Hospital Visits

My grandmother entered the hospital last week, a day or two after moving. It was a scheduled visit, as she has been having back and leg problems for some time. It seems that her sciatic nerve is the problem, and she may have to have surgery. Not a life threatening situation, but a major discomfort for her, of course. Fortunately, her sister, living sons (2) and daughter all live nearby and have been visiting her in succession, as well as various grandsons and daughters.

I visited her briefly on the way home with my dad tonight, and the hospital, the second largest in Seoul, didn't remind me of the Washington Hospital Center until I sat next to my grandmother's bed in the room she's sharing with five other people. We only stayed 10 minutes or so, but in the elevator going down to the car, I leaned back against the steel wall and remembered visiting Nina last year -- god, no, now a year and a half ago. Funny how a hospital -- any hospital -- will trigger memories of other hospitals.

Read Bel Canto last night, late into the night. There's nothing like being gripped by a story so much that you don't want to stop, even when you really should be finishing some odious editing for your job that you promised you'd have done by the next day or doing Korean homework. From now on I'm going to have all my reading and all my clothes pre-selected by friends and family.

Props to BC, who today taught me what "the steel beam of sleaze through the American psyche" is.