Entries this day: Bonk Hospital_fun!

Bonk

1:46pm JST Sunday 15 February 2009 (day 14207)

_Bonk_ is the name of an album by Big Pig. it's also what I felt on my head as I tipped over and planted face first while skiing. Super thanks to Mark for taking pictures! Good thing he was behind me instead of otherwise.

Ami and I had gone up the midsize slope twice I think, and then I went up the beginner slope twice, and she and papa and his friends from work went up a much higher slope and I got a vid of Ami coming down. Shoulda kept the camera rolling, as the rest of the crew came down: papa did a nice buttplant right at the very end.

I chose not to do anything big today; my legs were burning after my first run today, and I didn't think they'd survive a much longer adventure in descent

Went down the beginner slope with Ami's dad a couple of times and then heard via phone from Ami that Mark would be joining soon, so I waited at the top of the lift. We headed down, and I beat him handily; it was his first run of the day, so his legs were certaily feling about like mine had been. Down the same slope the next time, I led us down on the right near the bottom so we went over the snowboarder's section with some humps and such. I got a little bit of air on the second jump, and landed safely. Then on the next jump there was a guy standing, so I slowed way down and didn't even try to catch air on the way over.

Mark said he also got some air, so the next time we went up the beginner hill, I went down well ahead of him so I could get a video of him catching said air. He didn't; he said later that he had gone straight down without stopping and his legs were too weak at the moment to jump.

After that run we went to the slightly higher, slightly steeper course next to it, the same one that Ami and I had done first today. No worries the first time, and headed up again, saying this would be our last run on this hill, and then we'd go do the gondola, and find out of that wolf was still there, and therefore an animatronic puppet, or gone, and therefor real.

That's when Yoko called Mark while we headed up and asked that he join her in the cafe or some such. He told her our plans, and that he'd join her after our run down the gondola hill (long beginner course).

We got to the top, and I was like, "well, let's go straight down so we're not late," and perhaps went a bit faster than before, but in any case, things worked out so that I face planted and got bonked on the back of the head with my ski.

Fortunately, Mark was there to take pictures. And when he helped me get my ski back on, he was like, "dude, it's loose!" and I was like, "dude; it's been like that the whole time!" and then, "aw mate, that's probably why it came flying off.."

Made it down the hill (and the ski came off again; it musta gotten even looser from my crash) and headed to see Ami and Yoko in the cafe.

"Don't say anything about the blood; can you see it on my face?"

"Yeah, you can still see it, but it's a bit dried up."

Headed in all, "HI!" and the girls were like "HI!" and then "ah! What happened?"

"nothing! what?"

"There's blood on your face!"

"Hahahah yeah, I crashed," and then showed them my head and discovered, "oh hey it's bleeding too!" I thought it had just been blood from my face that ran down to make the spot of blood in the snow.

Headed to the clinic after turning in the skis (and complaining that they had been loose upon receipt, but no response from them) and then got my head bandaged, and then got free ice cream! woooo! and then back to complain more and even the next guy was like, "we don't have insurance," so I took his picture surepticiously and after I asked for his name, and was poised to label the picture, "My name is ______. We don't have insurance!" he came back with his card and invited us inside to make a report.

I still uploaded the picture, but didn't put his name down. Just got his card. I'm pretty happy to get *any* acknowledgement (after the first brush off, even Ami figured it would be impossible, but thanks to Yoko supporting my cause, they both came in with me and anyway)..

The dude was like, "yeah I can't make the decision," (no one in a Japanese bueracracy can even pick their own nose without approval), which I expected, but at least we got him to take a report, including my naivete (sorry no two dots over the i) about the ski being loose.

Seems reasonable that they'll help at least a bit with the cost of stitches.

Okay, my computer is at 6% battery. See you!

Hospital fun!

9+pm JST Sunday 15 February 2009 (day 14207)

(written 8:19am JST Wednesday 18 February 2009 (day 14210))

Arrived at Ami's house, helped her and her brother Yuuta to unload the gear while their papa dropped off the last family and returned the van.

Ami called to find the nearest hospital that was still open (nice to know now that there's one quite close to Musashi-kosugi station (go out the north exit (with the bus stop), cross the street at the intersection slightly to the left of the bus area and keep going. Hospital will be on the left after about 400 meters); I was able to ride TJ Bike here this morning with no worries (but this entry is about Sunday night)) and we took a taxi there from her house. Generally speaking, only the biggest hospitals in Tokyo (and therefore certainly all of Japan) stay open to receive new patients after business hours (maybe long business hours).

I must admit, I was in a bit of a touchy mood, knowing there was nothing wrong with my head, but being "obligated" to go because Ami's dad expected it, and she sure as sugarcookies isn't going to lie to him, so anyway, I went, and after Ami filled in the paperwork for me, and I gave 'em my ID card, they were like, "ah, Mr Robert Nugen, please come here for a moment. Now it says here that your name is Rob Nugen, but it says, *here* that your name is Robert Dale Nugen Jr..."

And after all the years of dealing with moronic Japanese bureacracy, plus timid Japanese social customs, I was thinking, grrrrr, and said, "do you have a pen?" as Ami explained something tha I guess amounted to "Uh, yeah, Rob is short for Robert," and in the end she wrote "ERT" after "ROB" and they were happy. Didn't even write Dale nor Jr, which kinda pisses me off. Why is the ERT more important than the DALE and JR? They're twice as many missing characters if you wanna get technical about it, you crazy rule-followin' cantthinkforyourself bureacracy lovers!

After calming down through meditation, I had an interesting experience / imagination. In a similar way as we learned in Kevin's soul-retrieval class, I mentally engaged all the dead spirits who may still be waiting in the hospital, "Hey everyone! Great news! We get to go home!!" and I mentally ran up and down the halls chip chip cheering to help everyone wake up. "All we have to do is spin! spin!" and started spinning like a whirling dervish as an example, and did a quick blessing to make sure all the spirits' guides were on the ready to receive the spirits who may have had their attention refocused by my antics.

I imagined I came across one guy who had a bit of a negative attitude, and I stopped for a bit and took his hand and said, "I know; you're absolutely right," and then "ah, here they come now," and handed him off to his spirit guides.

I did it quickly because my still-physically corperated nurse invited me into the CT room where I got my head scanned, and requested an extra copy of the CD of data. "Oh, no CD; just two X-ray posters," "aight; copy 'em up!" and I got a copy of those, ostensibly for Fred, but not sure if I'll send them to him. Ah.. I guess I can send them with Colleen's painting and have her hand 'em off to him.