Emergency room trippin' (or why Christmas sucked this year)

It all began on Christmas Eve. I called my brother to give my birthday wishes to his 1-year-old as well as holiday greetings. I could immediately tell from his voice that something was amiss. He has a morning radio show in the states and usually the high energy personality and voice befitting of one. But his voice this time sounded lower than usual and less self-assured. After I rattled off my holiday wishes, he asked a few questions about my life, then said, "I'm in the emergency room. I've been experiencing some heart pains." A long pause on both sides ensued, after which I battered him with questions and then he said he had to go.

Christmas day I was of course working at the paper. Since we were missing both our managing editor and one of our copy editors the work piled up quickly. My computer refused to let me log in to the editing program and IT spent around 2 hours trying to fix the probelem. Articles seemed more poorly written than usual. Everyone was getting fairly annoyed. We all ended up working later than usual. After work I raced down 2 hills to catch the 8:15 bus and just as I neared the bottom of the second I watched the bus pull away onto the highway, the driver not noticing my flailing arms and missing my telepathic message for him to stop. I decided to hop a bus going to the neighborhood next to mine which I had never taken before. I thought it would end up fairly close to my home near the end of the route, but it actually left me a couple miles away. Temperatures must have been hovering below freezing and I made my way home miserably in the dark, slowly losing feeling in my fingers.

I called Evren when I reached home around 10 but only got his message service. Eventually I fell soundly asleep. Early the next morning, Ev called, relating how he had slipped and fallen down the stairs at work and injured his back (which had seized up only days before). He had been taken to the emergency room in an ambulance, which was called by one of his workers since he couldn't move. Now he is drugged up on painkillers and facing some time in physical therapy.