Wounded knee

I went into the hospital almost two weeks ago for an "arthoscopic procedure". Why do the docs call it a procedure when in reality it's a production and a nightmarish one at that.
Even before you ever see a bedpan you are posed and prodded, filmed and have bodily fluids extracted by about a dozen technicians who pass you from one another like a group of hobos sitting around a trashcan bonfire with a bottle of night train.
For some reason or other the the administrators were very concerned with whether or not I would bring my own pajamas or use the gowns provided by the institution whose guest I was to be for the next few days. At every juncture I was asked about the PJ situation and asked to sign off on the fact that I would be bringing my own sleep wear. I was amazed that I had to give them three pieces of paper informing them that I wanted to wear my sweats and that only one piece of paper was necessary to have them open up my knee and extract some fairly HUGE pieces of cartilage that had been floating around inside me for quite a number of years.
The best thing about the whole ordeal was that I had a really cool doctor who was not only competent but who could speak English too! That made me feel a lot better. It's scary enough to to have to be in the hospital, but to do something like this in a second language compounds the fear.
Because of all the free time I had I actually did get to catch up on some reading. It was about the only thing I could do until I could hoist myself up out of bed and get myself downstairs to the smoking room.
Smoking room? Did he just say smoking room?!? Yup I sure did.
In Japan Smokers are not treated like lepers and still have some rights, but the times they are a changin' and I can see the influence of the American public slowly creeping over here to exorcise the demon nicotine inhaler.

Now the chicken nuggets you see above may not look very big, but you've got to remember that they were pulled out of a space about the size of a Spaulding ball. You know, the kind you used to play stickball with. Oh you ain't played stickball before? Well I'll just have to save that for a different post.

I'm still getting my sea legs back and while I'm recuperating and can't do any of the fun things available to able bodied bipeds It occurred to me that I just might start a blog, which is why there are so many posts in such a short space of time.....I'm really bored and have no other outlet for my energies.

Talk again soon, real soon,

NYD.