Good Day / Bad Day

Like the title said, it was a good day and a bad day.

The Watcher and I left early in the morning and ran up to the hospital to see BG. He looked tired and kind of sick, but it didn't seem like he was feeling that bad. We tried our best to cheer him up just a little bit and didn't stay for too long so he could rest.

At that point, they weren't quite sure what brought him down.

So we went on up to the convention and hung out for a few hours, pretty much just wandering around. We were still early so there weren't that many people there yet.

But the people that were there were already quite the eye full. They were mostly anime characters Avatar the Airbender and Full Metal Alchemist and quite a few of them that I had no idea what they were supposed to be. A few Mario characters and even the boys from the Raccoon City Stars Squad were represented. It was reassuring to see them, just in case there were any zombies lurking about.

I even saw the Green lantern there, which was surprising. And some guy had a life sized R2D2 that was remote controlled. A fun little gadget.

Then the dealers room opened up and we got to meet Mookie. He was, after all, the guy we went up there to meet. He's the hairier of the two in the above picture, next to the guy who looks like he could be The Edge's dad. Mookie was cool and friendly and I bought a copy of all five of his books, which he autographed for us right there. That was awesome.

Once the place got fully open and the crowd started getting denser, both the Watcher and I started getting a bit uncomfortable. Not only were there a bazillion people crowded into the place, they started getting younger and younger. There were kids wearing stuff that I wouldn't have let a kid wear in the house, let alone outside of it.

Even though he's several (several) years younger than I, Watcher kept looking around at all those scantily clad teeny boppers and cringing. I guess all those years working in a prison make you a little more protective of kids. It was entertaining and a bit nerve wracking at the same time.

And we were both getting tired and pissed about being jostled by rude kids and whacked with all sorts of fake swords and giant keys and other weird paraphernalia.

So we left. We'd spent all the money we intended to and decided to boogie before our patience ran thin enough for violence. It was supposed to be a fun outing, after all.

Before we left I found out there's going to be a steampunk convention in June and another one in the same place with Spider Robinson as the Guest Host in September. So, if I can afford it, I may be doing a couple more conventions this year.

What the heck, it gets me out of the house.

On the way home we stopped at some greasy spoon joint for something to eat and Miz Twang called Watcher and said that BG had taken a turn for the worse and had been moved to ICU. We did a speed run down the road and they let us in to see him.

He looked bad. Gray skin and his breathing wasn't good and he had no energy at all. They had more IV's going and were giving him whole blood. Of course, since we weren't family, they wouldn't tell us anything. It was scary.

I thought we were going to lose him. I sat at home that night dreading that the phone would ring.

Got up this morning and made another trip to the hospital. He looked much better. Color in his face and he was sitting up and talking. Turns out that he had a bleeding ulcer that was running his blood count down and making him anemic and playing hob with his blood pressure. They were giving him drugs for the ulcer and still running plasma into him to help replace his volume, along with the other IV's.

Hopefully once they get that kicked he'll be back up to snuff. I always told him it wasn't good to eat all that state food, but he would never listen. I gave him hell about scaring us like that and told him to knock it off. He actually smiled at me.

I'll keep you updated as I find out more. Hopefully it won't be any more alarming snit like that.

Today was National Cheeseball Day. It was also Bat Appreciation Day, Blah Blah Blah! Day and Nothing Like A Dame Day.

Monday will be International Jugglers Day, National Stress Awareness Day (yeah) and National Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day.

I don't think I'll be wearing my PJ's to work. Don't see that happening. Nope.