Cupid’s [El]bow

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!

Tuesday began with a rough night of Hurricane Hakan. It wasn’t that bad, really. He just got us up and insisted he spend the rest of the night with us in bed. As I would turn over during the night, I noticed that putting any weight on my left elbow was very painful. The pain was outdone by my exhaustion, so I did not inspect my joint any further during the night. As the morning began, I found that bending it hurt, but not enough that anything was clearly wrong. Leaning on it at all, on the other hand, was agonizing. I hurried through the rest of my morning routine and got off to work, where I then inspected further and realized that my elbow was clearly swollen. Most disconcerting was that I had no recollection of any injury that would have caused all of this. I kept an eye on it, and when it did not get worse or more painful, I left it alone. It’s been shrinking each night, and the pain is hardly noticeable now, but this has been a strange experience. I am starting to wonder if those dreams I had on Monday night about being abducted and operated on by aliens were not just dreams.

Kira’s major trial of the week was Friday. Avey was excited to hand out some valentines to her classmates, but in the morning rush had left them at home. Kira realized it as soon as she dropped Avey off, but circumstances kept her from bringing the valentines until later in the afternoon. When she went to leave them at the office, the kind receptionist told her that the children were not allowed to give candy with their valentines, meaning that Avey’s valentines were contraband. Why this information had not been delivered to us parents was unclear, especially because it seems that sweets are a Valentine’s tradition. Kira did not want Avey to be the only one who was not participating in the valentine exchange, so she hurried home with the boys in tow, and improvised with what materials we have around the house to make enough valentines for Avey’s class, and then rushed back to the school just a few minutes before Avey came to the office to see if anything had come for her. Avey was surprised to find her candy valentines replaced with the new ones, but she was glad to participate. We were even more surprised when she came home with lots of candy from her classmates.

In a rare Valentine miracle, Kira and I actually got to go on a real date last night! We have a sweet neighbor we’ve befriended, and she has two girls of her own (both a few years older than Avey). She offered to come and babysit for us on Saturday while we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant I pass every day on my commute. The food was excellent, and the company was even better. Maybe we can make date night a Valentine’s Day tradition…

#Happenings