Claw marks in the frozen peas

Apprehension and other thoughts

I thought I was done tumbling about my hospital ordeal, but I’ve decided to share a few final thoughts…

I’ve found myself feeling a bit apprehensive when I eat now. I think to myself, “Will this cause me to hurt again?” When I go to bed, I think, “Will the pain come back tonight and will it be worse than before?” Being cleared from the hospital didn’t give me a magical clean bill of health. I’ll still have recurring pain until I have my gall bladder removed. I hate that I’m questioning routine.

I found it funny that everyone in the hospital treated me as if I was physically unable to perform simple acts like walking. I could walk fine even when I was in excruciating pain. However, these people are so incredibly selfless and kind. I felt bad whenever someone pushed me around in a wheelchair. I kept offering to walk, which I could do just fine. In fact, when I was hopped up on the miracle pain killer, I was fine enough to walk from my bed in the ER to the bathroom twice without assistance.

Being ill made me realize who my friends are, especially friends I didn’t know I had. When I was in the hospital, I was in good spirits and my wit never left me, but I couldn’t help but feel alone. I imagine that’s how most people feel when they’re stricken with some kind of serious ailment. Hearing from people, even “strangers” from tumblr made me feel better.

I visited a children’s hospital last December as part of a charity function I participated in. Every child I met had such a positive outlook on life, keyword being outlook; it didn’t matter that they’ve spent most of their young lives in and out of hospitals. We can learn just as much from youths just as much as we can gain knowledge from our elders.

I have a nasty bruise on my right arm from the creep who took blood while I was half asleep. He stuck me three times to find the vein and you can really tell. I’m not pleased about this at all. I have this impression that this guy has no respect for those who are ill. I doubt I’m the first person he’s mishandled.

I don’t believe in luck, it would be too easy to say that I was unlucky. It seems like we all want to believe in bad luck, but when good things happen, we never say that it was good luck. Perhaps there is such a thing as coincidence or happenstance. I believe that for every action, there is an opposite reaction - a philosophical version of Newton’s Third Law or karma. When I was laying in my hospital bed, I thought about how shitty my situation was and that something good has to happen to me soon. I suppose I was right, because as of today I’m no longer unemployed. I can’t say who my new employer is, but I will be the new Marketing Coordinator for a music venue that rhymes with the Mouse of Clues. *fist pump*

Greeting Cards? Forget about it.

Anyone who works in an office knows of the greeting card ritual that happens every month. At my last job, it seemed like someone was celebrating a birthday every week, and it didn’t take long for me to grow to hate having to sign these cards.

What do I write on a birthday card? I can’t just write “Happy Birthday” because it’s lazy and careless, and everyone else writes it. I stole this from my friend Ryan who would always write, “Make this one a good one!” This is great because it let’s me pretend that I’m genuine, but we all know I’m full of it.

Before I proceed, let me remind you that you’re on my side….

Someone’s mother had passed away and we had a sympathy card being passed around. Unaware of what kind of card it was, I mistakingly wrote my usual schtick. Someone came to me and asked, “Vinh… uh.. how do you make this death… a good one? She died of cancer.” Oh, no.

After fixing what I wrote, it now read like this, “Make thiese monemories a good one!s thatcomfortyouinthesedifficultdays.-Vinh” I ran out of room, so the second half of what I wrote was sort of curved downward like a spiral staircase. Ridiculous? I know!

To quickly show you how much I dread signing greeting cards, here’s where it ranks on my list of things I hated about my last job:

1. My Boss had curiously strong BO for a woman.
2. I hate signing greeting cards.
3. Oh crap, I need to avoid eye contact with this person coming down the hall or else he’ll spend the next 20 minutes talking about his granddaughter.
4. Someone “forgot” to load paper and/or toner into the copier again.
5. Potlucks are not fair if everyone just brings cups, damn it.