What I Did

1. Dolly was too tired to go to the Butterfly Gardens (in which I had imagined us arm-in-arm, gazing up in wonder at 2000 different species of butterflies.)

2. Dolly ate and took her pills and felt better (I think Dolly forgets to eat).

3. Dolly and I drove to the country to see Pip, Georgia's daughter.

4. Pip's huge ugly ferocious foaming-at-the-mouth insane pet BEAR dog bit me!

5. Blood ran down my leg and there was mud everywhere (Pip and her husband are building a house in the boondocks).

6. Dolly: "You had better get a tetanus shot!"

7. Pip feels terrible and actually says these words: "I am going to buy you something really nice."

8. Dolly is worried about the carpet in her car, so I drive with my feet on a plastic bag.

9. I throw two bottles of Iodine away that I find in Dolly's medicine cabinet. The most recent has an expiration date of 1989.

10. Dolly and I eat frozen pizza, which feels surprisingly festive, and I head home "to correct papers".

11. Driving out, I see that Pip has left several apologetic messages on my voice mail, but I am in the land that civilization forgot and there is no phone reception here. When I hit the expressway and enter the world (and reception) again, I call her only to discover that no one has bothered to tell her that Dolly (her grandmother) has Alzheimers.

12. Huck texts me, "There is no excuse for a dog bite!"

13. Dolly calls me at 8:30! She wants to make sure I got home OK. Dolly hasn't called me in months! I think the medication is helping her tune in a little more! Yay!

14. AJ wakes me up at 4:30, saying a cab driver tried to abduct her. She wanted to get out but he floored it and tried to speed away, so she opened the car door and jumped out, rolling and skinning her knees. "I don't want to live here anymore!"

15. AJ calls the police.

16. Opening my computer, I see more news about administration-sanctioned abuse and torture in Iraq at Camp Namo.


From nytimes.com
17. The police can't do anything. AJ didn't get the cab driver's number.

18. I decide to see the movie V for Vendetta today.