and buy something that is obviously not necessary, like gin and tonic water and limes. Somehow going to a liquor store on crutches makes me feel just one step removed from the people on crutches who sit outside the liquor store asking for money or liquor or both.

Furthermore, the neighborhood liquor store I've always gone to became somewhat of a turnoff to me when one of my former students, who failed my class, started working there sometime this summer. I realized this when I went into the store one day and the guy working the register said, 'Hey, don't you teach biology at ABC College?' I replied, 'Yes, I do.' He said, 'Yeah, I had you last semester!' Followed by, 'Maybe I'll have you again this semester!' Oh boy. I knew from our conversation then that he worked on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and made a mental note to go to the liquor store early in the week.

Thus, when my husband requested that I make a liquor run today (Sunday), I questioned whether I should go to another liquor store or just brave it out at our local store. On the one hand, if I went to a different store, no one would know me, so who cares if they think I'm some drugged out bag lady who just collected enough money from begging to buy a bottle of gin?! On the other hand, if you're shopping for stuff on crutches, the only way to pull this off is to put things in a bag as you shop, which makes it look like you're shoplifting. I decided that the chances of being accused of shoplifting were less at liquor store where they knew me, and decided to go there, even though I knew this meant possibly running into my former student in a really pathetic state. Crutches + buying liquor just doesn't seem like a person's most dignified moment.

Enjoying a hard-earned G&T! Better than hydrocodone!

Sure enough, my former student was there. Although it was super awkward for me, I have to admit that he seems to be a nice enough guy, and he doesn't seem to hate me for failing him. (Seriously, he never came to class, which is why I didn't recognize him as one of my former students until he told me.) He seemed genuinely concerned about what was wrong with me and whether or not I was okay. LOL. Also, one of the higher ups, who has known me for much longer, and who has known my parents for, like, foreeeeever, seemed upset over my plight and followed me everywhere, insisting on carrying things for me. (I think this pressured me into buying the big $40 bottle of gin versus the $25 bottle.) Then, after I had paid for everything, he told my former student to carry everything out to the car for me, which was embarrassing because my car is, well, embarrassing!

All of this for one stinking gin and tonic!

Later in the evening, my brother and his family arrived from out of town. They are staying with my parents, so we went and had dinner with them at my parents' house. My parents only live three blocks away, but I drove, because three blocks is a really far distance to go on crutches, especially when you add busy streets and children into the mix. I felt really lame, though, because I can't remember the last time I ever drove to their house, or to any place three blocks away. To add to this, it started to pour after dinner, with lightning and thunder, to the extent that we kept waiting for a break because of how difficult it would be to get out to the car with the kids and me on crutches. Seriously? We live in a place that gets no more than 15 inches of rain a year, and 5 of them are predicted for the next two days?! Awesome.

The good news is that the G&T and the few glasses of wine I had tonight seem to have done the same job as the hydrocodone, so hopefully I won't have to take any tonight.