Rio Goes to the G.I. Doctor

Ok, well this might turn into a large post (you know what it's like when I go out in public...) *turns on Dead or Alive's "Round and Round"*

I'll break it down into points of interest.

1. First of all, they didn't have my appt. listed. ANYWHERE. I was a good girl, didn't throw a fit, waited until they got it sorted and I was seen anyway, and by the doctor that my GP recommended, so all was well. No need to blow up on the good working people of the office for an error.

Scene: Me and Dad waiting with a very nice nurse who's entering my info. into a computer. I make the observation to Dad that her shoes look very fast [inside joke between us and Dad -- he bought new running shoes that are very swanky and have netting and shiny bits all over them, and I said they looked very fast, to which my father said facetiously, "I can jump high too." It was like being on the playground again.] The nurse says to me that she has twin nieces and that they look very much alike.

"But the really interesting thing is when they look at each other, like they know what the other one is thinking and they communicate with these looks..."

My father shook his head. "Never play Pictionary against twins. Here..."

He pulled a pen from his pocket, sketched two ovals and two little squiggly lines on the side of my paper tote bag. "One of them drew this, and the other one said, 'It's a lizard!'..." We all laughed, and I said, "I was going to say that looked like a lizard, Dad..."

He narrowed his eyes and I laughed sheepishly.


2. Got 7 vials of blood drawn. Various things -- genetic marker, celiac, enzymes, etc.

Scene: Me, waiting. Listening to the nurses discussing a form, and a gentleman from Rex Hosp. coming to collect bags full of samples. I couldn't place his accent. He sounded "gulf" but not. I finally asked him where he was from, and he smiled big, said, "Virginia!" though he's been in NC for 30 years.

"You have a very distinct patois," I said. He's got to be coastal then. We have folks down in the coastal plain of NC who sound similar to him. Like when he said "cancer center", it sounded more like "cansuh centuh". Neat!


3. I also teased the phlebotomy nurse until she was bent laughing and slapping her leg, mostly with the gruesome idea of marrying a 90 year old for his money.

"You have a daughter there," she said to dad.

"Yes, she's a lot," he said wryly, herding me into the next room to get my diagnostics so we could go home.


4. Out in the parking lot, we discovered a slip of paper under the wiper of the car. It was a handwritten note reading "How to get saved" with instructions to read a certain passage in Acts, then go to Temple of the Pentacost in town (complete with phone #) to get baptized.

"They smell heathen on you," I said to Dad.