Peoply week. Very, very peoply

[rattfan]

 This last week has been interesting.  A few weeks back I decided I’d participate in the GISH scavenger hunt [Greatest International Scavenger Hunt] that’s run by some weird guy on the Internet and his friends.  The weird guy is Misha Collins who’s an actor on the TV show Supernatural. 

Okay, so that much was planned.  I knew I couldn’t take time off since I already did that not so long before, but I had weekend time and at least one day during the week.  That would be fine, right?  The Hunt kicked off on last Saturday night.  We had a great time in town on Sunday doing all sorts of weird stuff.  And then I went to see the 50th anniversary screeningn of 2001 in the evening.  I swear, nothing at all happens in my life for weeks, months at a time as a rule!

What wasn’t planned was the event which dropped on my head mid Tuesday.  My mother had a fall at her over-55s residential place and was carted off to hospital with a fractured hip, as it turned out.  That dealt with the rest of Tuesday;  I had to leave work and head down there, where I spent several hours mostly waiting around and wishing I was still being bored at work.

This ended up being much more tiring than work was.  I had other stuff to do on Wednesday, the weather was vile and I had to go back to the hospital on Thursday which scotched some of my plans for the Hunt, though I was still able to perform some of the tasks on my own and upload the results.  Yes.  I sent strange pictures of myself to somebody I don’t know on the Internet.  I don’t yet have clearance to show anyone else some of the pictures, but will do so later.

Friday I went to work.  On Friday night I hit a wall and decided I was going to stay home on Saturday, attend to the tasks which had piled up during the week, try to get some laundry dry and maybe get some extra sleep.  I know there were GISH tasks going on in town but I decided I could not do any more.  So that’s been today.

I’m literally peopled out.  One crowded hospital, one parent in a lot of discomfort and angst – “There are men on this ward!”- and one week attempting to perform and photograph strange tasks with 14 other team members, most in Perth but a couple overseas, none of whom I’d met in person before.  It’s been mind-stretching and interesting and technologically challenging, because apart from using the Internet to journal and other basic things, I don’t get into the social media scene that much.  I don’t Twitter or even own a smartphone, which was a bit of a handicap with the Hunt.

I don’t think my team, the Spiderhawks,  is a high scorer but personally not fussed.  The winners are going to New Zealand this year and I’m already planning to do that in 2020 if NZ gets the Worldcon.  If it was last time when they went to Iceland; then I might be disappointed.  If I play again, I am definitely taking the time off and let’s hope the family disasters stay minimal.

One last note about the weather. For Perth, this is about as bad as it gets in the winter.  There’s been a lot of rain, which is very unusual, and fricking freezing.  It barely got above 13^C today and that wasn’t for long.  Please stop now.  I have to go outside - back to the hospital again - tomorrow and find out how M’s hip surgery went and find out what the f…k happens next and if I have to talk to my brother about M’s continued care.  He’s already said he’s been talking to his wife about what to do, so stuff will happen if it has to, but seriously, hope it doesn’t have to.

Comments

[leecetheartist]

The Hunt sounds like it was great fun! Wishing every lack of complication with your Mum's injury!

[st_aurafina]

I hope your mum is doing okay!

[rattfan]

Yeah, she's in full complain mode, including the fact that the physios came around today and made her Do Stuff. I got there during and waited beyond the curtain listening to the whole thing. Then we had a drama (not really) with a mysterious Machine Going Ping, with the nurse and me trying to find the source. Turned out a connection which should have been securely plugged in really wasn't.

[siyamau]

Really sorry to hear about your Mum. Hope she's OK (and to be honest, more than that I hope YOU are OK having to deal with the situation).

I've kinda spent this week so relieved that I didn't do GISH, lol. It's fun and rewarding and all but it's so much stress and pressure. I'd absolutely never attempt it again unless it fell on a week where I had literally nothing else I had to do.

[rattfan]

Well, I'm not enjoying the situation but I guess one isn't meant to. Was awake for hours with nightmare scenarios running through my head. Hey, I'm a writer, I do *good* nightmare scenarios!

Yes, a week off is necessary for GISH. I realise this now!

[siyamau]

I can imagine :( I really hope you have good news soon.

Looking forward to seeing your GISH submissions when you can share them!

[fred_mouse]

That's quite the week. Sorry to hear that your mother has had a fall, and that you have had to step up and deal with her /what needs doing.

The GISH things sounds like fun -- I wasn't aware it was on again!

[rattfan]

GISH got renamed from its longer acronym. Most of the players hadn't known it was going to happen this year. I don't know if anything else got changed since I wasn't doing it before. [In Finland in the week in question last year, of course!]

[fred_mouse]

I mostly only hear about it second hand, and for some reason thought it had stopped being run. Having been renamed may well have been where that error came from.

[rattfan]

If I don't learn my lesson/have time off next time, I'll let you know! Some of the items required a child under 12, so I remember cursing the fact that you didn't have one any more :-) [That's not creepy at all....]

[fred_mouse]

I don't have one, but I can get my hands on one relatively easily :) [no, not creepy]

And yes, I'd love to know it is on, even if participating is more than I can handle at the time.

[rattfan]

It was definitely more than I could handle at the time, though I could not have known M would decide to have a pratfall two days after I signed up! Will keep a note that you're a possible source for small children if required. No, no, not creepy in the least....The GISH items concerned teaching something you had learned as a child and still valued to another young person, and another one concerned passing on a book :-)

[fred_mouse]

Passing on books to children is one of my hobbies. There are so many books in this house that are never going to be read again by the current family members.

[ankh_hpl]

Re the nightmare scenarios: as I've always said, it's not always an advantage to have the kind of imagination one sells by the word!

That said, I hope your mom gets out of the hospital & back to her life Real Soon Now.

[rattfan]

I know. Why, when you are trying to sleep, does your brain say, "Right, let's take a bit of time to go over all the crappy stuff you did # number of years ago and what you SHOULD have said and done in all these situations..."

M got moved from Emergency in one hospital to Rehab in another one. It's a bed space thing. She didn't get to the one she wanted, which I can get to easily. The one she's in, well, it's a doable trip but longer. Two trains, one bus. Or taxi, which I ended up getting for convenience and because I was too tired to navigate my own trip by that stage! Much travelling today. Don't know when M will get out but it won't be this week.