MONDAY

A few days ago I was full of topics to blog about. How I had lost some of my motivation to run, how I love running in snow, Thanksgiving, my grandparents who still live in the Dark Ages and don't have a computer. I could have blogged for at least a week on the topics I had thought up. Now, however, I am at loss for words. It also doesn't help that I'm barely awake since I haven't had much sleep. But, I must blog so I'll have to try.

My dad is coming home from the hospital today. And now you might be wondering since when was he in the hospital since my last blog post was over a week ago. I planned to write one of Monday but that day didn't exactly turn out as I expected.

I had went to bed Sunday night thinking about the first day back from Thanksgiving break and kicking myself for not doing the homework that was due later that week. I was started a new class so I was memorizing a new locker schedule and room number.

At 3:50 Monday morning I woke up to the phone ringing. It kept ringing and ringing, and I couldn't figure out why my parents weren't answering the phone since I thought it was one of my dad's coworkers asking him to save the University once again. Once I heard my mom's voice on the answering machine, I got up quick. The phone had finally stopped ringing but I listened to one of the messages to make sure it was actually my mom. Then it hit me that my parents weren't in their room and lights were on all over the house. Since I was half asleep this really didn't worry me until I was calling my mom back. When she answered the phone my dad switched from worrying about my classes to worrying about my dad.

My mom told me she had taken my dad to the hospital because his chest was feeling tight but that he was okay and she'd call me back. I sat on my parents bed, suddenly wide awake, thinking that my dad had a heart attack as I stared at the phone. I didn't think about when this happened or why it happened to him and not some lazy couch potato. All I was thinking was "please let my dad be okay".

My mom called me back minutes later and told me that some of my dad's arteries had been blocked and he had stents put in them and lot's of other medical information that thanks to my halfway attention in biology, I understood. But, all I cared about was knowing my dad was okay.

After a phone call like that, you don't go back to sleep. My body was now so full of adrenaline that I couldn't sleep even if I had wanted to. I finished a book I had been reading while waiting for the phone to ring again. It rang several times after that, my mom reassuring me and giving me more information while sounding calmer as time went on. While waiting for my sisters to wake up I watched cartoons on Disney Channel since I no longer know any of the channels of my T.V. (Our cable or something was changed so the channel numbers all have changed. I don't know any of the channels now except the Game Show Network even though we have a sheet telling us the channels). There's nothing on in the morning anyways except early morning talk shows, reruns, and cartoons. Spongebob wasn't even on. So I watched some strange Disney show that involved children helping dinosoars made out of instruments.

One of the hardest parts the morning however was telling my sisters. Although I had hoped they would wake up earlier because I hated sitting alone, I also wanted them to sleep up to delay my message. How do you tell your younger sisters that your dad is in the hospital? One just kept walking into the bathroom probably to straighten her hair while making sure we didn't have to go to school. My youngest sister came out of her room excited that her favorite show was on and thinking we had a school delay. I can still see her face in my mind when I told her. Her face crumpled up. It actually crumpled up before she started crying. Nothing I said could comfort her although Handy Manny seemed to help. A bad ripoff of the Wiggles along with Warehouse Mouse telling us to brush our teeth everyday also made us feel better.

My grandparents came to our house later that day and I was allowed to go on a mind relieving run with no motivation needed. Running is some of the best therapy around even if I had to trespass through fields to get a good run in. My mom came home and left again, and eventually took us up to the hospital to see him. I have never seemed my dad look so exhausted but he was okay and that's all the matters. I saw some pictures of his heart and the blocked arteries which was cool and actually let me use more of my biology knowledge (I still can't figure out how to use chemistry). He's supposed to come home sometime today though, so I'm really excited.

This whole ordeal has seemed like a bad nightmare that won't let you wake up. On Monday I was pretending to myself that none of this happened in order to make it through the day. But it did happen although it didn't seem like it would. My posts this week will probably not pertain to running (I don't need motivation anymore) or cycling at all (although I see Lance is deciding to ride in the Tour). My posts will be about my dad and what happened because I no longer have anything else to talk about. You don't expect these things to happen to you and your family. They shouldn't happen to anybody. But it happened and my dad is going to be okay. He is coming home today and nothing could make me happier.