I ate dinner last night at 11:00 - Pepsi Blue and cherry Pop Tarts - while walking out of Walgreens. It was a long night.

Sunday morning I woke up reasonably refreshed. It was daylight savings time, so I had to set the clock by my bed an hour later, which made it closer to 9:30a that I woke up. That’s not to say I was terribly refreshed; there’s something about Sunday morning that just doesn’t jive with me. It’s like my body realizes the weekend is already halfway over and rebels against the thought of going back to work by not allowing me to feel like I slept well.

Of course, it also could be that my tiny Xev cat was bawling her heart out right outside the bedroom door. She’s a bad, spoiled cat. She wouldn’t get away with that stuff if she wasn’t so damn cute.

Sunday progressed along at a leisurely rate. Jenn and I watched some TV, ran to the store for groceries, got me some new pants and shirts at the mall, and played some Dynasty Warriors 4 on the PS2. All in all, a pretty relaxing day, being what it was.

At 6:30p we packed up our stuff and left to go to the Skate World in Gresham. Jenn’s in charge of a Job’s Daughters group and the activity that evening was a two hour skate-a-thon for $2.

I’m down with the skating thing. I’m not terribly coordinated or anything, but there’s something I dig about throwing some old-school skates on my feet and getting out in the rink. Perhaps it appeals to my not-so-inner child.

We got to the place around 7:00p and met the rest of the group. There were (I think) four girls, aged around 14 - 16 years, and four other adult leaders. Actually, it was more like some adult leaders and their husbands/wives/friends, etc. Anyway, we totaled about 10 people. Everyone paid their two bucks, and we were in.

(Aside: There’s one of the girls there who looks just like Laura San Giacomo from Just Shoot Me! and Suicide Kings. I think her name is Brittany, but I never remember. I always just refer to her as “Maya.” One of these days I’m going to be all, “Hey, Maya!” Heh.)

I got my skates - size 13’s - and exchanged my shoes for them, putting my shoes into a locker with my coat and Jenn’s stuff. Somehow I always get the skates that have no insoles in them. I think I’d have a better skating experience if I owned my own skates, but I don’t skate enough to justify it.

Jenn and I gathered back around the table that everyone was posted at in the snack bar area, made sure all was set, and then jetted out to the rink. It took me a couple of circles, but I started to get the feel for it again. Jenn went around a couple of times, too, but had her legs tensed up so bad that her shins started to hurt, so she went and sat down again for a while.

I continued to skate, watching the folks that you know have skated more than you can imagine, and just sort of having fun. After several more trips around the rink, I skated out to find Jenn and see if I could convince her to come back out.

Jenn skated her way back onto the rink, did a couple more laps, and that was about all I could get out of her. Too much strain on the shins, I guess. She went back to sit down while I continued to circle.

A couple of minutes later, John, one of the adults from the group, came over and told me that Jenn had hurt herself. I skated off the rink to find her lying on the bench in the snack bar holding her arm - never a good sign.

Apparently, she was like two feet from the bench, ready to sit down, when a kid skated right up in front of her and fell down. Being unable to stop, Jenn went down too, but on her wrist.

I got her some ice in a bag and some water from the snack bar. A firefighter who happened to be in the rink at the time came over and made her an impromptu sling out of folded cardboard and a baby blanket. I gathered up our stuff from the locker, came back, and the firefighter told us how to get to the nearest hospital ER. I listened to the directions, which made sense, and we left.

Jenn insisted she was okay to drive, so she drove. I’m a better navigator anyway.

We followed the directions to the hospital and ended up completely lost. Jenn said she was reasonably familiar with the area, but I didn’t recognize a damn thing. We ended up stopping at Fred Meyer to buy a map of the area (Jenn doesn’t ever seem to have a map in the car) and finally got on the right track to the local hospital.

At the hospital, we got in, filled out the registration form (once we were able to find the English version… sometimes I think the multilingual thing has gone too far), and sat down in the waiting room. I don’t mind saying I felt conspicuously caucasian in the room full of hispanics. I guess that’s what the multilingual forms were for, eh?

A sign on the wall said something about “if you haven’t heard an update in 30 minutes, let us know and we’ll tell you your status.” Thirty minutes after registration, no update, so we went and asked about the status. What came back was basically, “Blah blah blah really busy tonight blah blah stacked up back here blah blah blah probably several more hours blah blah…”

Several HOURS?! This is an ER for Pete’s sake! We picked up and left, going to a larger hospital closer to downtown.

At the larger hospital we got in to see the triage nurse within 10 minutes. Within 30, we had a room where a nurse practitioner was looking at Jenn’s arm. By that time, it had swelled quite a bit and was really hurting her. The nurse left to get an x-ray tech.

Time passes. The x-ray tech shows up, takes Jenn to the x-ray room, zaps her arm, and brings her back. Moving that arm around to x-ray it didn’t make Jenn feel any better, so we quickly got the ice back on it.

More time passes and the nurse returns to show Jenn that, sure enough, she’s broken her left wrist. Well, that explains it, doesn’t it? A sling/split will be put on the arm to hold it until a full cast can be put on it.

Eventually John (not the John from the skating rink), a med tech with a British accent, comes in to put the splint on Jenn. But he can’t do it around the shirt she’s got on because the sleeves won’t go around the splint; instead, she has to put on a paper shirt. This thing was probably the most entertaining part of the evening. It’s like wearing a big Brawny paper towel in the form of a scrub shirt. It’s even got a pocket sewn in the front! Too much.

So John’s got some fiberglass-based casting material between two gauze strips that he basically folds around Jenn’s arm. The fiberglass was then wrapped with an ACE bandage, which not only held it in place well, but also helped to form it to her arm. Around all that went a sling to hold it all in place.

We left with a prescription for Vicodin and Motrin and went to the closest 24-hour pharmacy, a Walgreens reasonably close to our apartment. By this time, it was nearing 11:00p, and not only was I tired, I was damn hungry. So what’s good to eat at Walgreen’s? I wasn’t really in the “snack food mood,” soooooo….. Pop Tarts. To wash it down? Pepsi Blue. Good enough.

Jenn eventually got her pain killers and we went home, to bed. It was good to finally lay down, though I can’t say Jenn or I slept all too well last night.

And that tiny Xev cat needs to shut up.