An Explanation of Thursday

Thursday was somewhat eventful.
Magdalena had to leave the food centre early to go home and cook lunch for her house because her house mother was at the hospital with her house's new villager who dislocated his elbow and broke his arm slipping on ice. So from 10:30 on it was just me and the villagers, which I'm used to by now and feel confident about it. Stephanie was ironing and I went into the wash room to check on her and she was super clingy and wobbly and said she had pains in her head again. It looked exactly like what happened last week, this sort of internalized fit in her head that makes her go all wobbly and mute and floppy, so I turned the iron off and took her by the arm and we sat down in the tea break room. She leaned over me onto my lap and after 10 minutes of her groaning and wimpering and her glazed eyes seeing nothing I asked Andrew (another villager who can luckily read) to dial the Health centre and hand me the phone. He did so, and a nurse came up shortly. By the time she got there Steph was coming around but was still wobbly, so I called Nick and asked him to come pick us up. It was nearly 12:00, so I told the other villagers they could go home for lunch. Nick came and got us, and at home I got Steph in bed for a rest.

I brought her some lunch and she was looking better. Nick had to be in the press for the afternoon, and Paule wouldn't come back until 7:30-8:00, so I called Justin and let him know I would be home for the afternoon. I thought it would be a quiet afternoon at home, puttering around and tidying things and cleaning the bathroom and doing little useful things, but around 1:50 Steph stumbled into my room and showed all the signs of another fit thingy. I walked her back to her room and layed her down and told her to just rest and try to relax, but she kept grabbing onto me and being totally clingy and not letting go and I was actually getting pretty annoyed by it. I eventually detached from her and told her to stay in bed and I would come check on her in a bit. The rest of the afternoon was crap. She kept getting out of bed and coming to find me in the house even though she could barely walk, and at one point I found her sitting up in bed putting her slippers on and I very sternly said, "Stephanie WHAT are you doing. I told you you have GOT to stay in bed; you have to REST. I'm sorry this is happening, I know it's not fun, but there isn't anything anyone can do about it right now." She just stuck her arms out and wimpered at me and tried to grab my hands for a hug and I was just so fed up I told her that she was a grown woman and she didn't need to hold my hand and hanging on me was not going to make her feel better at all. And then I figured out she needed to go to the bathroom so I walked her there and she was so beyond wobbly I went in with her and helped her with everything but in the end she didn't have to go so that was a waste of time and the whole situation was just stressing me out and also making me very annoyed because she couldn't talk she would just nod her head at yes or no questions but not consistently and I was getting so frusterated with her because over and over she got out of bed, one time just to come downstairs to the kitchen to tell me she needed to go to the bathroom, and when I asked her if she could manage on her own she said yes! And I'm like, "Then why did you come down here?! Stephanie, the ONLY thing that you can do right now is rest. STOP coming to find me, I will come check on you! If you need to go to the bathroom and you can do it yourself then GO! You don't need to come tell me about it!" She seemed to get the message, because she went to the bathroom and then bak to bed and I didn't hear a peep for a while. I went to look in on her and she was laying in bed and I asked her if she wanted tea or water or anything and she said no, as she had all the times before.

I had a bit of peace and quiet then, sitting on the aga reading my book. Ben works in the press in the afternoons and saw me through the window on his way home. He came in and we talked about maybe going to the pub after supper. The phone rang, and it was Steph's mom on the other end, calling to talk to Paule about coming to pick up Steph for the weekend to go to the pantamime. She didn't know about Steph's recent head pain/fit things, so I told her about them (the incident last week and the one in the food centre, and the seemingly continuous one of the afternoon). As we were chatting I heard footsteps on the stairs and then Steph was before me, looking obviously better. Her eyes were clear, she wasn't wobbling, and when I handed her the phone she carried on a conversation with her mom.

I prepared supper with her leaning on the aga, and everyone came in from work. She went back up to bed and I brought her some soup and bread for supper. Paule was due back around 8:00 with Emily, so I wasn't sure if I should go to the pub or not. I felt like I should be home for Emily's return and chances were Paule would be really tired and I could put Em to bed. Andreas called and said he had the car booked for 8:30 and he would come over when he got the car and we would see then if Paule was back whether or not I would go. Paule was back by 8 with the Sauerkraut and she was still amazingly chipper and said she would put Em to bed. So I went to the pub with Ben, Andreas and Lukas, the new farmer at High Farm and a friend of Andreas's from when they were here together four years ago. It was really nice; we sat around the little fire in the Fox and Hounds and I had a rum and coke which I always thought was yucky (tastes of mom's made me wrinkle my nose and say ew), but I seem to have developed a fondness for alcohol and found it quite enjoyable. We were there pretty late, and I haven't been sleeping well for a week or so; I wake up four or five times a night worrying that I'm late for breakfast or missing something or I forgot something and shit like that, so I was really exhausted yesterday.

Briefly, Friday I was asleep on my feet all day but managed. Got a lift to the centre in the morning with Terry Bogg, this guy who drives people around all day and looks exactly like one of the bad guys from 101 Dalmations but is actually really nice. Walking still sucks, I think I need to see a doctor this week. Business as usual in the food centre, High farm for lunch and a chat with Claire. I told her about my conversation with Paule and then helped her with her lines for the Mystery Drama play she's in. Harvesting swedes on the farm in the afternoon we had Lisa Marie (Tourmaline Lisa not Rowan Lisa) helping us and got to watch two guys Justin hired search and destroy rabbits. They had four ferrets, a black and tan welsh terrier, a whippet, rifles and belts of amo. Hardcore. I didn't actually see them kill the rabbits which is weird cuz they were literally ten yards away from us, but suddenly there were four dead bunnies in a pile. I asked them if I could have one to dissect and they said they were going to eat them. I tacked on the "I want to be a vet" explanation so they didn't think I was crazy, and then told Lisa that my dad sometimes talks about how great rabbit fur lined underwear would be. Hehehe.
I milked and almost got kicked in the face again by the same cow who apparently just doesn't like me, and now I'm permanently scared of getting my lights punched out and every time I go for a teat I'm thinking oh god oh god oh god please don't kick me you are a beautiful cow, good cow, nice cow, be nice. So that sucks. White Bean's mastitis is so gross, this one teat, the one you always need two hands for, is so full of gunk; you pull/squeeze the udder and then the teat in one motion, and out comes these big yellow strings of infected milk stuffs and curdled milk. Poor girl, I'm sure it's not comfortable. Luis got 27 pounds of milk out of Lassie and he's so proud of himself. When I put the machine on her I was like come on girl, let's beat Luis! Gimme 28 pounds girl, you can do it!! But I only got 20. Poop. She's a "more in the morning" kinda girl anyway.
After supper Nick gave me a lift to the centre and I spent a few hours in the coffee bar singing folk songs with Marc Antoine and Peter Van Vliet (Magdalena's house father) and playing the guitar. I didn't do any solo songs, just strummed a few chords along with Marc Antoine. I'm missing a large portion of my right thumbnail, which is not exactly condusive to guitar playing. Afterwards I went to the school with Maisaa, Gabby, Lisa Marie, Ruth (eurethmy student) and Jan (yan) and Rafael, a new french co-worker who is SO cool and such a hippie and she plays the acordian SO well and it is SO amazing and it reminds me of Aimee! We had a little dance party at the school with Lisa on the viola and Rafael on the acordian and Gabby made rice pudding and we danced around the room like idiots except Ruth is actually an amazing dancer so WE all looked stupid and she looked graceful. Rafael even played a song from Amelie and I was like oh maaaan Aimee would love this.
Time for lunch!