Friday

My toe felt something wet. I moved my foot around. More wet. I turned on the light, 12:34 AM. My dog had vomited on the bed and had eaten it back up. He did not look happy. "It's okay baby," I said. I put on my pants and sweatshirt and followed him downstairs. He immediately ran onto the grass and squatted, twice. When he was done he was so happy he did a happy dog dance before bounding back up the stairs. I put a small dish towel over the wet spot and tried to fall back to sleep. It took a while.

This morning I had a routine blood test scheduled and I was so distracted by my hunger after fasting for over 12 hours. I drank water and tried to proceed with my morning, writing and having a shower. I was running out of steam. They open at 8.  I hoofed it over to the lab only 5 blocks away and took a number. While waiting I read a picture book about Celia Cruz, a Cuban singer.

The phlebotomist was a young man with black hair who was very serious. I knew not to look as he filled three test tubes. My stomach growled. My neighbor Joel showed up for a blood test too and was in the next stall. We said hello. I was relieved to be able to go home and have breakfast, a banana, coffee, and toast. 

Then I walked Romeo downtown and saw about 20 seniors in the park doing exercises on the basketball court with long green and blue elastics. They looked like slow-moving square dancers without music. On my way back I could see East School Street was blocked off. There were two fire engines and four police cars.  Apparently a man's black SUV had caught fire while he was driving. He pulled over and got out in time. I'm glad nobody was hurt.