3:02 a.m. – It’s too quiet.

The kitten sleeps in my lap, making a noise between gurgling and purring. I begin to worry she’s developing an upper respiratory tract infection. This is truly an abnormal noise. Then again, this is an abnormal kitten. I hold her chin, rubbing it slightly, and she yawns into my hand. At least one of us is sleeping.

Yesterday was a full day. I should be sleeping sounding from exhaustion, if nothing else. I visited work in the late morning, picked up some paperwork that belonged to me, had lunch with some people in my department. Finding something to eat in the cafeteria was a challenge. I ended up having salad, with oil and vinegar dressing. Oil and vinegar is better than I remember it being. I shall have to set in a proper supply for myself.

I spoke to the boss for a bit, bringing him up to date on what we now know, which isn’t much. I went to my office and set up the out-of-office manager for my email. Sorry I can’t reply to your email, but I’m on leave of absence, and nobody, myself included, knows when the hell I’ll be back. For the duration, these nice people will deal with your email if it really merits the electrons you wasted sending it to me. I then went to my file to pull out my instructions on how to forward the phone and found my little instruction manual missing. I remembered I had loaned it to my new cellmate last December when she started, so she could familiarize herself with the equipment. She’d never returned it. I wandered over to her office and asked for it back. She swore she’d just seen it yesterday, but couldn’t find it for me. My phone remains unforwarded. Don’t call me at work anybody. The little red message light is just going to blink away if you do.

I grabbed a few essentials out of my office like my radio/CD player. I noted that the antenna on the radio had been bent and inexpertly straightened again. There’s a tear in the metal. I don’t even want to know who/how/why. My office mates are jerks. May the two of them be well pleased with each other in my absence.

Actually, it will be interesting to see which of the two survives the other. Hopefully, I survive them both.

Now there’s a morbid though. I’m beginning not to handle these wee hours very well.

From work, I went to my doctor’s. My real doctor, not the specialist who is currently on vacation. I was her last appointment of the day. She spent over an hour with me. She never rushed me once, even though I know she has a young child to go home to. She tried to get hold of the liver biopsy reports which were supposed to be done Friday, but was unsuccessful. She and I discussed what was known to date. I was surprised (and gratified) to learn that she tends to agree with me that the specialist’s theory doesn’t hold water that this is related to my heparin allergy of five years ago. She explained as much as she knew about being on a liver transplant waiting list, and said she wanted me to go down town to the Big Hospital to complete my preliminary testing. She’s going to talk to Dr. Liver about this when he returns from wherever he’s gone.

After all was said and done, she just walked over and hugged me. I swear her eyes were wet. I know mine were. I am damned lucky to have this woman as my physician. I have a true advocate on my side.

Drove home – it was rush hour and the sixty minute trip took closer to ninety. The Socialist had left me a message that he was at the gym. Fine by me. I fed the cats, cleaned up the kitchen, made myself dinner (two poached eggs, english muffin, sweet butter, grits with maple syrup). Total, about 200 mg sodium. Not the most balanced meal, but it was what I wanted. And I did have my greens at lunch, after all.

Watched a couple of classic Star Trek episodes with the Socialist when he came home, then retired. Now I’m up again. Bummer.

Still can’t get hold of the ex, though he did leave me one message on my cell phone that I belated found this evening. I only use my cell phone when I’m out of the house and need to call someone. This means I can literally go weeks without using it. I must cure people of the habit of leaving me messages on it. Or check it more regularly.

Have to go back to my doctor’s today. Dr. Liver wants me to get vaccinated for hepatitis, but wasn’t clear which vaccine he wanted used. I also need to get blood pulled, and it was too late in the day to do it when I was there yesterday. If this keeps up, my car should be able to get to and fro to her office on autopilot.

The kitten has stopped burbling. She is uncomfortably warm on my lap, though. She’ll be nice to have around this winter. A lap blanket with legs and demands.