Last week my boss got hospitalized. I was surprised when she called me and told me I had to be at the hospital because she got hospitalized the night before. When I entered her room, there she was lying on the hospital bed with dextrose hanging on a peg, with her partner stroking her hand for comfort.
I asked her what happened, and she replied, she got pneumonia. I don’t say the normal things people say when friends and relatives or co-employees get sick most people don’t mean it. I prefer a simple touch on the sleeve or even a single flower. Though it’s another matter entirely if it’s a communicable disease.
So, we proceeded to discuss matters regarding her various businesses. And the tasks she wanted get done while she is ingesting loads of antibiotics. Since, she needs to sign a lot of documents, I went up and down the sixth floor of that hospital for two days after the initial visit. After that, we communicated through cellphone, which is fine by me.
On the fourth day she called me again for a meeting concerning another business venture which she wanted me to set up. When I opened the door of her hospital room, she said, “thank god, you’re here, my mother and sister who promised to be with me 24/7 hastily left when I said I have TB.” For a few seconds I just stood there on the doorway, unsure of what to say.
I asked her, “You sure? Is your doctor sure? (silly question, at this point I was thinking of going back down the length of the six floors without looking back!) She said, “yes”. So I said, feigning nonchalance, “well, they say it’s treatable now, are you taking your medicines religiously?” She said yes and proceeded to discuss things with me.
How can I listen to anything, anything at all after she dropped that bomb on me? Thoughts like, “darn this woman for not telling me two days ago!” Tuberculosis is a deadly highly infectious disease for starters.
After the meeting, I went down the lobby so concerned for my health. When I came back in the afternoon for another meeting, I couldn’t help asking the hospital pharmacist for her opinion. I was advised to wear a mask at all times in her presence. (err.. too late). I went back up to the sixth floor carrying the mask, but before I went in, I thought to better ask the nurse station which is just 4 meters away from her room, if I was being told the truth.
Me: “Miss may I ask..err..if Ms……. On room 605, does she have TB?”
Nurse: “How are you related to her?”
Me: “She’s my boss.. I know it’s against hospital policies, but she told me she has TB
so, if you can just help me verify if it is true because I was exposed to her, and she
only told me like three days after.” “and I brought a mask with me, I’m also hesitant to
wear this in front of her…so pls I need to now.” (literally begging)
Nurse: flipping my boss’ chart…”hmmm..no…she’s clean..there are no TB meds…X-
rays are clean.”
Me: “You sure?” “Because I will go back in there without any protection whatsoever,
and if she has TB for real, I’m getting back with you on this.” (sounding ominous and
laughable).
Nurse: “Yes she is clean, you can relax now.” (laughing good-naturedly)
Epilogue
Me: “You said you have TB, I asked the nurse she said you don’t have it”. “why would you lie
to me?”
Wicked *****: hahahahahaha!
Me: “I even bought a mask! Grrr.”
Wicked *****: hahahahahaha!
Oh great.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Rhymes
They lull children to sleep. They’re catchy. They are our first experience of oral history, transferred from one generation to the next and have been around even before any written form of prose is obtainable.
I’m referring to nursery rhymes. I have a five-month old nephew, so I can’t escape these ubiquitous doggerels whenever I visit. As the last-song syndrome goes, I hum and tap to the beat of “Jack & Jill “, “Hey Diddle, Diddle”, etc when I leave, and they haunt me whole afternoon to my unending exasperation. It’s not cool to hum nursery rhymes at work. Not cool.
One day last week I began to think for some convoluted quirk of reason the reality of these lyrics, are they as harmless as most mothers think? Good thing for mothers with internet connection, they can just Google the answers, but how about those who haven’t any? Yes, some parts of my country are not connected yet to the World Wide Web.
For those lucky mothers they might stumble across these explanations regarding the history and origin of some of the most popular nursery rhymes:
It is a commonly accepted fact that there is a relationship between nursery rhymes and British History. Although the English language have changed drastically, its influence to eastern cultures have a marked difference in discipline and entertaining young children in these parts of the world. At a very young age, we are introduced to the idea of kings and queens and the other members of the royal court. As well as, the London Bridge, the Bells of Saint Clemens, Charring Cross and many others without even realizing they are not located elsewhere in the eastern hemisphere. And here’s the catch, some of them have origins that are political in nature and others even have more sinister lines and meaning.
“Baa, baa, black sheep, ... “ was about the complaints of the poor against enclosures of land for sheep farming among others.
“Georgie, Georgie, pudding and pie, ... “ legend says this refers to King George IV because of his greed, flirtations and fear of reforms among others.
“Hey diddle diddle, ... “ (my nephew’s favorite) ..this one generated a lot of theories , feel free to Google them.
“Hickory, dickory, dock. ... “ this is said to refer to Richard Cromwell, who could not preserve the Republic created by his father or prevent the restoration of the monarchy.
“Ring a ring of Roses” … is a tale giving an account of the Bubonic Plague where about 25 million people died across Europe.
“Pop Goes the Weasel”… spoke of the extreme poverty during Victorian London, “pop” was the word used for pawning goods and “weasel” was the slang for flute, whistle.
And many others that discussing them here will take pages and pages and hundreds of links. Reading about them was an experience and a blast.
And from hereon, for every line and rhyme I utter, I’m reminded, that Humpty Dumpty really was not an egg.
For further reading please browse:
1. http://www.rhymes.org.uk/
2. http://nurseryrhymes.allinfoabout.com/
3. http://folktalesmyths.suite101.com/
4. http://www.mysticfamiliar.com/
5. http://www.simpletoremember.com/
I’m referring to nursery rhymes. I have a five-month old nephew, so I can’t escape these ubiquitous doggerels whenever I visit. As the last-song syndrome goes, I hum and tap to the beat of “Jack & Jill “, “Hey Diddle, Diddle”, etc when I leave, and they haunt me whole afternoon to my unending exasperation. It’s not cool to hum nursery rhymes at work. Not cool.
One day last week I began to think for some convoluted quirk of reason the reality of these lyrics, are they as harmless as most mothers think? Good thing for mothers with internet connection, they can just Google the answers, but how about those who haven’t any? Yes, some parts of my country are not connected yet to the World Wide Web.
For those lucky mothers they might stumble across these explanations regarding the history and origin of some of the most popular nursery rhymes:
It is a commonly accepted fact that there is a relationship between nursery rhymes and British History. Although the English language have changed drastically, its influence to eastern cultures have a marked difference in discipline and entertaining young children in these parts of the world. At a very young age, we are introduced to the idea of kings and queens and the other members of the royal court. As well as, the London Bridge, the Bells of Saint Clemens, Charring Cross and many others without even realizing they are not located elsewhere in the eastern hemisphere. And here’s the catch, some of them have origins that are political in nature and others even have more sinister lines and meaning.
“Baa, baa, black sheep, ... “ was about the complaints of the poor against enclosures of land for sheep farming among others.
“Georgie, Georgie, pudding and pie, ... “ legend says this refers to King George IV because of his greed, flirtations and fear of reforms among others.
“Hey diddle diddle, ... “ (my nephew’s favorite) ..this one generated a lot of theories , feel free to Google them.
“Hickory, dickory, dock. ... “ this is said to refer to Richard Cromwell, who could not preserve the Republic created by his father or prevent the restoration of the monarchy.
“Ring a ring of Roses” … is a tale giving an account of the Bubonic Plague where about 25 million people died across Europe.
“Pop Goes the Weasel”… spoke of the extreme poverty during Victorian London, “pop” was the word used for pawning goods and “weasel” was the slang for flute, whistle.
And many others that discussing them here will take pages and pages and hundreds of links. Reading about them was an experience and a blast.
And from hereon, for every line and rhyme I utter, I’m reminded, that Humpty Dumpty really was not an egg.
For further reading please browse:
1. http://www.rhymes.org.uk/
2. http://nurseryrhymes.allinfoabout.com/
3. http://folktalesmyths.suite101.com/
4. http://www.mysticfamiliar.com/
5. http://www.simpletoremember.com/
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