Tom

Day 12: I know this is supposed to be a blog keeping friends and family updated on Annie's progress but she's kind of doing the same stuff every day for the moment.  She eats her noodle soup, sucks on her spirometer, tries to dodge the hospital teacher....  Now, on the other hand, something funny is going on with Tom.  (Luckily he doesn't read this blog so I can really get into it.)

I've read that 70% of marriages don't survive the serious illness of a child.  We managed through the first round but now I'm not sure what to think.  First it was the whole meditating thing but it sounded kind of like a good idea.  Then there was the sleeping on benches with rodents sniffing around - that's a little more out there.  But now I get this picture from him!  Like what is that?  Is he trying to match the bug balloon in Annie's room?

I'm only off-duty a few hours and he starts shooting me pictures of a bike he bought, this spandex number (he also got one in orange!) and then the doorbell rings and some box of clothes from a men's shop arrives at our house.  I call to tell him and he says, "Oh good, I've been waiting for those cargo shorts."  Cargo shorts?  He has worn the same basic beige shorts for 23 years.  Did he pick something up at the hospital?  Did the stress, not contained by the meditating, bring out a rampant mid-life crisis?

This is a man who cursed bike couriers the entire time we lived in Boston.  He's a runner who wears baggy shorts and old t-shirts that were freebies from some overnight flight he took for business.  Maybe it's the fact I'm not around to keep him in line any more?  There's very little overlap when we change shifts.  The person leaving is always like a race car gunning to get out of there while the person coming in tries desperately to trap them into conversation to stave off the inevitable.

Anyways at this rate I'm going to need to start a separate blog to keep people updated on Tom's changes.