Life interrupts Halloween

My Halloween did not go as expected. The Plan was to wear the Luna earrings to class, then hang out for a bit showing them off and studying, and then come home to help my family with the trick or treaters (their neighborhood is quite the hub). I had a dress fitting scheduled for this morning at 10am.

First, I woke up late, but not so late that I wouldn't make it to class. I had stayed up till 3 the night before, grading and procrastinating the grading. The phone was what actually got me out of bed. It was Dad, calling from the hospital to say that Mom had appendicitis and they were going to have to operate.

And that was when I knew, Halloween was not going to be quite so awesome this year.

Class didn't go smoothly for me, the TA, but that is a slightly duller story. It involved me tripping in front of the class. I did wear the Luna earrings, with a gray sweater and a black skirt which I thought sort of resembled an undercover Hogwarts uniform.

I headed down to Galveston, where my parents live, a little before noon and got there a little before one. Mom's appendectomy started just before 11, but the hospital took its sweet time in getting her from recovery to her actual hospital bed, so she was still in the surgery area when I got there just after 2 (Dad said they didn't need me just then, so I took a nap at their house). To give a little more information, she had gone home sick on Tuesday, thinking she just had some minor intestinal issues, but it kept getting worse so after midnight she and Dad went to the ER. She works at this hospital and knows a lot of people, so she gets pretty good treatment, but they're still pretty slow. Dad's glad that her surgery was done by the day staff, though. Everyone keeps asking, so they didn't do it laproscopically, or however you spell that. The surgeon she got was highly skilled and respected, and he doesn't like it, so he just went in the normal way.

Dad and I hung out with her for a few hours, and then I stayed there and Dad went home to pick up my brother and deal with the trick or treaters. His totally sweet setup for scaring children and dispensing of candy involved a few tealights on the stoop which my brother didn't see, so he caught his enormous baggy pants on fire. I was on the phone with Dad at the time and heard Tom say "why am I on fire?" Dad put it out with his "spooky" black gloves, now also singed, and there's about a 5" hole in one leg of Tom's pants.

Mom was very sensitive to the drugs they had her on, so she pretty much slept all day yesterday. I brought her some little satyr horns so she'd have a costume, but she couldn't keep them on very well so we gave up. It was pretty funny when the nurse noticed, though. I got a bunch of knitting done.

I got home at 9. Dad had been out of candy for an hour and a half (they never, ever have enough, so I'm glad I stole some candy corn before going to the hospital). I got into costume anyway so I'd at least have some pictures. The robe is my Dad's from when he got his master's, and the "wand" is one of Mom's long cooking chopsticks.


Mom was much better today, and she'll be discharged this evening. But this recovery will not be quick. So we could use some vibes. The dress fitting went pretty well, but I have no new pictures for me. She did give me the leftover scraps including the still-intact bodice. Tomorrow when the light is better and my batteries are charged I'll try to get you a closeup of the material.

I'll close with a bit more Luna.