The Scent of Blood...

It's a big mystery to me, why my body, ever since my heart surgery stopped making it's own iron. It might have to do with my compromised kidneys, which is who prescribes iron infusion for me, the kidney specialist, and now in conjunction with United Health Care and Dr. Harvey, I am finally getting that issue addressed. He has scheduled 5 iron sessions for the next 2 weeks and the first one was Tuesday, with the second being scheduled for today, or so I thought.

The next phenomenon is that LJ gets the scent of blood and always wants to come along for the ritual. Is she a Vampire, I don't think so. Does she enjoy other people, namely me getting needles shoved into them, probably yes! So today, when I mentioned I had to get my iron infusion, she suggested we get together for the ritual.

We began with a phone call this morning with her confirming with me her intentions of coming along. She said she'd be over in 45 minutes allowing her time to get dressed, drive over and stop at Goodwill to search for treasures. I thought she was underestimating her arrival time, but about 45 minutes later there was someone literally pounding on my door, yelling, "What did you do, disconnect the bell"? I did, in fact!

She did her usual tour and started complaining that we'd be late. Our plans were to eat lunch and then make it over to Dr. Harvey's office by 1 PM. We arrived at La Pinata on 19th Ave at about noon, plenty of time for lunch and a leisurely ride to the doctor's office. That didn't stop LJ from being hyper. I've been eating at this restaurant for 35 years and believe it or not, know what I want off the menu. Julie, on the other hand has her glasses out and is studying. We order and our meal arrives at about 12:20, still plenty of time. I'm presented with my "usual", a Machacha burro, enchilada style and it's about 2 LBS of shredded beef, cooked to perfection and seasoned accordingly. With my artificial teeth, I was worried I'd wear them out, just with this one meal, but delicious. LJ did an amazing job eating, fast and efficiently, she wiped out her food like it was the first time she'd eaten in weeks. Anorexia never looked so good. After a brief argument, I/we determined it was LJ's turn to buy and she sadly placed her credit card on the table, only to see it snapped up by Juan, our waiter.

Off to the doctor's office. Made it there with 5 minutes to spare and was greeted by Lupita, the new receptionist, the unhappiest person in town. Her attitude, or lack of one was palpable. It oozed through her pours. Total disgust with her being there and her job. I walked up to her medical office window and realized she really needed bullet-proof glass to protect her, like the banks sometimes have. She had a face that you just wanted to smack! Without looking up she said, sign in please. I said I was just there for iron, should I still sign in? Yeeees, with 2 syllables was her answer. LJ and I sat down and discussed our receptionist's attitude without moving our lips. You can picture it, right?

I tried to show LJ around the place when she mentioned that she had a doctor in this office too. Very likely because 39 doctors work out of that location. I showed her the water cooler, then the magazine table when suddenly the sour pussed receptionist yells, Mel! I look up and begin to rise when she announces that my appointment is for tomorrow, with the smuggest, condescending, most arrogant attitude you'd ever seen. She yelled this to the entire room. I casually explained that the card that was given to me said, Thursday at 1 PM. No answer. She then says she'll ask the lady that gives iron if she'll squeeze me in, then about 5 seconds later says, NO! We'll see you tomorrow at 1 PM. I mumbled something on the way out, when LJ sweetly said, I'll come with you! I appreciate the company, but how embarrassing!

I was about out of the candy that I'm addicted to, and really needed to go to Costco Business store for a fix. We stopped there and ran into the largest sale of Costco's history. Their expo sale, whatever the hell it was, it must have been good because Costco was a ZOO! Mobbed would be the word for it. They must have been giving things away, because people had those big pushcart loaded to the brim with merchandise and being pushed by little old ladies. By now LJ was really nervous that she's miss some lady that she was donating a rocker to, that was going to be at her house at 3. But not so nervous that she didn't make me do an emergency left into a Goodwill store that she had somehow missed earlier. We shopped, I found 4 books to buy and LJ came up empty.

We headed out and unloaded my car and LJ had plenty of time to make it home to greet the lady................unless another Goodwill popped up!