Day Twelve from Melissa

Here beginneth the saga of the foot. 

Basically, I went to the clinic. They sent me to the hospital. 

On our way to the hospital, Miriam treated me to breakfast. Real English muffins with bacon (?) and egg!  I got the handicapped seat. 

Then we spent three and a half hours progressing through at a snails pace. Because there was nothing visibly wrong, other people got taken in first.

I was actually okay with that when a young mother came in with a massive head wound, holding her very young daughter's hand and trying not to faint or fall out of her chair. Miriam and I were trying to decide how to help her when her husband finally showed up, much to everybody's relief. 

We saw her later, being wheeled out of the x-ray room in a stretcher with a neck brace. I hope she's okay. 

This is the wheelchair they gave me. It steers like a carnival ride, which is to say, it doesn't. You have to be pulled backward. 

Then the doctor cheerfully informed me they'd x-rayed the wrong part of my foot and would have to do it over again. 

I think it helped having a doctor around, because it only took a half hour after that. 

Then they gave me crutches, a boot, a return appointment, and were saying goodbye when I finally interrupted. 

"So is anything actually broken?"

The doctor looked surprised. 

"Oh, yes."  He explained - "you broke the top of one of your metatarsals. It's a clean break and lying in place, so we don't need to operate."

Well, that's a blessing. 

Miriam and I finally got out of there about 4:00, and bought dinner at a place called "Pret A Manger."  No, I don't know how to say it. It has sandwiches and noodles and stuff for not very much, which is nice.   We sat and ate slowly and completely analyzed the psychology behind their interior design. It was fun. 

Oh, remember the street we wandered down yesterday?  The one with the signs in Arabic?  Well, we met an employee who lives there, and got him to recommend a place to eat. Miriam and I have decided the best places to eat are the ones recommended by locals. We couldn't go today, but maybe next week!  

Then we decided we needed to do something fun to redeem the day. Some of the girls had seen "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and highly recommended it, so off we went. 

Sorry, no muffin men. I kept my eyes open for one though. You never know. 

The ticket lady said the only cheap seats available were in the balcony, but Miriam brought up my foot, so she knocked two pounds off the price and put us on the ground floor. Very nice. 

This rent-a-binocular was attached to the back of the seats in front of us, just above our knees, spaced every two or three seats. Interesting!

The play itself was very fun. The sets were fantastic and very carefully thought out. Charlie was optimistic and full of energy, and I loved how well he did!  

I'm not sure how I felt about their comic portrayal of Americans. Violet Beauregard was from California and Mike Teevee was from "Suburbia in America," and both were hyperactive and incredibly annoying. 

Well, all the non-Charlie kids were annoying. 

The grandparents were fun. Their big bed could split into four parts so they could dance around the stage without actually getting out of bed. 

Willy Wonka was different than I expected, but he did a good job. I think they only kept one of the songs from the older movie - the imagination song - and he sang it beautifully while he and Charlie rose in a glowing glass elevator that floated out over the audience. 

Anyway, the show was fun, and something to do that didn't involve walking around. 

Getting home wasn't so fun. I've only just started learning how to efficiently get through the ticket gates at the subway stations, and now I'll have to relearn it. It takes me twenty minutes to make the five minute walk home from the station, too. I haven't been on crutches since I was fourteen. 

Still, people tend to get out of my way, which is a definite plus. Hopefully I'll warm up to crutches again, and when I work this stiffness out of my shoulders, I won't slow people down. Much. 

So that's my story!  And if you want to pray for me, I'd appreciate it. This is not a handicap accessible city, and I can't sit at home all day. 

I have a whole city to explore!