Tuesday

The last thing I need to mention about last weekend are the lovely birthday parties. On Saturday night, I returned from a wedding for a Vietnamese dinner honoring Sunshine's big three-oh (where she fulfilled her dream of addressing a favorite Vietnamese waiter in his own language). Then we ended up back at our downtown bar for a full-blown party with presents and everything. Next, after not quite enough sleep, we attended a wonderful backyard shindig for our goddaughter, Bronwen Burr, celebrating her big oh-one. Since her next-door neighbor Sam was scheduled to celebrate the same Monday, the real parents threw a joint barbeque with blue festival tents and MFA writers and green punch and an endless stream of very muddy kids and colorful plastic toys. It was a drag to tear ourselves away, a little after seven pm, just to drive back to Falls Church. At least we made the trip in five hours and four minutes--late Sunday evening being a better time to travel these roads than Friday at six had been. Sunshine was scheduled to work at the normal time yesterday; she collapsed into bed shortly after we'd carried all her birthday loot up to the unit Sunday night. I was expected at the institute's nursing and immunization offices sometime before they closed at four thirty. Sunshine picked me up during her lunch break and took me back to school with her. I was slated to get my second helping of Japanese encephalitis only, but I talked the nurse into also giving me a polio vaccination, in case I'd never actually gotten the required four. Both shots were clear, alive, and injected subcutaneously; neither caused any skin reaction after thirty minutes. After the shots I ate a salad and watched a couple movies in Maryland. [Cavin]