Calfgrit3 started showing the signs of an eye infection Saturday evening: red eye, drainage. Sunday morning, his discomfort showed as irritability. Our pediatrician is open on Sundays, but only in their main office which is a 20-30 minute drive away. And they’ve got only one or two doctors available, so wait time can be another 30 minutes. We decided for me to take him to the local urgent care.

He was really a grumpy bear all morning. Everything set him off into a crying fit. I eventually got him out of the house. When we got to the urgent care, we found it crowded — standing room only. Oh geez. Just what I didn’t need right then with a sick 3-year-old. We’ve all been to this urgent care a few times in the past, and I’ve never had to wait more than about 10 minutes to see a doctor. But then, I’ve never seen it that crowded.

I considered backing out and just going to the pediatrician, but I figured that by the time we got back to the car, drove all the way out there, and waited in that line, we’d probably already be seen here. So I decided to wait with Calfgrit3. It wouldn’t be a fun wait.

But he surprised me. We got lucky and got a seat pretty quick, and he was calm and happy. He sat in my lap, in the chair beside me, and stood next to me pretty well for a long time. We ended up waiting an hour and fifty minutes to see a doctor. For a preschooler to be calm and happy, waiting, for nearly two hours is an astonishing feat even when he feels good. Had I realized it would be a two hour wait, we’d have left early on. Had I known Calgrit3 would be so good for the entire time, I wouldn’t have believed it.

We spent 10 minutes with the doctor, and then left the office. Calfgrit3 then decided he’d been good and calm long enough, and he turned into the grizzly bear again. Nothing could make him happy; he obviously just didn’t feel well. The whole rest of the day he was just irritable and unhappy.

But miracles of miracles, he was happy for two hours straight at a doctor’s office.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

In the autumn of 1979, I was in 7th grade (middle school). One day I was sitting in the front seat of our school bus, on the door side, play fighting with my friend. We weren’t being especially rowdy — we were just being silly on our bus ride home in the afternoon.

For some reason, an older guy in the other front seat, behind the driver, took exception to our playing. I was sitting on the aisle side of our seat, across from this guy. He told us to stop. I don’t remember exactly what I said back, but it must have been something smart, because the guy leaned over and slapped me on the cheek. He didn’t hit me real hard (not as hard as he could’ve), but he did slap me. I leaned over and slapped him back. I didn’t hit him hard — it was just a touch, really.

I was a scrawny little 12-year-old geek, maybe 90 pounds, soaking wet. He was a hulking 25-year-old line backer, maybe 300 pounds, hungry. OK, maybe he wasn’t. But he was older than me, taller than me, and considerably heavier than me. He looked like a kid who had failed a couple grades and should have been in high school, on the football team.

When I popped him on the cheek, his face changed from an annoyed frown to an enraged roar. In a flash, he reached out and grabbed me with both hands, picked me up out of the seat, shook me in the air, and hurled me down the aisle toward the back of the bus.

I landed on the floor of the walkway, surprisingly unhurt. It’d happened so fast, I was just then thinking, uh-oh. The bus was stopped and silent. I slowly got up off the floor, scared of what might happen next. This guy could tear me apart, I thought.

No one was looking at me — all faces were forward. Even the hulking monster wasn’t looking at me. The bus driver, a high school senior girl, had her head leaned back over her seat, and she had her hand up to her face. When I stood up, I saw her hand and face were covered with blood. What happened to the bus driver? For a moment I thought she might be dead.

Well, here’s what happened: I was wearing my Dingo boots that day, and when the hulk twirled me in the air, my legs and feet whipped around and hit the bus driver straight on the nose. Her nose broke and blood sprayed everywhere.

A couple kids helped her off the bus and across the street to the nearest house to use a phone. I sat down in the back of the bus, out of sight of the mountain of mean, while we all waited for a replacement bus driver to come and take us home.

* * *

The next morning, I was called to the principal’s office. The hulk was there, too. The principal asked us what happened, and I said he picked me up and threw me across the bus. He said I hit him and busted his lip. The principal looked at his unmarked lip, then at the whole mountain, then at little mole hill me. He gave us a stern talking to, and then dismissed us. We both walked out quietly, and to my knowledge, neither of us received any kind of punishment.

The big kid rarely road the bus, before or after that incident, and I never ended up near him again when he did. I saw him occasionally , at a distance, around school, but we never had any direct contact. He just ignored me, and I pretty much forgot about him, too, after a few weeks.

That girl never drove our bus again, but some time later I heard she was “OK.”

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Viewed: DVD

I’m usually not the least bit interested in “teenager movies.” I aged out of that audience many years ago. But although this movie looks like a teenager movie, it’s so much more.

Two life-long friends are nearing high school graduation, and are about to go off to different colleges; this is their last few weeks or days together. Seth (on the left in the poster image) gets invited to a year-end party, and he agrees to take on the responsibility of bringing the booze.

Evan (on the right) isn’t sold on the idea, but he goes along with his friend. They enlist the aid of an associate who’s getting a fake ID, and they think they have things all set, until they see the ID: “McLovin, a twenty-five year old organ donor from Hawaii.” Oh, the hilarity that ensues!

All three guys really just want to get sex, and the alcohol is their ticket for the ride at the party. And once a guy thinks he’s set the right course to get sex, he’ll go through hell to reach the destination.

The writing for this movie is fantastic. The acting is superb. The casting is spot on. The story is surprisingly poignant for being so funny, and at times vulgar. The dialogue is laugh-out-loud entertaining, but the underlying, and resulting, story is warmly satisfying.

I could go on and on about this movie, but I mostly want to just quote lines and scenes. It’s probably more a guy movie than a chick flick. If you’re a guy, especially one who felt awkward in high school (isn’t that all of us?), and ever went through some ridiculous obstacles to get sex (isn’t that all of us?), this movie is all you — it’s great, see it. If you’re a chick, see it with your guy; you can laugh as much at him as you do Seth, Evan, and McLovin.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

The connection to my server was not working yesterday morning and afternoon, so I couldn’t upload my blog until last evening. I don’t know what the problem was. I could see this site in my Web browser, but my FTP program just wasn’t making a connection. And then suddenly it was fine. <shrug>

And now my brain isn’t working. It was working fine all day yesterday, but now that I’m trying to write up a post, it’s just not connecting.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. <shrug>

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com