Frustrated plans and a girl named Scout

After the Magnetic Fields show in Austin on Tuesday, I worked three days in a row. I never like doing that, it exhausts me. Friday night I started with two patients, transferred one to a different ICU around 11 PM, came back to pick up another patient, and transferred that one out to another ICU at 3 AM. Whee.

Saturday was sleepsleepsleep, then up and downtown for a free Girl Talk show. I'm not a big fan of his, but couldn't turn down a free night of sweaty dancing. Any time I think I'll be in line somewhere, I bring a book. Wanting something that would fit in my pocket and could be cast aside if need be, I started reading To Kill a Mockingbird again. I've read it every couple years since 8th grade and its pleasures never cease. Sadly, I slept in too long and after waiting in line for an hour the venue was full.

Through most of that hour I was able to tune out the conversations around me but this one comment pierced my bubble of reading satisfaction, "If you see kittens that aren't the same color as the mom or dad, that means that the mom got like, gang-raped." I didn't hear what preceded that bit of science, but I doubt that context would have helped.

Denied my original entertainment plan, I walked across downtown to the Angelika Theater thinking there would be something I'd want to see. Bought a ticket for Burn After Reading and was promptly driven mad by the jittery picture and loud projector. Twenty minutes in I had a headache from trying to focus on the screen. Nice manager said she couldn't fix the picture and wrote me out a free pass without me having to ask.

So back home and a marathon reading session to finish To Kill a Mockingbird. A bust of a night was redeemed by the wonderfulness of Harper Lee's prose. Sometimes I wish she'd written another novel, but mostly I'm just glad that she sent this one out into the world.