Peach Sunset

It seems that Nathan and I have made an impact on Looch's business. Her sales have tripled over the same period last year, and considering that Americans aren't spending as much as they used to, at least that's what the experts tell me, that's quite something for Looch. Maybe it's the weather.

Looch came to the shack bearing gifts yesterday. I didn't see what she gave Nate but she tossed a bunch of Hello Kitty tchotchkes at me, smiling with "Because I know your girlfriend is Chinese or whatevah".

"Ummm, wow. We should have lunch sometime. We'll have Greek...", I said hoping that I could return the slight but then I remembered that she might not be so highbrow.

"Sure! And bring your girlfriend. I've seen her in a bikini, she could sell t-shirts like hotcakes!"

Whatever that means. Ali probably could make a whole lot of sales, but the fact is she doesn't have to work. And the fact remains that instead of getting Hello Kitty thingies, I'd rather be paid. Looch has new rims on her H2 and I know they weren't cheap, but Nate and I haven't been paid since I started. It turns out that 600 clams a week was a best case scenario and that it's not really tax free. Looch told me to wait until August 15, payday is once a month. I guess being paid once in close to five weeks is kinda like once a month so I'll just be quiet for now.

I'm a little worried about money right now because on Monday afternoon I ended up in the emergency ward in the most pain I've ever been in. The ward staff just poo-pooed it as a silly little kidney stone, but I won't know for sure for the next week or so. Of course, if I have to have an operation I'm screwed because I don't have health insurance. Sissy told me that kidney stones run in the family. Who knew? Not I. Anyway, the difference was like night and day. The nurses gave me 2 IVs, a little morphine, and all the while Ali stayed by my side even though the triage nurse yelled at her for shit she didn't even do.

You're such a bitch, seriously. Your job is to ask questions and take information to assess patient risk. Your job is also to give information when patients ask for it. She just asked 1 question, bitch and she only asked it because I couldn't walk over to your bullet-proof kiosk and ask you myself, and you had to go off on her. The only time you have to get off your ass is when you have to take temperatures and blood pressure, oh and when you want a coffee break or meal break or you have to pee or something. How hard is that? It might be worth considering that you're not meant for this hospital, known to be one of the toughest in New York City, if you can't handle easy questions about wait times. Bitch.

The next day I was feeling fine but didn't go to work because I reckoned I had an appointment with the x-ray department. I was wrong. They couldn't get me in until the next day after that. They told me I needed a CT scan because the analysis found traces of blood and high protein which were indicators of kidney stones. I attempted to explain the presence of protein to the nurse, what with my being a healthy, young male but one sideways glance from Ali and I shut up. I was a little skeptical about the blood, but after finally having a CT scan, I went to the washroom and noticed the colour was a little pinkish - a shade described as Peach Sunset.

I went back to work on Wednesday and noticed a few things that Looch needs to work on. Sure people love the product, but they want it NOW and don't care that we don't have a storefront. They're fine with the warehouse concept, but they, especially the Paris Hiltony-types don't like to wait 5 business days for a bicycle courier to go uptown. I've taken a little sounding, and it seems that our target market is willing to wait 2 days - 3 max - for a local delivery. Out-of-towners (Jersey and other places) are willing to wait up to 5 days. This is totally doable, so I've got to sit down with Looch - maybe at that Greek lunch - and work out the details.

Last weekend was my niece's birthday. She's actually my second cousin, but explaining the complex family relationship to a 5 year old is a little pointless so we just go with the uncle-niece thing. She's happy with that. There's 2 reasons I go to Vermont, the other is Ben and Jerry's ice cream. The thing I worry about most when going to Vermont is ticks. You always hear about deer ticks and lyme disease and stuff, but that is just something I don't need. I told Ali about the shika but before I got to the part about ticks she had a big smile on her face I suppose because she thought she was going on a trip to see Bambi. It's true, we like deer, Ali maybe a little more than most people, but it usually involves roast potatoes or a stew of some sort. We loaded up the Wrangler with gifts and drove up to Vermont for a backyard pool party. Eeeee! My skin was crawling. The last time I had a run in with ticks was right before I got stuck in Quincy, technically in Nevada but I associate everything horrible about that trip with a little California town. Sissy - what a trooper - she checked me out to make sure there weren't more. I assured Ali that although swimsuits were requested, the pool itself was just a kiddie pool. It never occurred to me that my niece had acquired a new, much larger pool. We arrived earlier than expected, but we were welcomed all the same. The first words out of Ali's mouth after seeing the gargantuan pool were "You are a liar!" Oh, it's a good thing we actually brought swimsuits afterall. It was a beautiful day and would have been a great party, except that I kept looking for ticks every ten minutes. Everybody thought Ali was being cute when she sat in a kiddie rocking chair, but she was more matter-of-fact about it. "It's comfortable!" More hilarity ensued as it became obvious that the very petite Ali could very possibly wear the outfits that my niece got for her birthday. Honestly, the outfit looked a little big for my niece, but it made people laugh. So yeah, the party was pretty much over after all the presents were opened and the cake was served. We stayed at my cousin's place - after I completely checked the bed for ticks - and went back to New York in the morning. Everything was really fun until that afternoon. Then, the pain.