So this past Wed was my 25th birthday. I was hoping to make this one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had and it was shaping up to be a pretty good one. I took the day off work so I’d have plenty of time to prepare food for some 30 people that were coming over that evening for a cookout. I spent lots of time planning a menu, looking at recipes and wanted to make sure everyone had a good time. Well as I was preparing vegetables for shish kabobs, my finger slipped down a squash and mandolined itself in my mandolin slicer. The ironic part of this (and Josh agrees with this definition of irony for once) is that I was using the slicer to be more careful. I have cut myself in art class, carving pumpkins, cutting veggies, using an apple slicer, etc etc and have needed stitches in several fingers. Well, my birthday proved no different.

Around 2:30 in the afternoon I called Josh, Mom, and Dad to find someone to take me to the hospital or at least come over and give an opinion. Dad left the grocery store to come to my aid and about the same time Casey called and also came to rescue me. I am very proud of myself for not passing out in this whole ordeal! We got to the hospital around 3:25 and saw a doctor within an hour in the ER waiting area. I thought, “Great! I will be home soon.” The front nurse even said I should be home by 6 for my party. Well 5 o’clock, came around and I was still in the main waiting room. Argh! A little after 6 a bed finally opened and I went to the back ER room – “Yay, treatment should be soon!” A nurse came to see me pretty quickly but she couldn’t do anything, I needed a PA. Well luckily there was a shift change at 7 and I was going to be his first patient- my party started at 6 so at least now I thought I might get out of there by 8. The PA came in to see me, and told me I didn’t need stitches. What the heck? Why couldn’t the doctor have told me that 3 hours ago?!?! Oh because the doctor wanted a second opinion from a PA? I see now. (What a retarded hospital) Anyway, he numbs my finger and they come to clean it in a span of 15 minutes or so. But after I sit there numb they don’t come back to stitch it up for another hour. By this time it is 8:30 and all day light for my party is over. I went through a few periods of hysterics because I was so mad to be missing my birthday. Everyone in that hospital knew it was my birthday and probably not in a good way. My chart probably said “whiny, cries a lot and it’s her birthday”. In hindsight I feel a little bit bad for acting this way and even told the PA that he probably thought I was 5 instead of 25 but I didn’t care at that moment, I was just so upset with myself and the hospital for telling me ‘I am next” for 4 hours. Time just kept ticking away…

When I finally got home around 9ish with four new stitches in my finger, most of my friends were still there. Unfortunately I missed a few people and my parents which made me sad as some people had a 30 minute+ drive which is no fun on a week night. But, when I got there i had assistance removing my hospital bracelet as I was not allowed to use the scissors…probably a wise move. I had some food that was still there, Megan made a few amazing dips and my mom’s fruit salad was delicious. We hung out for a bit, lit up the cupcake tree with candles and I enjoyed my party for about an hour until people needed to leave. Megan stayed behind to help me clean up and put up leftovers.

I realized in all of this that I should probably be a little more patient with things and that the best b-day present I got was a lot of helpful friends. Dad told me people showed up early to finish getting everything set-up and ready for the party. You can’t go through life without good friends and I am so very thankful for all of the friends I have and my wonderful family. Without my dad, there would have been little food at the party and my kitchen would not have been cleaned up so well 2 days later!! So Thanks to Mom and Dad for their help with the party and the clean-up.