edinburgh graduations

England misses their penalties

the graduate

Jimmy

the goodisons

in the NLS

Sophie

Liz

Perhaps it's cheating simply to post pictures. I suppose I should just get pinterest, but what another distraction. Yesterday I spent 4 hours in the ER waiting for someone to see my arm. It turns out I do have a bad sprain and I'm now wearing a wrist brace. The last time I had thoughts about a wrist brace I was in school and they were definitely much cooler then in my mind than they are now.  I have unpacked and repacked and not read anything for days now.  I roll over and there are boxes. I dream about boxes. It's like real life tetris.Yesterday was also my last day to nanny Thing 1 and Thing 2. I don't want to think about it. Old friends in town: Liz whom I will just call my doppelganger. Sophie's birthday.

Fran's graduation was similiar to mine. I was excited I got to go and see him and other close friends graduate. But I was so confused. No one at Edinburgh apparently receives a BA, but you can get a BSc. Most receive an MA. Several people got an MA in Mathematics. I am not quite sure how this is possible. Then again, I'm not sure how a person like me can have an MSc, but I do not complain. We had a lovely lunch and the day was kind and the view from the Tower of the National Museum was wonderful because you were on eye level with everything. On Arthur's Seat one feels like God watching over the inhabitants, but there it was just eye to eye with spires.

Let me tell you more about the ER or A and E. I was not thrilled to go. I had let this injury go for three weeks but now it was nigh on unbearable with many a night me curled up in my bed whimpering like a whipped child. So we went, and I expected it to be terrible. It was terrible because I was hungry. But the doctors and nurses were supportive. I had to explain what skim boarding was and I don't even know what it is really, you'd have to ask my brother, but I couldn't say that to the nurses "Please ask my brother" so I just told them I was surfing though that's a very poor parallel.

At first I was angry they wouldn't x-ray my arm. But when I finally got to see the doctor, initially his first opinion was to do so. However, the Macleods (parents of Thing 1 and 2) had a friend in the ER and he stopped by ("Are you the American I've been hearing about?") and examined it as well. So I had not only one but two doctors see my arm. He explained how swollen tendens put pressure on the nerve; they pulled out books and diagrams; they prodded my arm. I had never thought it was broken, but now I was convinced they were right: a bad sprain. Then he brought me lots and lots and lots of pain killers and I was so happy to have them. And he gave me wrist brace. And codine. All for free. And they were so nice and unharassed and thorough. Afterwards I hunted for the bunnies in the jungle of the garden in the rain and had pizza and watched Star Trek and was very happy. It was the beginning of a paradigm shift. Perhaps I will be converted yet.