Home, Sweet Home (Or How Many Parking Tickets Can You Get in One Day?)
I came home on Thursday. All the way home. I was so happy I could spit.
My pastor Terri was coming up to Putnam from the Philadelphia area and offered to pick me up and bring me home and I jumped at the idea. My family wanted me to stay with them for a few more days, but I was eager to get home. I did not need to have someone be around me continuously, I could walk up and down stairs when I needed to, and there were no physical reasons to stay.
Terri and I got to my house around 2:30 or so and I entered the domain of cat hair. I have two long-haired cats and it appears that both went into shedding overdrive while I was gone. The house smelled musty, but it was home. I made myself a sandwich and settled in.
At around 5 that night, my friend Wendy called and suggested that she bring over eggplant parmagiana fro the Riverside Restaurant in Cold Spring. She did and we ate like queens. I started to poop out around 9 p.m. and Wendy went home.
The next morning, Diane Picirilli picked me up to take me into Manhattan for my first post-surgical meeting with Dr. Schwartz. Diane is the youth minister at St. Andrew's and is a sweethart. She is strongly considering going into the priesthood and is in the period of the process called discernment. We discussed her calling, and the kids at St. Andrew's, and chatted about the church in general both going down and coming back.
The appointment was at 10 a.m. and we made good time. We even found what we thought was a great parking spot on the street.
Dr. Schwartz's office staff greeted me like an old friend. His assistant even helped me undress in the exam room. He popped in and started looking at things and was very happy at how well I was healing. My navel looks very dark but he said that it appeared to be healing well and that the main incision looked beautiful.
But he would only remove two of the drains. He said that there was still a little too much drainage to remove all three. I argued and then tried whining, which didn't work. The removal hurt like bloody hell. He told me to say Poughkeepsie while he removed the first drain. I may have said something stronger. For the second drain, I asked to bite down on a gauze pad. That helped more than Poughkeepsie did. He bandaged me up and Diane and I left.
We left and went back to what I could have sworn up and down was a perfectly legal parking spot. I had read the signs, she had read the signs, and we both thought the signs said that it was legal to park there. We parked at around 9:40. Parking was not legal until 10 a.m. and Diane had had a parking ticket plastered on her windshield at 9:45.
So we were bitching and moaning about it most of the way home. I wanted to buy Diane lunch and suggested that we stop in Mount Kisco, to the Mount Kisco Kosher Deli. Sadly, the deli is no longer there. We walked a block or so and ate at Cosi's, a very crowded and very noisy place that made really good sandwiches. I found myself to be just a bit antsy in the crowd as we waiting in line to order and get our food. I was nervous about getting bumped into.
Diane and I walked back to her car and found a parking ticket on it. We had parked at a meter than had half an hour on it. Diane put more money into that meter. I saw her do it. She is going to contest this one and I will testify on her behalf if needed.
Two parking tickets in one day? On one car? On one mission of mercy? Yeesh.
My pastor Terri was coming up to Putnam from the Philadelphia area and offered to pick me up and bring me home and I jumped at the idea. My family wanted me to stay with them for a few more days, but I was eager to get home. I did not need to have someone be around me continuously, I could walk up and down stairs when I needed to, and there were no physical reasons to stay.
Terri and I got to my house around 2:30 or so and I entered the domain of cat hair. I have two long-haired cats and it appears that both went into shedding overdrive while I was gone. The house smelled musty, but it was home. I made myself a sandwich and settled in.
At around 5 that night, my friend Wendy called and suggested that she bring over eggplant parmagiana fro the Riverside Restaurant in Cold Spring. She did and we ate like queens. I started to poop out around 9 p.m. and Wendy went home.
The next morning, Diane Picirilli picked me up to take me into Manhattan for my first post-surgical meeting with Dr. Schwartz. Diane is the youth minister at St. Andrew's and is a sweethart. She is strongly considering going into the priesthood and is in the period of the process called discernment. We discussed her calling, and the kids at St. Andrew's, and chatted about the church in general both going down and coming back.
The appointment was at 10 a.m. and we made good time. We even found what we thought was a great parking spot on the street.
Dr. Schwartz's office staff greeted me like an old friend. His assistant even helped me undress in the exam room. He popped in and started looking at things and was very happy at how well I was healing. My navel looks very dark but he said that it appeared to be healing well and that the main incision looked beautiful.
But he would only remove two of the drains. He said that there was still a little too much drainage to remove all three. I argued and then tried whining, which didn't work. The removal hurt like bloody hell. He told me to say Poughkeepsie while he removed the first drain. I may have said something stronger. For the second drain, I asked to bite down on a gauze pad. That helped more than Poughkeepsie did. He bandaged me up and Diane and I left.
We left and went back to what I could have sworn up and down was a perfectly legal parking spot. I had read the signs, she had read the signs, and we both thought the signs said that it was legal to park there. We parked at around 9:40. Parking was not legal until 10 a.m. and Diane had had a parking ticket plastered on her windshield at 9:45.
So we were bitching and moaning about it most of the way home. I wanted to buy Diane lunch and suggested that we stop in Mount Kisco, to the Mount Kisco Kosher Deli. Sadly, the deli is no longer there. We walked a block or so and ate at Cosi's, a very crowded and very noisy place that made really good sandwiches. I found myself to be just a bit antsy in the crowd as we waiting in line to order and get our food. I was nervous about getting bumped into.
Diane and I walked back to her car and found a parking ticket on it. We had parked at a meter than had half an hour on it. Diane put more money into that meter. I saw her do it. She is going to contest this one and I will testify on her behalf if needed.
Two parking tickets in one day? On one car? On one mission of mercy? Yeesh.
posted by Valerie DeBenedette at 8:41 AM
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