My Native American name is "Girl of Tender Feet"

hello blog followers.....it's been a crazy 7 days. Here's the run down...

Monday and Tuesday were normal days of going to work.....but by Tuesday night...by right foot was starting to swell up and bother me...

Wednesday @ 5:00 a.m.....i awaken to a foot that is throbbing and super swollen...i knew I had a cut under my little toe to go with the 4 million blisters...but apparently something got in that shouldn't....So throwing on jeans.....i grabbed a taxi at 5:15 to the 24 hr. CVS in Dupont Circle....i grab some neosporin, catch another cab back, attempt to get another hour of sleep before I have to get up and get dressed for work.....then at 2:20 I get the call about my sweet grandmother.....I ask God what test I'm supposed to be passing....b/c i'm pretty sure I wasn't prepared.....Generous application of neosporin does not seem to be helping all throughout the day at work and by 5:30 foot really doesn't fit it shoe....but i make it happen....I inquire about urgent care facilities and a sweet friend at work tells me about Minute Clinics in the CVS drugstores...quick web search locates one....must catch taxi.....next thing I know....I'm in a less than desirable area of D.C...... I roll with it and head into the CVS....she takes one look at foot and tell me to immediately go to George Washington Hospital E.R......I stand on the street corner hoping to catch a taxi and praying no one else pulls over to proposition me....let's just say I had competition on competing corners.....

Sweet taxi driver picks me up, inquires about my day...and I try very hard NOT to cry at this point....about block away he politely inquires who recommended I come to that CVS.....that assured me I'd made a bad choice....safely on my way to GW ER....i relaxed.....arriving at 6:00 p.m...get bad directions and walk one block back and forth b/c apparently the employees at the help desks are directionally challenged, i made my way into the E.R.....quick as a wink I'm processed, have hospital jewelry on my arm telling everyone who I am....and then I sit back in the waiting room and wait......and wait.......and wait......and wait......and wait.... at 11:00 p.m. I'm taken back....to wait.......but now I am in the middle of Crazy Town with two women on either side of me throwing the greatest tantrums I've ever experienced....they screamed at doctors, nurses, passersby, custodians....basically anyone who would listen...or really not even listen that they had been waiting FOREVER AND THEY HADN'T EAT'N NUTTIN' OR NUTTIN'..............add a WHOLE lot more colorful language and you get the picture...it was all i could do to sit there for 45 min. and not rip back the curtain on either side of me and use my best teacher voice to KNOCK IT OFF.....but prudent thoughts reminded me that these ladies might have weaponry of some sort....so i refrained.....and pleaded silently for ANYONE to deliver me....a P.A. spent all of 4 seconds with me which by this point, the infection was streaking up my leg.....they diagnosed me with cellulitis....went to get a prescription and came back with paperwork stating I had athletes' foot.....let's just say I'm not so impressed with GW hospital.....which i'm told is the best in the city....Y-I-K-E-S!!! By this point it is midnight and there are no pharmacies open.....so they give me one antibiotic and I head to the same CVS I saw at 5:00 a.m.....by the by....had not eaten NUTTIN' OR NUTTIN' by this point....I get to CVS and i SWEAR the pharmacist is typing info at a rate of 1 letter per minute.....after 20 min....she tells me she can't fill it....some nonsense about the Alabama insurance system must have shut down at 11....but I can come back at 1:00 a.m......I think at that point I might have used some colorful language myself...but I was delirious from pain, exhaustion, and no food...so it's hard to remember...I taxi home and collapse in bed at 1:00 a.m....

Thursday......I get up, race to CVS, race to work in flip flops (only shoe my foot would fit in) and prop foot all day in chair......Work people are SUPER sweet.....The next few days are a flurry of trying to figure out what I'm doing......I plan to fly in on Sat. a.m. really early and fly back on Sunday....when you are contracted for 6 wks, it doesn't leave any room for life to happen....work people are super sweet, but I can tell they are glad that I won't miss any days....I'm sure somehow that would have involved paperwork with the Devil on the 4th floor...and I'm still trying to avoid her at all costs...

Friday night I attend an event at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. It is a Sustainable Seafood Event with area restaurants and wineries....lots of yummy tastings of both wine and food....I've found a new Greek restaurant that went on my list for further investigation after eating olive oil cured tuna with caviar mousse.....never had such and BOY was it yummy..

Wake up at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, taxi to airport and catch plane by 6:00 a.m.....arrive in ATL, rent car, and head to Auburn....So happy to see all my men, but not under these circumstances...Load up and we head to see the fam in Dothan.

My aunt deserves MAJOR kudos for taking care of my sweet grandmother in the last few weeks of her life and for arranging the sweetest service for her.....it was a lovely tribute to a sweet lady....Sitting at my grandmother's house afterwards visiting with my cousins made me feel like I did when I was a kid, and they would come for Thanksgiving or a summer visit....we poked all through drawers looking at old photographs with bad hair and funny clothes....read letters....and reminisced while enjoying one another.....

We headed back to Auburn late Sat. night so I could spend one night in MY bed and take a shower with good old hard Auburn water....first time I've felt clean in weeks...I spent a lovely day with my guys and then loaded up the rental car, drove back to ATL, and caught my plane at 10:00 p.m.....arrived back in D.C. by midnight, taxied to apt., and was asleep by 1:00 a.m...

I am a master of travel now.....My foot has improved greatly....and I was back at my desk today.....But I enjoyed my Saturday with my grandmother......she was in the beautiful clouds with me as i flew while the sun rose....the sky was her favorite shade of blue......and when I flew back Sunday night....watching all the lights below.... 40,000 ft. beneath me....reminded me of sitting in her house on a Saturday night watching t.v.....warm and cozy...

Alison, Robyn, and I will always be her "Sugah"