2002-09-16 - 9:49 a.m.
DRY RUN
Sometimes life provides dry runs for future parenting challenges. Thanks to stupid guy tricks, I have one this week. This week�s challenge: provide transportation and support without treading on the independence of a college freshman who, only three weeks or so into the term, managed to break his collarbone in four places. I do hope my nephew likes to learn to fill out insurance forms. He�s going to have a ton of them.
On Saturday night, he was out with some guys and they decided to do that stupid kid trick where you touch one end of a bat to the ground and the other to your forehead and they run around and around the bat until you get dizzy. You then try running to some pre-determined location. One of the other stupid guys who was not my nephew then decided to make it more difficult by using his foot to set up an obstacle course. Result: one nephew up in air and down on shoulder thereby pulverizing collarbone. Luckily, as far as I can tell, none of them had been drinking so they had enough wits about them to visit the local hospital emergency room.
Being a college freshman and needing to prove he could handle it (and, perhaps, feeling a bit foolish), no one got a call about all the collarbone until sometime on Sunday. We got a call from my brother-in-law asking for help which we are happy to provide. Yesterday, we trudged down there with cookies and cream ice cream, ibuprofen, and Gatorade (because apparently at least two of the things on that list are essentials for life) so that we could gaze on him and report to his parents that he was still breathing.
Today, he is supposed to call me after he has talked to the orthopedist. The breaks are not set yet so someone will have to take him to have that done. I think my plan of action is to act as if he were a friend I were taking to the doctor albeit a slightly more naive one. I may have to ask specifically if we need to pick up the ER x-rays and take them. I will ask what his plan is for transporting books, etc., knowing that we have a rolling duffle bag I could lend him. I intend to have him fill out forms and only help if he asks for it.
As I said, it�s a dry run for a few years from now when I have a college freshman of my own. It�s only three years away. Imagine that! No, on second thought, don�t.
Besides, rehearsals never run like the real thing.
LAST YEAR: Still in London without computer access
LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
Girl Scout Fun
Delegation
Second String
Infinity
Little Orphans Annie (by Day-Hay)
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
