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Saturday, February 14, 2004

Saturday at the Hospital

The blog is so cool. This is jen. We type at this atrocios little kiosk with tiny keys, so it really took don awhile to write all of that. I hadn't even read it, having run out for coffees and to staples to get some poster board to make a more efficient communication tool. My parents called from utah and they had read don's blog, but I hadn't. We're going to try to get pictures up tonight from Kathryn and Wayne's. Wayne just came to do cranial manipulation.

Today there is an adolescent kid with blonde hair and a very purple shirt just riding the elevator and announcing floors for everyone and wishing us a happy valentine's day. I haven't asked him who he is visiting, but I'm getting a kick out of him.

Last night I bustled in with a lot of Linda's things, CD's, cd player, dvd player, pajamas, socks, clean boxers and socks for Don that Mary asked me to bring (my friend Eithne came tp the house with me and helped me decide what to bring). Today Linda is wearing her Voyager watch.

At one point, Don said, "Linda, is Jen overwhelming you?"

"Yes."

"Do you like it?"

"Yes."

I told her about the people we didn't like and how I still don't like them and she laughed. (No one reading this). I asked her if she'd seen Under the Tuscan Sun because I'd wanted to see it and thought it might be fun.

One of the things I have worked on this week is not speaking of Linda in the past tense-- I told Christine this morning at breakfast, "She's still funny. She hasn't been very funny this week, but she's still funny."

Things like that make don throw his head back and laugh. Last night was priceless because we dragged him out for a beer. The people we were sitting with asked me what brought me to Columbia. I gestured toward him and said, "Don?'

Don told them he had the most horrifing story they would ever hear, and described over a margarita what he has explained many times. A woman at the table was sobbing by the time he was done. But for some reason when we all got into the car later (we only had one drink!) the whole thing seemed hysterically funny and Don was laughing and laughing as we replayed "So, what are you doing in Columbia?"

"Don?"

Don said he didn't know what his life would be like Wednesday. I said none of us do-- you just have tatamount to an extra sense right now.

Linda CLEARLY wants to talk. But she tires so easily- I feel like I don't have enough time! Phil and Pam are with her now, and others are coming.

Last night right after I got here, Mary called in a panic-- I had locked her out, and taken the key (don said to make copies, and the back door, unbeknownst to me had been unlocked already when i unlocked it!).

Nancy and Jason Miller had just left, so Dereck and I took off after them in the car. I called their house and got their cell number from Jason's mom, and then Nancy answered. We caught them at a gas station and gave them the key, so we were heroes. That has not, however, stopped Linda's family from teasing me mercilessly about it today.

(Ellie just got here with Mary and Phil, so I will go.)

Don has been joking that he is like a deity because right now he can ask for anything and people will do it. I tell him that I merely have to invoke his deitiness and people do things for me. Don's sister asked us how much for the coffee when we brought it, and I told her, "It was free. I told them the story, they cried, and gave us the coffee."

I will leave it to you to determine whether I was kidding or not.