This has been a day when three big--and I mean big--things demanded my attention, and my mind is reeling tonight. This morning about 8, Jeannie called in hysterics--I couldn't get much out of her except that her husband was in surgery and she was at the hospital just down the street from me. I ran to the hospital which, like most hospitals today, is a conglomeration of buildings added on then and now and the most confusing place I've ever been. Trying to find Jeannie involved a comedy of errors including opening what I thought was a second-floor door only to almost walk out on space and a construction site. I finally found her, pacing the hall. Jim was in surgery for a ruptured aortic aneurysm, and the surgeon told her it didn't look good. When we went into the waiting room, she introduced me to her daugher-in-law as the friend she WAS going to Scotland with--of course, the trip is off! I stayed for an hour, but Jeannie had family around her--and I had things to do. Tonight I'm pleased to report that Jim is in ICU although he doesn't look like himself at all--Jeannie says she's never seen so many tubes. But he's apparently holding his own after a long and traumatic surgery--and a brief return to surgery.
Sunday TCU Press is giving "Books & Music in the Garden," an event I hope will be memorable. The garden is an acre-and-a-half that belongs to a member of our advisory board and was on the Nature Conservancy Tour in 2006. We'll serve wine and lemonade, chip and dip, cheese, and cookies, and people can wander in the garden, talk with the authors, etc. BUT Jeannie was catering the event--which now means I'm catering it, which is a scary thought. I went shopping today and sort of blindly bought all the food. Wine was easy, because the liquor store guides you but food was a pure guess on my part. We'll see on Sunday.
And, meantime, there's Scotland. There trip we planned for months is indefinitely postponed. We agreed this morning that we'll go--just not right now. But it requires a lot of re-thinking. Suddenly my calendar is bare for two weeks, when I thought I'd be gone. The guest bed is piled high with things to be packed for a trip that now won't be. There are people to notify, tickets to cancel, reservations to change--I've waded into it and done pretty well, but it's daunting. And the most daunting is that it requires a major major change in thinking.
I keep thinking to myself, "You're not going to Scotland. You can relax and fritter away the time." Wrong! I have those 150 people on Sunday to worry about. So before I begin to put away all that stuff on the guest bed, I have to get out serving pieces. Jeannie knew in her head what she was going to use where--but I don't have any such sure knowledge.
I have good support--a good friend and a TCU Press author went shopping with me today, another friend and member of our advisory council is helping with serving dishes and going with me to greet the rental table people tomorrow. We'll all muddle through this, Jim will get well, and Jeannie and I will go to Scotland later. But it sure is mind-boggling tonight--and I'm tired.
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