Who wrote this???

Dating Guide

Does anyone recognize this to be true??

Here’s what it says about me:

Gemini Dating Guide

Here are some things you can do with Gemini to ensure a successful date. Go to a book or poetry reading in a cafe or bookstore, attend a party together, go for a picnic, play a game, go dancing, spend the day at the zoo, go hang-gliding, go hot air ballooning, go to a drive-in movie, take a trip to Las Vegas, go to a science museum, go to a cafe or bar for a drink, take a yoga class together, go for a walk at midnight together, take a helicopter tour, fly a kite together, go to an air show

You & Your Gemini

Do’s

Enjoy the game of flirting with your Twins. Be flexible and open — your Gemini will want to play, and you may not be the only partner. Be elusive, seductive and always slightly out of reach. A Gemini enjoys a chase. Be well-read, well-informed and a very good listener. Be talkative — your Twins will engage you in hours of fascinating and entertaining conversation. Use your mind, as well as your body, to make love. A Gemini will respond the strongest to a partner who stimulates their mind. Always give Gemini the freedom that they need. They will broaden your horizons and teach you how to thoroughly appreciate everything life has to offer. Keep up — if you bore your Gemini, they will be gone faster than you can blink.

Don’ts

Never tell your Gemini to stop flirting. Gemini is a natural social butterfly, and won’t understand why you want to repress their instinct. Try not to be a bad conversationalist or a bad audience. Gemini becomes bored easily, and may not want to save the conversation for another time. Don’t question everything that’s going on in your Gemini’s mind. They will not appreciate an intrusion into their complex and convoluted thought process. Avoid being too traditional — if you want to spend every hour in bed, you may have to get used to some unexpected behavior. Don’t act too surprised — they may bring a Scrabble board, some crackers and cheese, and a novel into bed with the two of you. Try not to tie down or hold back a Gemini. They will slip through your fingers like quicksilver.

Sociology exam is looming. Had to book a co-op car as Cheryl phoned a while ago to report the transmission on their van had died. I’ll take my car over there later tonight. [Can things get worse? Yes they can. But let's not tempt fate!] Tosca kindly agreed to watch a couple of psychology videos for me and take notes, but she was even kinder to bring by a lunch for me!

Finally got the keys to my mother’s apartment. Picked up mail, papers, cleaned out fridge, forwarded phone, etc etc etc. Phoned a lawyer’s office yesterday, thanks to Nancy. I’m very ready to let someone else take some of this burden off me, but have been slow to phone a lawyer because it’s been a bit of mental struggle to give a stranger full control of my mother’s welfare. Now I feel I’ve got a handle on the situation and am ready to let go.

Back to the cramming…

Had lots of sleep last night, so am feeling much better for it today. I should stop pulling the all-nighters — as was pointed out to me last night, it’s a case of diminishing returns.

Today I have a list of things to do, and studying is one of them. I have a Sociology exam at 8:30 on Monday morning! Yikes!

I’m off to start that list now, which includes a fair amount of driving. [Cheryl, don't worry about me driving -- I've had lots of sleep, and I'm not as tense as last week.]

Night slipped into day as I tried to clear up the aftermath of the maelstrom that was this week. It’s nearly 9 o’clock and I just finished doing my laundry. May was parking in my spot as per usual and we had a brief conversation over the balcony, arranging to meet for lunch. I’ve been clearing up the apartment and trying to sort the mounds of paper and various accumulated objects before the cleaning ladies come sometime this afternoon. My mother’s things in her car and the clothes she was wearing the night of the accident have been strewn all over the floor as I combed it all to look for keys and pieces of paper that are meaningful to her life.

I think Marcia thinks I’m a bit crazy as I always try to tidy up before she gets here. She figures that’s her job, but because my apartment is so small, a few pieces of paper makes a big difference when you have to go around it…

After the all-night cleanup, I’m feeling more organised than I have been in a while due to a serious lack of time. Sleep has been the sacrificial lamb at the altar of sanity since I can’t seem to make time in other areas. I think people are worried about me. One colleague at the office mentioned they sent me something yesterday, but she didn’t say what it was. I’m a bit worried about myself. I feel tense while driving, not just because I’ve been in a number of accidents — a couple of them serious — and walked away while other people were injured, but because I keeping thinking my mind isn’t always on the road or other drivers. Or, as in the case the other night, I’m just plain wiped out and shouldn’t be driving. Normally I would just take the Skytrain, but I have stuff with me, and the hospital isn’t that close to the Skytrain station.

While I was at the hospital last night, I told my mother that I couldn’t get a key for her apartment because the building manager refuses to even accept a signed note! She wants to hear my mother’s voice to be sure… ICBC accepted my birth certificate, so why shouldn’t she?? Anyway, that plus some other things yesterday have been an exercise in frustration — hell, a total workout — but I was determined to get a key. So, while the nurses were out of the room, I whipped out the contraband — my mobile phone — and phoned my mother’s building manager, then put my mother on the phone. It’s a good thing the other patients in the room were either not paying attention or just didn’t care. The building manager finally conceded to cutting me some keys, which I will pick up on Saturday…. FINALLY! One small victory…

Last night I had a completely unintended full night’s sleep for the first time in more than one week, and I feel so much better. Got home from the hospital late and had every intention to tackle some of the workload that’s been piling up in front of the computer, but basically passed out… driving every day out to Surrey and back is not my idea of fun. I should be studying or working, but I can’t. I also can’t complain to my mother, who is the one in pain, while I’m just frustrated. Somebody give me some meds for that!

The doctor took off my mother’s neck brace last night, so it looks like the spinal tests from VGH were returned negative for damage. She has blisters from wearing a neck brace since Sunday night. She’s in a reclining position, and in better spirits, so I was able to explain what arrangements I’ve made thus far and the ICBC paperwork I brought with me for her to sign. They’re release forms to allow the insurance company to access her medical and employment records.

Today I phone the orthopaedic surgeon, the ICBC adjuster, and her insurance company to try to find out what her extended benefits include. I got my dad to go to the towing company yesterday to see if he could find her keys and retrieve anything else from the car. No keys. He says the car is completely totalled — it’s no wonder she has a shattered pelvis. I think seeing the state of the car shocked him, and what he was really thinking was, “she’s lucky to be alive.”

I can’t get into her apartment. I can’t find her glasses, either. She’s had some visitors the past couple of days while she’s been at Surrey Memorial, which helps me because they can hold her hand and be there for her emotionally. I’ll stick to asking her questions, speaking to nurses and doctors and filling in forms.

Thanks to all who send their wishes for a speedy recovery for my mother. She finally has a hospital bed at Surrey Memorial and is no longer confined to a stretcher in an emergency ward hallway.

Personnel at SFU and my colleagues have been very understanding and I am grateful for that. I’m still dreading the finals postponed until Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Still have a gazillion phone calls to make, but trying to chip away at my office work first.

I am hoping Cheryl’s pregnancy continues to go well. She is currently on full bedrest and will be admitted to BC Women’s Hospital full-time sometime between Christmas and New Year for the remainder of the pregnancy (mid-March, if all goes well). Michael and Maddy are in daycare, Melissa is now in Maine, and Allan’s been transferred out of support and into a technical writing position.

As 2003 winds to a close, I hope we can all just hang in there…

I have spent the last 24 hours trying to make arrangements for my mother, who was in a major auto accident Sunday night and admitted first to Surrey Memorial and then to VGH. Her injuries are serious but thankfully not life-threatening.

I’ve dealt with hospitals, doctors, nurses, police, towing, ICBC, my mother’s workplace, her building manager, phoned her friends, her old co-workers, my office, then SFU to try to get extensions on papers and my final exams this week. Multiple phone calls for all, and enough voicemail to last me a lifetime. The prize for the worst runaround goes to the hospital system, but ICBC has been a monumental pain in the ass, too. I’ve been on the phone and put on hold so many times in the past day both my mobile phone and my cordless phone batteries both nearly ran out. I still don’t know the exact details of the accident (all roads lead to the ICBC adjuster), and my mother still hasn’t been assigned an orthopaedic surgeon. She’s been seen by specialists, but no one person is responsible for her welfare until she gets a bed. It’s taken her nearly 24 hours to do so – she’s been shunted back and forth between the emergency rooms of both Surrey Memorial and Vancouver General Hospital and ran the gamut of examinations. She’s not even finished yet!

Here’s the outline of what I’ve been able to piece together:

1. shortly after 10pm on Sunday night, my mother entered an intersection after the light changed to green and took a direct hit to the driver’s side by a 27-year old male in a 2004 Toyota sedan
2. after a preliminary examination at Surrey Memorial, it was found that her pelvis sustained multiple fractures, there was some internal bleeding, and there was potential spinal injury — they decided she needed to be seen by specialists in Vancouver
3. at around 2:45am, she was sent to VGH, and I received the phone call shortly after she was admitted
4. once arriving at the hospital, I was told to wait while tests were being run by the trauma team; when I was finally able to see her around 6am, she was on morphine, but I managed to get a brief description of the accident, a few phone numbers, and she told me that she left an electric aromatherapy candle burning on her counter! (I had to wake up the building manager to go into her apartment to make sure it wasn’t on fire!)

Once I spoke to the trauma doctors and had more information about her condition, I had to make the aforementioned flurry of phone calls. It’s just been non-stop ever since.

I will get a phone call from the insurance adjuster tomorrow, and find out the information I need to move forward re: insurance, fault, how much compensation I can seek on my mother’s behalf, etc. etc. etc. I’m probably going to have to find a lawyer. I’m in the process for arranging for homecare once she is released from the hospital *whenever that is*, but what I am dreading something sooner than that: having to write three exams in a row starting on Monday. SFU agreed to postpone my two exams this week, and my CMS tutor marker has given me an extension on my paper. Which is louder: the exhale of relief or the muttering under my breath of “oh shit…” ?

Right now my mother is back at Surrey Memorial Hospital, but I was at the hospital for hours before the actual transfer took place. You see lots of people running around in the ER, but you could lie dying on the floor and nobody would notice. It’s like a special type of chaos. There’s all kinds of conflicting information, and I’ve lost track of all the doctors’ names. I’ve got numbers scribbled on Post-It notes for case numbers, claim numbers, phone numbers, fax numbers, and names that are somehow connected. I know I’ll be able to put it all together, but I think I need some sleep first. After a night in an emergency waiting room, staying awake on vending machine coffee, then making arrangements all day, a couple of hours of sleep between phone calls before going back to the hospital… all I can say is, God help me if I should ever end up in a hospital. I’d still rather be doing what I’m doing than lying on a spineboard with an immobilizing collar, my pelvis shattered, a hole in my bladder, hooked up to a catheter totally dehydrated and wondering what is going to happen to me.