First of all, I am just fine. Now I shall tell the story of my weekend.
It started off innocently enough with me having dinner with Holly and
her mom at a fancy Italian restaurant where they say one of the finest
chef's in Dallas cooks. I had a lovely chicken fettuccine Alfredo. Then
it was off to a "prepare for the Cozumel trip" event in which the scuba
store gave us an itinerary and talked to us about what we need to do. I
had to leave Holly at the very beginning of it because I had an
appointment at the "Sleep Center of Richardson". I was to be checked for
sleep apnea and other sleep disorders to find out why I was so tired all
of the time. Unfortunately this required me to be sleeping by 10pm, way
too early for me. I usually get to bed by 2am. So I then proceeded to
have a very bad night of sleep. To top it off my GERD came back since I
had eaten less than 5 hours before going to bed. So there I am at the
sleep docs grasping my throat, sitting up, tossing and turning, kicking
my legs, and even willfully holding my breath so I will get tired and
fall asleep. I am sure my diagnosis is going to come back as having
every sleep disorder out there. They woke me up at 5am and I proceeded
to drive home and go back into bed and sleep for real. On Saturday I
went with Holly to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2. I really liked it. It
was one of those movies that is like Empire Strikes Back. I can picture
a whole gaggle of toys that come out of it.

Sunday was the day of the "Take a walk in my shoes" event that Holly had
thought of. The idea was to spend a day seeing what it is like to be
homeless. My conclusion, I would die if I was homeless. I have a lot
more respect for them now. So we start off at 11 and take the DART to
downtown Dallas. I had packed a bag of bottled water. So I then proceed
to drink just a little of this water. We all remarked at how it was such
a nice since it was only 95 out and not the usual 105. I am with the
"power walkers" group. It is me, Holly, and William, the guy who runs
the Rip Parker Homeless Ministry. They are walking really fast(kind of
like Spike, Robbie's step dad) and I am struggling to keep up.
Eventually we hit groups of homeless people(they are all spread out) and
talk with them a while. One guy was shot in his leg and didn't have any
money to pay for medicine. Then we stroll by all of our usual places
where we feed at. We ended up at the resource center and I proceeded to
help give out water. By then all of my muscles were sore. All of a
sudden I felt real faint and had to go into their truck and sit down.
They then noticed and took me inside into the air conditioning and gave
me 4 glasses of water while I lied down. After 15 minutes I felt better
and it was decided that we should go home. Unfortunately the truck had
already left so we had to take the train back to our cars, which meant
more walking. So we go on our way and I start to feel weak again and
again and again. We stop and rest and eventually end up at the train
station. Once we got to our final station we go out and get into a
restaurant, at which point I feel faint again and lay down in the booth.
Holly put a cold towel on my head and gave me some water. Eventually it
was decided that William would get his car to take us to our cars. So we
all get into Williams car, at which point all of the water I had drank
decided to come out of me. Of course his windows don't roll down so I
open the door and proceed to shisk out of the car. I thought, how
lovely. It was at that point when I said,"hospital" and was driven to
the ER. All the while Holly is worried about me and I am worried about
her cause she is worried about me. Heh. I spent about 2 hours sleeping
in the waiting room and by the time I got to a room I told the doc I
felt good enough to go. By that time I had already read up on heat
exhaustion on my phone and knew that that was what I had exactly. But he
says, better safe than sorry. So I proceed to get lab work done to
check my kidneys and they give me an IV to replenish myself. I was
finally finished by 12:30 AM and walk out in the waiting room to see
that Holly had made friends with everyone in the ER and was helping them
all out. I can't tell you what it is like to have a girl that will stay
with you in the bad times. I am so lucky. I am sure my week will be
better than my weekend. How was yours?

Thought of the Day
[*Garth fears throwing up if he talks to his dream girl.*] *Wayne
Campbell*: I say hurl. If you blow chunks and she comes back, she's
yours. If you spew and she bolts, then it was never meant to be.

// posted by Brian @ 7/24/2006 03:03:00 PM