Threes

Things come in threes, bad or good, right? Here's my latest three. You be the judge of goodness vs. badness.

1. Yesterday was our final Nano gathering of the year, and we all got together to celebrate our writing (did I mention that I'm a winner?) and then went to Arigato, a Japanese Steakhouse for dinner. I had the shrimp and salmon, cause I loves me some little fishy things from the sea. After dinner, I was driving home, and called my sister and realized I was all itchy, which I attributed to an allergy to her voice (cause I loves me some her like that). Anyhow. Once home, the itching intensified, and I discovered that I had HIVES all over my face and arms. HIVES. Yup. Those little fishy things from the sea are apparently harrassing my immune system. Mean little fishy things. So: allergic to shrimp.

2. On Friday, I started my computer, only to get the message "Disk Error. Press Any Key to Restart." I pushed any key several times. Actually, I probably pushed all keys to restart, but no restarting happened. "No worry," I assured myself, "probably some faulty wiring or some such nonsense. The miracle-workers in academic computing will get this all shaped up and shipped out in no time." Fade in to this afternoon:

Brenna: My computer won't start.

Dennis: What happens?

Brenna: It says "disk error."

All three miracle-worker academic computing gurus, in unison: Uh-oh.

Well, darn it. Okay,not as big a deal as it would have been when I acutally had all my lectures, etc. stored on said computer (I lost all of those a couple of months ago already) BUT! Guess what is on the computer, that is not completely backed up? Have you guessed? That's right. MY NOVEL. My freaking, 50,009 word novel. I've only posted thirty thousand or so words on my site. They are going to 'try' to recover it.

3. I was driving over to Susan's house tonight to blog about the things that had happened, and to leave spot #3 open, wondering what would fill out the triad. Then Susan called.

Susan: How far away are you?

Brenna: (thinking, uh-oh) I just left. Why?

Susan: Well, my dog just mauled me, and my hand is falling off in a bloody mess. Hurry!

Okay, okay, so it wasn't quite like that, but Susan managed to stick her hand in the mouth of her German Shepard as it tried to bite off her other dogs head. She got Susan's hand instead. (At this point, I'd like to remind you all that Susan will be a doctor someday. Possibly yours.)

I called my mom for some Urgent Care advice (thanks, ma!) and finally got to Susan's. The wound itself was not terrible, mostly a puncture wound - three main spots. Her hand was all swollen, though, so brilliant med students that we are, we determined a plan of action: Augmentin and Vicodin. Problem: no pharmacy anywhere would accept our word or our signature.

So we ventured out to "The Baptist" to visit the nice ED docs, as Winston-Salem lacks a good after hours urgent care facility. Being med students did help us get through a little faster, but it still took us nigh on three hours to get (drumroll) Augmentin and Vicodin. (And a hand x-ray and tetanus booster, but we are only third years after all)

I thank Susan for nicely rounding out my triad of the last 24 hours. Didn't affect me personally as much as the shrimp or the computer, but it still fits.

Good or bad?

I guess it depends on your point of view. Example: someone who didn't like me very much (say for instance, a shrimp) might wish the loss of a novel upon me and pain upon my friends. Mean little fishy things.