A day mostly like yet unlike the other ones

Not much happened with me today. Both of my daughters visited, which was wonderful for both of us. But I've barely been out of the building. I have been up and down the stairs a bunch of times though (96 steps up from the ICU to my room, 144 up from the lobby), so it's not like I've had no activity at all.

I've continued to sample the local restaurants. Had some very good chicken paella for dinner at a Spanish restaurant a few blocks away. It'll be lunch tomorrow. And some particularly delicious curried Singapore noodles with all kinds of veggies and proteins. Enough for another meal there too.

The rest of the time I've been with Ronnie. She's doing okay, but she's a little like Curious George in that it does not matter how many times I tell her to stay there and not get into any trouble, when I come back she is much busier doing something than I'd like. I don't really have a better description than that. She just gets busy. But she had a good time today because of the time we all got to spend together.

One thing I hadn't noted, I don't think (I am without a doubt quite fuzzy at the moment), is the waiting room scene. You're not really supposed to do what I've been doing, which is sit in the ICU all day and until late evening. But I'm polite and easy and don't get in the way and even help sometimes. But what you're supposed to do is sit in the waiting room and call to see if it's okay, and then 2 family members can come in at a time. I'm not sure how much of this is directly because we're kind of VIP's (not like when the same doctor team did Bill Clinton or Barbara Walters, but big donors nonetheless), and how much is because we're nice, but I like it.

Anyway, the waiting room serves 3 different acute care units, ours being the calmest- post-surgical people who need lots of care but whose life is not in danger. Who knows what goes on in the others. But in the waiting room, there are entire extended families essentially living there. I don't know my Spanish dialects, but this neighborhood is primarily Dominican so I'll say they're Dominican. One corner has 8 adults, 2 kids and a baby. They eat and sleep there and they've been there since I arrived. There are 2 TVs on the walls that are always on Spanish programming and there is often a line at the microwave. At 7, it smelled like a restaurant kitchen in there. There are families in other nooks too. Quite something.

Oh, and someone turned down the AC in my room. It's been about 60 degrees in here since I've arrived but it's almost pleasant now. Hope I can sleep okay with it like that, but it'll make it easier to take a shower.