So my moms went to see "Shrek the Third" last Tuesday and had a mild heart attack during it. Not so bad she agreed to let her friend take her home, mind you, but when she was having chest pain the next morning, she called 911 and sure enough, it wasn't just the heart-stopping excitement of the movie. My brother and I got here about the same time Thursday morning and by that afternoon, the angiogram revealed significant blockage in her arteries and she was scheduled for a bypass on Friday. (Yay, non-socialized, no-wait-list medicine!)

I was pretty surprised by the good prognosis and fast recovery she can expect. She's a little behind in her benchmarks, but she still might come home any time after Wednesday. When she does, the only things she can't do are drive and lift more than 10 pounds. Since there's no actual care involved, I'll stay on another week or so to be her "caregiver".

As for the label of this post, I never had this particular reaction to visiting here before, but this trip it really strikes me that Minnesotans are really nice. When this guy who rang up my breakfast the other day found out I lived in Washington, he said, "I went there twenty years ago and it was wonderful! Did you ride the metro?" "Did you see the Smithsonian?" I kind of rushed him along by saying I lived there for thirteen years, then I don't know how it came out that I live in NY now. His reaction was the same as everyone else here I've told, "WOW! Do you live right in Manhattan?" I said no, I live in Brooklyn. I don't know what he's heard about it, but that got another "WOW!" Then he asked me what I do there, and I told him. "Wow! And have you had a production yet?" I said no, I planned to produce my play myself. "Well, good luck with that. Well, luck isn't really part of it, I'll just say best wishes!" Now that, dear friends, is one delightful bumpkin!