Happy Birthday to Me

O. M. G.

What a day today was.

First, let me give you a brief background of the weekend:

• Friday: Ben stayed home from work with chills, possible fever, and killer headache. Friday evening, no better -- any movement (i.e., moving his eyeballs) caused debilitating pain. Took him to the ER Friday night. One CT scan, much bloodwork, and a spinal tap later, and they send him home with diagnosis of probable sinus infection with antibiotics and assorted pain/nausea meds.
• Saturday: Pumpkin decorating party. Obviously, with Ben in his condition, we considered cancelling it. But, he felt better when the meds were kicked in (and then was back to lying motionless in bed or recliner when meds wore off), so we decided to give it a go. (Plus, I had put in a ton of work for the party and it was just too painful to consider calling it off.) Fun times, pictures to come. But, exhausting.
• Sunday: Mostly recovery/cleanup from the party. Ben was mostly the same -- okay when the pain meds were working, but then he would try to do something, would overdo it, and he'd be back to his incapacitated state. I took the kids to local park to meet up with Travis's little Kindergarten buddy, Evan.
• Monday: More of the same for Ben. Another day off work for him. Doesn't seem to be getting much better.

So then we get to today. Ben decides to try to make it to work. Tuesday is normally my early-morning-workout day, but I agreed to put the workout off until lunch so I could take the kids to my mom's and Ben could get an earlier start to get caught up at work. As it turns out, by the time he drove into work, he was back to debilitating headaches, and could only get relief from lying down. Spent most of the morning in the nurses office. More on that later.

I went into work, got some stuff done, and then headed to the courthouse to report for jury duty. Meanwhile, I am hearing about tornado watches and warnings going on, so before heading over to the courthouse (which is literally across the street from my office, I stare at it every day from my office window), I called them to make sure it was still on.

It was.

To the courthouse, up to the 2nd floor. Once there, this guy says, "hey, everyone has to go downstairs to the shelter because of the tornado warning...." I'm looking around, trying to figure out what to do, and this other guy that is checking people in for jury duty says, "no, go ahead and come in here, sign in, and sit down," so I do. Turns out I am potential juror number 13, I should have taken that as an omen for how this day was going to turn out.

I sit down, there are about 10 other people there. There are spots for 30 total jury pool members. One other guy comes in after me, and then we sit there for literally half an hour, with no one else coming in, and no representatives of the court to be found. At one point, a lady went to go find out what was going on, and the doorway to the rest of the courthouse had been shut and she couldn't find a way out.

Weird.

After 40 minutes or so, the guy that had been checking us in comes back, and two other potential jurors shuffle in. They had been in the basement, with the rest of the courthouse, due to the tornado warning.

Yes. They had left us jurors upstairs, alone, while they evacuated to the basement.

Shortly after that, they called us into the courtroom. The honorable judge addressed us, and proceeded to explain that apparently at some point during the madness, the door to the courthouse had been locked. (That's apparently how they handle weather-related emergencies....lock out anyone who might be seeking shelter.) Thus, other potential jurors attempting to report for duty would have essentially been turned away. There were only 14 of us there. The judge explained that, rather than waste our time and his only to find out they didn't have enough acceptable jurors to proceed, that we could go ahead and go. Consider our civic duty served.

I was okay with that. This was a horrible week for me to have to be out of work, with tons of deadlines needing to be resolved prior to 11/1.

So I leave the courthouse and head back across the street to my office. The winds were unbelievable. Had I had an umbrella, it would have been ripped to shreds, judging by what happened to potential juror #2, who was walking back to the building next to me.

Up to my office on the 4th floor. The elevator door opens, and I notice the lobby is dark. Not a good sign. Yup, sure enough, enter the office and it is dead empty. Clearly, they have evacuated for the tornado. I head downstairs to the basement and connected with my team. Indeed, the tornado warning is still in effect for our area. I was down there for about 40 minutes before being able to head back up to get some work done.

On a side note, THANKS, St. Joe County Circuit Court, first for leaving me on the 2nd floor of a building while you safely removed all your employees to the basement, and second for releasing me into the streets of downtown during a posted tornado warning.

Not long after I get back to work, Ben calls to inform me that our family doc has recommended he go back to the ER, and needs me to drive him there. First, because he has intense pain when he stays in an upright position for any length of time, and second because he had gotten a ride home and his truck was still at work.

Left work and took Ben to the ER. Spinal tap on Friday's ER visit had led to spinal headache from CSF leak. Treatment: Blood patch, which means taking blood from his hand and injecting it into his spine via epidural, so the clotting features of the blood essentially "patch" the leak. Three hours later, and Ben is good as new.

Meanwhile, I headed back to work and tried to get as much done as possible. Left the office at 4:55, went to the gym for my twice-delayed workout, and finally made it home.

With all the stress/sickness, Ben had not been able to get my birthday present. But I did get a cookie-cake from Ben and the kids, see above. All is good.

P.S. A funny story from the weekend, on Friday night when it was determined I would need to take Ben to the ER, I called our roomer Justin, who was at his fiance's house, to see if they could hang out at our place instead of hers, thus I could put the kids to bed and leave for the ER. I had put on some sweats and was randomly wearing a T-shirt from the high school Ben works at. Ben, who had been dealing with the shivers, was wearing his track sweats and hoodie from his days as track coach at said high school, plus he donned his jacket bearing the same high school's insignia. Justin came over, eyed us up and down in our matching attire, and said in a somewhat suspicious tone, ".... Are you guys going to the football game?.." As if the whole "going to emergency room for Ben's excruciating pain" was all a ruse so we could trick him into babysitting while we made our way to the Friday night football game.

P.P.S. For those of you keeping up with my workout regimen, I'm on top of it:

Friday, cross-training - 30 min of cycling

Saturday, rest

Sunday, 3 mile run through the neighborhood, complete with intervals

Monday, cross-training - weight lifting and 10 min of cycling

Tuesday, 2 mile run at the gym

Tomorrow = Rest!! Hooray!