How I spent my 4th of July

Or more precisely, how I started what was a very promising weekend with friends, in the emergency room.

Yep. Friday night. All afternoon at work I was having back pain. The kind of pain I recognized as being curtesy of my little friends. Hoping if I ignored it, the pain would disappear, I left work to pick up Brent for a trip to the movies. We caught the last matinee of War of the Worlds, which despite Tom Cruise's recent descent into weirdsville, was very good. I think I held my breath for most of the movie. And not just because of the pain I was in.

But I digress.

After the movie Brent and I grabbed some dinner then went to the liquor store. The whole time I was in ever incresing pain. So finally I took off for the ER at 10 p.m. They took me right back and immediately diagnosed a UTI (google it if you must, but it isn't pretty) probably brought on by yet another stone passing. Two hours and a CT scan later I was sent home with antibiotics and some pill that would aleviate my pain, but turned my pee orange. Lovely.

So instead of being able to drink and have fun with my friends this weekend I have been relegated to the role of DD. Saturday night instead of drinking my face off with Brent, Bob and the rest of the crew I calmly sipped on Diet Coke's and water. Sigh. You know what though, I had a bit of an epiphany as I was sucking down my last Diet Coke.

I had fun. Without the alcohol! Shocking revelation for this party girl but it's true. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that yes, yes, I can go to parties and not drink. I can go out to bars and not have a beer everytime. I can NOT drink like I'm 21 again.

Startling.

So Brent went home yesterday. But not before we had a little fun and went through his old house. When he's home, his base of operations is Allentown where his parents moved when we were in college. The old house they lived in was recently put up for sale so on a whim we went to the open house, just to be nosy. The realator must have thought we were out of our league because we showed up in shorts and t-shirts (not to mention I hadn't had a shower yet), hats on heads, just looking down right out of place. We gave some story that we were moving back to the area and were just driving around trying to get a feel for what was available and what the houses in the neighborhood were going for. The realator bought it. We meandered around the house making comments "Oh isn't that a big bedroom" and "What a nice backyard" or my favorite "The living room looks very Germanesque". I nearly lost it after that but we left the house without any incidents.

Today is very low key. Chad and his lovely wife Jen are hosting a party this evening that I will be attending. Their house sits just above where the city shoots off fireworks so we'll have a good viewpoint for that. Then it's back to the grind again.

Woo-hoo.


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Just a little ps to this entry...this post (July 3), just about says it all.