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explanation

An MRI confirmed my sister did in fact have a stroke. The likely catalyst is her ruptured Achil*les tendon which means her leg has been immobilized in a cast for several weeks (and was planned to be immobilized for some time, though one would think weight-bearing in 3-4 weeks would improve circulation.) Did her doctors consider this issue? Doctors only thinking about the one part of the injured person - their heart, or their leg, or their blood, or their stomach - is a real problem. Nothing happens in isolation. Why didn't I think about this? Did she? Who knows. It seems extremely obvious in retrospect.

2:45 p.m. - Feb. 13, 2009

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un poco de todo

Last night I was watching Grey's Ana*tomy (previously my favorite show), and they went over the show with audio announcing the crash. I couldn't tell at first whether they said 48 or 8, and I was just praying they'd said 8. Unfortunately, it was 48. I just cannot imagine how awful it is for the families of those killed.

Then, I headed to bed. It turns out, right about the time that plane was crashing, my sister was having a stroke. At about 12:30, my phone rang. I always keep it beside me on the bed in case there's an intruder - a friend at work had this happen, and it seems a simple precaution. I also got into the habit of answering my phone after my sister had her first stroke 4 years ago. Anyway, she's had a second incident - unclear whether it's a second stroke or not. If so, it was a very minor one, the kind of thing you might be tempted to shrug off if you hadn't had the first. She's fine, but it's a reminder, unfortunately.

This morning, I headed to work, and found a string of e-mails in my Inbox, and at 9:15, was given a task that MUST be completed at 11:15, no matter what. It definitely got my adrenaline going, like taking a test or something. My job is normally not exactly low-key, but normally if tasks are time critical it's on a daily scale, not an hourly scale, and staying late is always an option. I have found, however, that things are rarely as critical as they're hyped up to be.

In other news, I've finished the first 25 lessons of Span*ish. That is the end of the first CD. There are 4 CDs. I turned my TV to the Spanish channel I get last night, and it was the news. The guy was talking a mile a minute, 2 or 3 times as quickly as I could hope to understand. I always feel like the people in the lessons I'm learning talk a mile a minute, but the Spani*sh news was a reality check - fast is relative. Anyway, I really do believe and that little bit of language comprehension helps when you're in a foreign country. Listening to the news reminded me of how it can be a bit exhausting. You can't just turn the foreign language off when you're abroad - it just goes on and on and on, if you can't understand.

12:14 p.m. - Feb. 13, 2009