Holiday Drama
As I write this, I'm curled up in a big armchair in my parents' house, post-Thanksgiving smells wafting through the air as Eric online Christmas shops (hopefully for me?), Baxter snoozes, and my dad reads his Daniel Silva book.
It's warm and cozy and quiet today...about the exact opposite of twenty-four hours ago, when I was at one of those crazy wonderful giant family Thanksgivings, complete with thirteen adults, six kids under the age of 7 (and one yet to come), three dogs, an enormous bird and more stuffing than any 19 humans should be able to consume. Holidays at our house are way too loud, way too political, and really really fun...but, as the old adage tells us, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. And last night proved that saying very very true.
In a triptophanic, apple-pie-induced food coma, my sister...pictured at right, much smaller, balder and fuzzier than she is now...had a devastating meeting with a model train and a flight of stairs. She came out of it with a dislocated and fractured shoulder. Lesson learned. In battle, model trains will win.
So...Eric (who earned his keep as new husband/brother-in-law) and I brought her to a sleepy little emergency room in a small town in Massachusetts (quoth Eric: "Chiara! We brought you to 1952!"), where my sister was wheeled into Trauma Room B and a lovely nurse pumped her full of morphine and a remarkable ER doc (v. cute...no George Clooney, but maybe Noah Wylie-esque) slowly and impressively relocated her shoulder. She came through it like a trooper...I'm certain that was no picnic...but I was in the room and she neither lost her cool nor her consciousness, so...wow.
At some point, I looked down at the floor and saw a lone penny, lying face up. Just as I was about to reach down and pick it up, because certainly my sister could have used some good luck right about then, I realized that, at some point, someone in Trauma Room B would need better luck than we had. Because while she's definitely in some serious pain, she's going to be just fine...soon able to once again wave her hands around like the Italian she is.
And for that, I am thankful. So I left the penny where it was. For someone who needs a little good luck for themselves.
It's warm and cozy and quiet today...about the exact opposite of twenty-four hours ago, when I was at one of those crazy wonderful giant family Thanksgivings, complete with thirteen adults, six kids under the age of 7 (and one yet to come), three dogs, an enormous bird and more stuffing than any 19 humans should be able to consume. Holidays at our house are way too loud, way too political, and really really fun...but, as the old adage tells us, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. And last night proved that saying very very true.
In a triptophanic, apple-pie-induced food coma, my sister...pictured at right, much smaller, balder and fuzzier than she is now...had a devastating meeting with a model train and a flight of stairs. She came out of it with a dislocated and fractured shoulder. Lesson learned. In battle, model trains will win.
So...Eric (who earned his keep as new husband/brother-in-law) and I brought her to a sleepy little emergency room in a small town in Massachusetts (quoth Eric: "Chiara! We brought you to 1952!"), where my sister was wheeled into Trauma Room B and a lovely nurse pumped her full of morphine and a remarkable ER doc (v. cute...no George Clooney, but maybe Noah Wylie-esque) slowly and impressively relocated her shoulder. She came through it like a trooper...I'm certain that was no picnic...but I was in the room and she neither lost her cool nor her consciousness, so...wow.
At some point, I looked down at the floor and saw a lone penny, lying face up. Just as I was about to reach down and pick it up, because certainly my sister could have used some good luck right about then, I realized that, at some point, someone in Trauma Room B would need better luck than we had. Because while she's definitely in some serious pain, she's going to be just fine...soon able to once again wave her hands around like the Italian she is.
And for that, I am thankful. So I left the penny where it was. For someone who needs a little good luck for themselves.