My “Reality”
At this point, the days and nights melt into each other, light and dark fading in and out as I sit, brain numbed, on my couch. The only way of knowing the date comes from what’s on TV that night — two nights ago Dexter was on, so that means in two nights, 30 Rock is on.
I did receive a nice visit from reality this weekend, with a visit from a large majority of what I can comfortably call my New York family (not to be confused with my family in New York, a sizable contingent of Zakarins and off-brand named relatives).
It was a much welcomed visit from Steve, Julianne, Ryan and Allie, pals from school that have settled into form about two thirds of my co-dependent circle of trust in New York. They came bearing gifts and smiles, two terrific surprises.
I miss my sad little NY life, though I more actively think about not being in pain and how many hours in front of the TV is too many hours in front of the TV. Their visit really made me pine for my life back, though, and in the hours that they were here, I did everything I could to pretend the reason for their visit wasn’t my having been hit by a truck a week prior.
Not that we went rock climbing or anything, but for a little while at least, I did everything I could to feel normal — I stood straighter, walked faster and muffled myself when pains that might normally illicit groans flared through my body. For a few hours, I was back to normal.
As I said in a post a few days ago, I knew that it was a good thing that I stayed behind when they returned to the city. While they had a full night of bar hopping ahead of them, all that pretending had exhausted me. Thanks to a terrible episode of SNL, I was asleep by midnight, though I was nearly down for the count hours before that.
Still, it was good to see my friends; it reminded me that I am indeed human and that there’s something to look forward to when I return. Now, I don’t want to flatter them too much, because they really need to bring their a-game and bring the fun when I do return to the city, but let this be a little bit of encouragement for them.
I’m probably done with visitors until I get back to New York. I plan on coming back for Halloween weekend, if only to sit in my apartment and see the world from somewhere other than my couch. Until then, I’m staying sequestered in my convalescence bunker, TV box sets my constant companions. Apologies in advance if I compare everything to this one time on Seinfeld for the next three months.
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Now, speaking of friends, you really start to realize how people think of you when you’re ill and they send you gifts. A get well gift is always a lot of pressure on the giver, as they need to come up with something they just know will make that specific person happy. These are some of the things my closest friends think will make me super happy:
- Pokemon toys
- ALF on DVD
- Over two dozen pears
- An ice cream cake
- A lifesized cardboard cutout of Barack Obama
Yes, I’m the guy who people go into stores specifically to find Pokemon, ALF and Obama cutouts for. These are the things people associate with me. And I couldn’t be more thrilled.
