Tom gets pneumonia, Peter finds a job, and what do I post about…?

Finding Quinn on the couch (a no-no), looking cute, cozy and completely NOT guilty!

These two have become fast friends.  Soon Quinn will be at least as big as --and much redder than -- Shasta!

So you’re wondering about Tom and Peter?  Both deserve their own posts, but it’s been crazy around here, so here’s the Reader’s Digest versions:

Last Wednesday I called Tom at 4:00 to ask if he could pick Kat up at UW.  Not sounding quite himself, he said, “Well, I would, but… I’M IN THE HOSPITAL.”

Excuse me?

Tom hadn’t been feeling well for about a week, during which time we traveled to Idaho to see our nephew graduate from high school and sent him off to the US Air Force Academy…

Then his mother and brother came to Seattle for a visit, during which time Tom coughed a lot and slept whenever possible.  All of us, it seemed, had caught a cold, so Tom encountered some choice words from me about all of us being sick and me needing more participation and help from him. 

Yeah, I do feel sufficiently guilty, knowing that… Well, as I was saying --

“Excuse me?!  Why are you in the hospital?!”

Turns out that Tom had two back-to-back meetings and ran from one in an attempt to get to the other, and then couldn’t catch his breath.  Like, for 30-some minutes, he couldn’t breathe well.  Thinking (shudder!) heart attack, his boss called the Boeing paramedics, who hooked him up to oxygen and brought him to the hospital. 

Mind you, this was at 9:30 AM.  Did anyone call me?  Noooooo.  (Grrrrr!)

He spent the day at the hospital, undergoing a series of tests, trying to determine what was going on.  By 4:00 they still weren’t sure, but did anyone call the wifey to tell her what was going on?  Nooooo!  (Grrrr!)

So I heard about all this when I called Tom to ask him to pick up Kat!  (Grrrr!)

Once pneumonia (of the “walking” variety) was diagnosed, Tom was released and drove himself home and has been recuperating since.  He said he didn’t call me because he didn’t want to worry me and he knew I had a full plate that day.  And plus, he said, he didn’t have any facts to give me, as when I called they were still trying to determine what was going on.  I reminded him that in a marriage, partners need to be at one another’s side during times like this, facts be damned!  I reminded him that I SO would have called him when I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, asking him to drop everything and be with me.  Because I guess I’m selfish and needy like that.  I made him promise that he would never wait to call me in a situation like that again. 

He knew there was only one answer to that: “Yes dear.”

And Peter!  Yes, Peter found a job!  Get this: he had an interview at this environmental consulting firm in Yakima (yes, Yakima) on a Friday and they asked him to return for a second interview the next Friday afternoon, at which time they offered him the job and asked whether he’d be willing to start ON MONDAY if they put him up in a hotel.  There’s really only one answer to that question in that situation.  So last Sunday night Peter drove to Yakima with just some business clothes, checked into a hotel, and started work on Monday morning!  He was thrown head first into an intense, demanding, and challenging job which he will ROCK at!  On his few off-hours he looked for a place to live and, fingers crossed, it looks like he’ll move into his apartment this coming Tuesday.  Talk about zero to a hundred in five seconds…!

He’s been sleeping most of the weekend except for a quick trip to Ikea to get some furniture for his new place.  The poor guy is beyond exhausted – physically and mentally.

And Kat has found a house in Seattle that she’ll share with two other women next year, her senior year at UW.  (How did that happen?!)  She can move in next Friday, so next weekend we’ll rent a trailer on Friday afternoon, bringing all Kat’s furniture and belongings to her new house that night… and then Saturday morning we’ll load up the same trailer with Peter’s furniture and belongings, drive out to Yakima, and help him move in.  Crazy busy – and even busier because Tom isn’t allowed to exert himself much! 

I am, um, woman… hear me, um, roar?