MeXscape

I woke up at 3:30 a few mornings ago with what seems to be my malady of choice since having my appendix removed: gastrointestinal distress. I certainly wasn't going back to sleep, so since I am working on a huge project with a rapidly approaching, flaming deadline, I decided to go to the office and get a little work done as long as I was up. It only took me four hours of more interruption than work to decide I wasn't going to get anything done.

I just received a request from the friends of Philip Pain to help get the word out about his urgent need for typeO- blood donation. Philip is in Sharp Hospital, here in Mazatlan, in critical need of surgery, but there is no O- blood available for transfusion during the surgery. Here is the message from Philip's friends and family:

We are finally both mostly healthy and recovered. Just as I was starting to recover a little, Chuck started with a high fever. Sheesh. At least I was well enough to walk around a little when it started, so I could care for him like he did for me.

I have to get over this need to do everything bigger than everyone else, this grievous self-centeredness, this apparent need to be the center of attention at all costs – what else could drive me to get Dengue twice in two months – with pneumonia sandwiched in between? Or maybe I just need better luck.

Sometime last weekend I finished the book I was reading and set out to find another one. I checked all of our shelves of books and the places where where books get left even though they shouldn't. I had read them all. I continued to search and discovered a box of books that had not been unpacked – since we moved to Mexico.