>Tuesday Tidbits: December 29

>Tuesday Tidbits are the posts where I sum up all the little things that happen in our lives from one week to the next; the little things that aren’t interesting enough for me to write an entire post about (though you all know I can spin a boring tale out of pretty much near anything), but which may or may not be of interest to you.

• Bug is pretty much potty trained.  I’ve got a couple of posts ready to publish about that, but I’m so elated about this that I couldn’t wait to mention it.  YAY!

• Bear received an analog watch from Uncle Bobby and Aunt Julie for Christmas; she’s been wearing it nonstop since opening it on Saturday and is now 80% accurate at actually being able to read it.  I never realized how useful the ability to count by 5′s would be in learning to tell time.
• She’s also discovered that a two-week break from school is great in theory, but not so much in reality.  She’d much prefer to be busy and learning at school than at home with boring ole’ Mommy and her annoying little brother.  Apparently I’m not much fun.
• My dad passed out at work last Monday; he was brought by ambulance to the nearest hospital where my mom joined him.  The ER doctor there wanted to perform an emergency surgical procedure but my mom didn’t feel comfortable with that.  They were able to get him stabilized enough to be transferred to a better hospital where his doctors work; he was admitted to the ICU and given lots of fluids and several units of blood.  The doctors there did not feel comfortable doing surgery because his blood pressure was – for once – dangerously low; they kept him comfortable and sedated through the day and into the night.  The following day he was transferred to yet another hospital – one of the best in Connecticut – where a team of highly qualified doctors did more tests.

  Eventually, on Christmas day, he was released from the hospital to return home.  He’s currently under house arrest been told to stay home (i.e. not allowed to go to his office or the gym, or anywhere other than upstairs to shower and to sleep in his bed, or downstairs to watch TV work from home) for the next 4-6 weeks while his body recovers enough to have surgery performed on the 7″ benign tumor in his abdomen that most definitely needs to be removed.

  Throughout this entire process I’ve been posting updates about his condition on Facebook, and once again I’ve been reminded about how much I love that social networking site.  Friends from near and far have written in with their support, and family members that might not otherwise know what was happening until weeks or months later were kept in the loop.  I might not play the games, or send pokes, bumper stickers or virtual cups of coffee (anymore) but this is how I keep in touch.  My 80-something-year-old grandfather – who still calls me over here in Japan when he forgets how to use his TV – was highly confused when his nephew called to ask about my father’s status.  “How did you find out about that?” Grampy asked, to which my dad’s cousin replied, “Heather mentioned it online, and my daughter [living a couple hours away in Boston, and whom I haven't seen in over ten years] saw the update and called me to let me know”.  The connectivity that Facebook allows me has been invaluable.

• Nine years ago today, Tony proposed to me and I accepted.  Even though it wasn’t what I’d hoped for or expected, saying “Yes” was the best decision I’ve ever made.    
  

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