Not Buying A Home

Ok, so if buying a home doesn't quite work out, and you've got to get out of your parents' house come Hell or high water, there's always renting, right?

Well that's what I did. After looking at a bunch of places all over the county, and after having made two unsuccessful offers (not on the unit mentioned in the previous post, but on a completely different condominium that was being sold privately) on a place and being disappointed and then finding the condo of my dreams right where I wanted it to be, I thought I'd be all set. But, some things just don't work out the way one might expect, right? Part of life being interesting, I guess.

But, as luck would have it, an old friend from my childhood with whom I'd recently reconnected through an online social forum mentioned to me that she and her roommates would be moving out of her apartment but that she would be moving to the basement studio, and that her 3 bedroom unit would be available. I jumped! My prospective roommate, Maria, and I went to visit the place one night after work and as soon as I saw that it had potential, and knowing that the rent was affordable, I made the confirmation call to the landlord that I wanted it.

It worked out great-- today Maria and I and my friend Susan went to the place to see it one more time, work out details of a renter's agreement, and to pay the deposit.

So it's final! And as much as I REALLY wanted to be a homeowner, I know that that'll come in time. But what's more important is that now I'll be living away from home, with a friend from work, and that I can once again be a free lady. Phew! I can't wait!!

Now, I also can't wait to be a homeowner, but I guess all the good stuff in life takes time...

Buying A Home

I've been entertaining the idea for quite some time, especially since living with my parents isn't all that cool anymore! So lately I've been going to open houses and scheduling showings in my area and the more I see other places, the more I realize how much I like this one particular condominium that I saw. It's in the same complex that I'd lived in as a child, which is maybe why I like it so much, but it has a pool and meeting room at the clubhouse, great parking, no pet restrictions, low taxes and maintenance fees, and is in a fantastic school district with great district amenities (gigantic pool and tennis courts at the school).

The unit itself is in a bit of a state of disrepair as it seems it has mostly not been updated since the complex was built except for newish flooring and paint and a new sink in the bathroom and appliances in the kitchen. It does need all new windows and new sliding glass doors out to the terrace, a new terrace railing as the one that's there is really wobbly and rusted out, a new kitchen counter/cabinet as the existing one isn't connected to the wall very well (I leaned on it to sign the sign-in sheet and the entire counter moved up and down), and new carpeting as there was a big iron burn in the master bedroom and my mother said she could smell dog urine in the rugs, plus the bathtub has three big circular rust stains in it, so that'll need to be changed, too. Aside from the wobbly counter in the kitchen, there will need to be updated in the cosmetic department since the counter tops and cabinets and hardware are all original, and it looks like the insides of the MANY closets have never been cleaned or painted, ever.

I really do like it though, so I hope I can put an offer on it that the seller will like. There's already an offer in place, but no contracts have been signed and the seller is still entertaining other offers in the meantime. Hopefully the realtor and I will be able to take another look at the place... I'd really like to be a homeowner!

I'm so excited... we'll see what happens and I'll be sure to keep you all updated!

Wow-- It's REALLY Been A Long Time

Okay, so it's been almost a whole year since my last post. I bet all of you loyal readers are jealous because my life is so exciting that I don't even have time to post a few entries here and there. But have no fear, I'm here to throw you a bone and give you some updates on the craziness that's happened in my life in the last 11 or so months (or what I can remember of it!).


Over the summer I participated in the 2008 Boston 3-Day and faced the biggest challenge of my life-- successfully! Walking those 60 miles were fantastic... so much so, that I even signed up for this year's walk. So... if you're interested in donating, please visit http://www.the3day.org/goto/emilyharper2009 for this year's fundraising site and give all that you can. The funds that you give help with breast cancer research, treatment and education and the whole thing is tax deductible. If you can't donate online, there's a link on that page to print out the paper donation form to mail in. Please help!

Hmmm... what else has happened lately. Well, in August, my mom had a spine surgery that was unsuccessful, and now she's in even more back pain than she was before. I stayed with her the entire time she was an inpatient, which I think was three days. She had the surgery at NY Presbyterian, Weil-Cornell campus, and I think the very best part of the whole event was the room she got after leaving PACU. She had a private corner room on the 14th floor (I think) overlooking the East River and the 59th Street Bridge, and from one of the many floor-to-ceiling windows, I think I remember seeing the Empire State Building. It was like living in an airy $8000/month studio apartment in a luxury building with room service, except my roommate was constantly screaming in pain and needed to be helped frequently to the bathroom to pee.


Then in September I went to the Dominican Republic with one of my friends and stayed with her and her family in a tiny three bedroom house in a *very* small village outside of Azua about an hour or so away from Santo Domingo. It was a great trip but ended with an unintentional weight loss of about 15 pounds, which normally wouldn't be such a bad thing. But when you consider traveling internationally with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and your period as a bonus, it doesn't sound so hot. But other than that, the trip was great. Also in September was Kate's bridal shower weekend which included two (not one!) bridal showers in Rochester and Auburn and a visit I did up to Buffalo to see Melissa. It was such a nice visit, so nice to see everyone!

In October my dad was diagnosed with cancer, so that month was filled with attempting to figure out the big "what's next?" as far as his plan of care. He started an aggressive plan of chemotherapy and radiation, had a feeding tube surgically placed in the operating room, and began his healing process which is still going on as he's still unable to swallow (thank God for the feeding tube!). Though his recovery seems slow, I know he's doing a lot better, and we're all pretty much just passing time until his follow up diagnostic scans, which I hope will take place early in April.

Also in October was Kate and Ryan's wedding. Yay! I was the Maid of Honor (yes, I know this is the third wedding I've been in...), Matt was one of the Groomsmen, and the coolest parts of the whole day were sharing in the ceremony that Kate's dad performed at the Downtown Rochester Public Library (gorgeous!), and having me and Matt as the witnesses to sign the marriage license. Aw! The reception was a blast and the whole weekend was a big success and a lot of fun... except for the speeding ticket that I got on the way up to Rochester (which, I have to say, was completely devastating and undeserved-- I was attempting to avoid hitting another state trooper whose ass was hanging out into the highway as well as trying not to get rear-ended/rear-end the people in front of me-- but alas, I pleaded not guilty, was charged with a lesser offense, and mailed my $285.00 in like a good citizen afraid of losing my license!). Wow... that was a big digression. :)



November held another vacation-- this time my very first cruise, as well as my very first vacation with someone other than Susan. Her friend, Mike, attended with us and made the whole thing an interesting experience with an odd number of people. The trip was great though-- the boat was beautiful, seeing the Florida Keys, Cozumel, Mexico and Belize City, Belize was great... as were all of the excursions we took in each port of call. In Key West we took a historic train ride around the island, which was fantastic, then spent the rest of the early afternoon walking around and shopping in souvenier places. In Cozumel the three of us took a catamaran ride to a place where we got off and went snorkelling in the open water, then back on the boat to a private island/beach where we got stung by tiny jellyfish while playing in the warm clear water! In Belize, Mike and Susan and I split up and I went on a trip zip-lining through the tropical rain forest and then tubing through a crazy system of caves. They were all such fantastic extra little trips! On the boat I did everything from resting poolside in comfy chairs to rockwall climbing, to going to the gym (ok, only once, but I went!), to doing karoke TWICE! It was such a fabulous time-- I'd definitely do it again!

I don't remember what happened in December, but January was ok. I stayed home for New Year's and went up to Boston for the six days afterwards, which had been the longest trip I'd taken to Massachusetts since the Boston 3-Day last August. Also during the December/January period was a brief visit with Laura who had come home from Alaska for a Christmas visit. Her dad had driven down from the Albany area to pick her up from La Guardia Airport, spent the day with her and another friend in NYC, and then stopped by me where the three of us had a snack and a warm mug of apple cider at a coffee shop in Pleasantville and caught up for awhile before heading back up to north of Albany. Aw, how much I miss her!

Now it's February, and I just came back from a visit to see Matt for Valentine's Day. This was most likely one of the last regular trips I'll be taking to Boston, except for the odd visit to see friends here and there, and it makes me really sad. Matt lost his job, so he's moving back home to the Finger Lakes region of NY State. Sigh. I like it up there, and I enjoy spending time with his family, but I thought that having to drive 3+ hours to see one another was bad. Now it's going to be about a 5 hour drive. I wonder when we'll ever live in the same city and cut it out with this long-distance crap. It's so frustrating!

Anyway, that's pretty much it. Surprisingly I condensed most of my life and I think I got pretty much all of the exciting stuff in. If I think of more, I'll do updates/edits. I also REALLY hope to continue writing here more regularly, so keep checking back... because noodles really *are* yummy. Enjoy, everyone!

It's Been Awhile

Holy crap, it surely has been awhile. As in months and months... I don't know if I've ever been this bad before, but man oh man!

Anyway, as always I have eight gazillion things going on all at once. Right now the biggest one is fundraising for the Breast Cancer 3-Day that I'll be doing in Boston this August. It's a 60 mile walk (yes, that's 60 miles!!) over the course of three days that benefits Susan G. Komen and the National Philanthropic Trust, which both help fund breast cancer research and treatment in a major way.

Please, if you haven't done so yet, visit my personal fundraising page and make a donation. I've got to raise at least $2,200.00 by July and I've actually set a personal goal of $3,000.00. So I need your help!! Cut and paste this website address or click on the link to assist me in reaching my huge-ass goal! http://www.the3day.org/goto/emilyharper2009 (note 2/19/09: this has been edited to include the link for my 2009 fundraising site)

Thanks, everybody. Your support really means a lot to me.

PS- If you're interested in walking with me and joining my team, let me know! I'd be happy to tell you more about it!

Happy 2008

So our upstate plans didn't fall through after all.

Matt and I left for Albany about 4:30pm on the 31st and (despite a long stop at Stewart's-- my favorite upstate store after Wegman's-- for eggnog and soda, and besides the fact that Laura gave us bum directions and had us driving all over downtown Albany-- three exits too early on the Thruway) we got to the Robertson house about 7:30pm.

Movies and board games, giant puzzles and a toast at midnight all led to a fabulous laid-back new year's celebration with my girl and my guy (and my girl's mom and grandma, too!).

I ended up falling asleep in the middle of Lord of the Rings, so we closed the evening about 2am, and the three of us slept in Laura's room. When we woke up in the morning it was already snowing, so I tried to hurry myself and Matt into leaving pretty quickly but the snow had already started to accumulate. Driving around in the Albany/Schenectady area was the worst-- the roads were terrible with snow and slush and the car we were using slid around a bit despite my slow driving. But when we hit 87 it wasn't as bad and we could pick up our speed a bit more safely.

Until the traffic hit that is. What should have been a two to three hour drive home ended up taking over six hours. I think there must have been a bunch of accidents (that we saw no evidence of) because there were just so many cars on the road all driving really slowly through some parts and then getting up to a good clip at other parts along the way and then slowing down to painful speeds all over again. And the road conditions were fine at that point, so I'm not sure what was going on. What I do know is that we spent so much time sitting around in the car driving 4 miles per hour that every time we hit a rest stop I had to pull off to pee. I hadn't even drank that much juice with breakfast, but we were spending so many hours pretty much idling along that my glomerular filtration caught up with our miles traveled per hour and led to stopping at every single rest stop along the highway from Laura's house all the way home. It was pretty impressive, actually.

Anyhow, we're all home now, but Matt has to go back to his parents' house tomorrow, and then I have to go back to work on Friday. Boo. This was a nice bunch of days off though, and I'm glad I had the chance to rest and visit with Matt and a whole other bunch of friends (Melissa and Brian along with Tara Osterhoudt last week, Laura and Elena this week) while celebrating the holidays and the new year.

Happy 2008 everyone!

No Business Like Snow Business

I think my new year's plans have been cancelled by default-- Matt and I were planning to visit with Laura who's back in Clifton Park from Alaska for a little while... but the news just said that Albany got a foot of snow yesterday and is expecting another 9 inches tomorrow.


Sigh.


If anyone has an alternate plan, tell me quickly!

Congratulations Are In Order

Hooray for Kate and Ryan! They're engaged...

and it's all because of me!! (Just kidding!)

(Sort of. Heh.)

I'm so excited for both of you! Yay!!

Happy Holidays

Time really does fly... even when you're not having fun. So the year is almost over, and as such, I've been doing a lot of reflecting back on all the stuff that happened and didn't happen. If anyone's interested, here's a brief list:

-spending time upstate with Matt, his family and friends in January, the highlight of which was a weekend at Ryan's apartment (the part where I introduced Ryan to Kate, not the part where I cried for a couple of hours because I was drunk and stupid)

-throwing a 56th birthday party for my mom and all of her friends at her favorite Chinese restaurant

-cutting a vacation with Susan short and rushing back to NY from Florida for my mom's kidney transplant

-freaking out again as my mom's health deteriorated to the point of loss of consciousness... from a urinary tract infection, and then feeling the amazing relief that came with her recovery

-helping to celebrate Mel and Brian's wedding as one of the bridesmaids

-summer vacation in the mountains with Matt, Ryan and Kate... ah, sweet relief

-passing the intermediate care class at work and enabling myself to care for patients who require cardiac monitoring

-going to Laura's sister's wedding in Albany as Laura's date and getting to stay in the honeymoon suite the night before (heh heh heh)

-going to Spain with Susan... awesome, as expected

-taking my very first romantic hot and sweaty 9-hour bus adventure with Matt from Syracuse to Boston (blech)

-learning about Kate and Ryan's engagement (that I set them up for!!)

-planning with my parents for my dad's cardiac catheterization and open heart surgery which'll be happening just after the new year

-working A LOT


And while the list of things I've done and accomplished isn't too long, there really were only a few things I didn't manage to get done:

-buy a property and move out/live by myself
-go on a road trip with any of my friends
-go on an international vacation with Matt
-visit Laura in Alaska
-start working on a Masters degree

All in all then, I guess it was a pretty successful year. I probably wouldn't trade too much of it... things flowed naturally and honestly helped to shape me a big into the person I am today (doesn't that sound like a high school graduation speech?). Life is pretty good, and I'm glad I'm a part of it. Though I do think that it might be a bit better if it were a bit more boring. But who's counting? :)

Fui En Espana

I came back on the 4th of November from my annual vacation with Susan-- and this year we went to Spain. It was another tour led by a fabulous tour director, and it started on October 26th, so it was a bit longer than last year's trip to Ireland. I'd like to post some photos but I can't do it just yet-- our old computer apparently exploded while I was gone, so we've got a new one, and between having to set up a lot of settings and save stuff back onto it from recovered discs, memory cards and emails, I'm not quite ready yet. Plus I don't have Susan's photos yet (we always share both of our cameras on our vacations).

So when things are a little bit more organized, I will begin to impress you with the beautiful sights I got to see while traveling around Spain. Be sure to check back soon!!

Does Anyone Even Still Read This?

Oh man, it's been a long couple of months. Not all bad stuff, though. After my mom was released from the hospital she sort of got better. Though three months and many different types of oral antibiotics and her urinary tract infection still hasn't cleared... I'm beginning to wonder if it ever will. But she's feeling OK for the most part so I'm not overwhelmingly concerned.

Life otherwise has been busy but fine. I'm in Boston right now, watching Matt sleep, and wondering when I should try to start driving home. Seems like I haven't been home much at all lately, which is honestly kind of the way I like it. August was busy because I was taking a class at work, so I was preoccupied with studying and homework, and then I had my orientation on different units in the hospital... and then September seemed to fly by. Now I'm back on my own unit, but I've been traveling a lot (to Albany at the end of September for Laura's sister's wedding, to Florida with Susan at the beginning of October, now to visit Matt, and in two weeks I'll be leaving again to go to Spain with Susan).

On other news I almost had a crisis and moved out of my parents' house. Not that moving out would have been a crisis (more like an "it's about time I stopped mooching" event). I don't know what exactly prompted it but it was probably something like I'd been arguing more and more with my mother and I just couldn't take it anymore. She and I have such a close relationship, but when I finished college and moved back in a couple years ago, our closeness compounded and the fact that we're both strong-willed and outspoken kind of took over the household and strained our relationship. I end up crying a lot more than I'd like to admit, and I know I make my mother cry also a lot more than I'd like to admit. So those two facts are a prime indication to me that it's time for me to leave. But I don't want to just leave... though I almost moved in with Adam, which would have been a blast. I really would like to buy a place though, and right now I can't afford it, so if I moved out and stopped being able to save money, I *really* wouldn't be able to afford to purchase something. Plus, there are other reasons I wasn't quite ready to leave at that moment... so it didn't happen.

Anyway, so that's pretty much it. Matt's awake and we're probably going to play a little catch or something before I get going. Hopefully it won't be another three months before I post my next blog entry. I wouldn't want to keep all you Noodle fans waiting.

It's A Nike Life

Mom is sick and in the hospital again. I was planning on posting about all kinds of things that have been happening in my life in the last few months-- going to Julie's baby shower, having five days with Matt and meeting all kinds of friends randomly in NYC, taking the intermediate care nursing class so that I can read strips and take patients on cardiac monitors, Melissa's upcoming wedding and my upcoming summer vacation, and lots of other stuff. But all of that seems stupid when family things come up. Like my mother, who had to go to the emergency department again yesterday morning.

My dad called up to me at 5:45am yesterday-- "Em? Are you awake yet? I'm taking mommy to the emergency room. She's been vomiting all night and she has a fever." I got ready for work and then stopped by the ED before reporting to my unit. Mom looked OK, just exhausted and dehydrated. She was getting some IV fluids and her temp hadn't gone above 100.8, but that was with Tylenol. I hung out for ten minutes and then left to get to the last of my ICRN classes.

At 12:30pm when the class was over, I went back to my unit to find that my mother had been admitted and was in a bed on the floor. Again, she seemed OK albeit a bit tired. So I left her and went to help the other nurses on the floor hang blood products, give meds, ambulate the patients, etc. My mother went downstairs for some diagnostic tests. Then all of a sudden the ultrasound department called and requested a nurse to come down-- mom wasn't feeling well, and she was shaking with fever and chills. They wanted to know if someone could come down with some Tylenol. I went downstairs armed with a thermometer to check her temp and some Tylenol in case the fever'd gone up totally unprepared for what I was about to see. When I got into the u/s room, there was my mom lieing on a stretcher shaking so badly she couldn't get any words out and screaming in pain from back spasms. I took her temperature-- 103.0 (!!), quickly gave her the pills, and assisted the u/s tech in bringing her back up to my unit. When we got her back to her room and back in bed I was beside myself-- she was delirious with fever, speaking nonsensically. I checked her temp again-- 104.4! Afraid she'd start having febrile seizures, I ran with another nurse to the pantry, prepared a shitload of ice packs as fast as we could, and packed them all over my mom. I started her back up on IV fluids and checked her temperature every ten minutes, ordering a cooling blanket to come up from the basement between tasks. Slowly, between the Tylenol, the ice packs and the cooling blanket, the fever began to come down-- 104.0, 103.9, 103.4, 102.7, 102.3 until she began sweating profusely and her temp was back in the 99's.

Holy shit-- I was so scared I'd been shaking. Fevers that high are horrible. I know babies get high temperatures like that and it's just awful, but I'd never known of an adult who wasn't intubated and on a ventilator in the ICU to have a temp above 104.

When she was a bit more stable, Elisha, my friend and the nurse assigned to my mother, administered some IV steroids and then some pretty hefty IV antibiotics. Apparently what had started out as a urinary tract infection had progressed to a much more complicated infection with systemic involvement. Phew. Nothing in my family is ever simple.

I'm a little bit calmer now knowing that the fever isn't critical, but she did spike again during the night into the 102's. She's also had some more diagnostic tests done-- renal scans, chest X-rays, blood and urine cultures, CT scans, arterial blood gases and has continued to get more IV antibiotics. And, just a little while ago, complaining of right-sided chest pains, they moved my mom to a cardiac monitored bed for observation.

Today is a day off for me. After the stress of yesterday afternoon (not just with my mother-- there was a narcotics discrepancy when I counted the narc box at the end of the shift and a livid health care proxy screaming at all the staff for allowing her completely with-it father to sign out of the hospital against medical advisement after he'd pulled out all of his tubes and refused any further treatments) and then sticking around to be with my mom until 9:30 at night I came home with a whopping headache. Actually, it was a migraine-- I'd taken meds for it while still in the hospital (which I NEVER do) so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. So after sleeping in a bit, I went downstairs, prepared food and packed a picnic for two for my dad to bring to my mom: whole wheat bread, oat bran and flax seed pitas, fresh egg salad, some leftover cold steak, lettuce, sliced tomatoes, grilled asparagus, and a blueberry and walnut muffin I'd baked a few days ago for dessert. The food, a couple bottles of water, some paper plates and napkins and real silverware all went into a big basket lined and covered with cloth towels and stuffed with ice packs. I've already made some stuff for dinner and plan on packing a similar basket this evening so that the three of us can have a picnic later on, too.

Hopefully the infection will begin to subside with all of the antibiotics she's getting, and hopefully she'll be able to come home again soon. Things like this seem to come up a lot in our family making me quite glad to be living very near a good hospital with a fantastic team of physicians on the transplant service. And we haven't said it in awhile (not since things with the boys were a bit more hectic), but this episode just goes to prove to me that it really is a Nike life for us.

Sick

I've always considered myself a pretty healthy person, but in the last couple of years I've been getting more and more colds. So it wasn't much of a surprise to me two weeks ago when my throat started hurting and I began to cough up horrible chunks of blech.

I could have called out sick from work a couple of times, but when it was really bad I just wore a mask. I feel like if I can wake up and function during the day, there's no point in sitting around drinking broth and feeling sorry for myself. Besides, I could do that on my days off.

So that's what I've been doing these last 15 days or so. Except for last Saturday, when I went to a baby shower thrown for my friend Julie from Bing. She's due in a month or so and I'm pretty excited for the second person in my social circle to be having a child. Just makes me think about where I am in life and in my relationship with Matt... but that's all I've got to say about that!

Anyhow, I've just been off for two days and now I'm back to the grind in the morning. Work's been good lately though-- I have a summer nursing intern, a student from a local nursing college. He's two years older than me, and like me, has gone into nursing after having already earned a prior Bachelor's degree. He's very bright and he's fun to work with all day, so it makes the days go quickly and reinforces for me just how much I'd like to start teaching. I did my fingerprints and am now cleared to teach in NY state, so now I just have to schedule with BOCES. Sigh. Someday.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes this post. I'm in the middle of making creme brule for my parents-- I bought my dad a cool set with a little propane torch for father's day and am trying it out for the first time for him. The little ramekins are cooling in the fridge and I'm about to put the torched-sugar top on them. I can't wait!

Birthday Wishes To Susan

Last week it was Susan's 24th birthday and to celebrate, I went down to Long Island for three days to do all sorts of things with her. Thursday morning she and I met up and ran errands until having to meet her father and her grandparents who'd come in from Florida. We all had lunch together and then Susan and I headed back to her apartment for a quick clean-up (I scrubbed the stove and counter tops!) before going out again with the above mentioned bunch for a birthday dinner at a Mexican restaurant. After being serenaded by a bunch of waiters wielding flan and a sombrero adorned with helium-filled balloons, Susan and I ducked out to meet friends at Dave and Buster's (a bar-arcade place with games and drinks and food) for a night of innocent fun.


On Friday we drove pretty close to Queens to meet up with Ellen, another friend of Susan's from Bing, had lunch, picked up some shoes for Susan to wear to Ellen's wedding this August, and then left that area shopping and running more errands all the way back to her place. We didn't actually get in until close to 9pm, but when we did we cooked up an awesome stir-fry and enjoyed dinner together in her living room before ending our busy day.


Then on Saturday we picked up her grandparents and the four of us drove to Forest Hills, Queens, where we parked and took the subway into Manhattan. First thing we did there was go to the Museum of Modern Art (which I don't think I'd ever been to) on 53rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. It was a lot of fun and after a couple of hours we left for Canal Street in Chinatown to meet up with Susan's cousin and his girlfriend for dinner. After that we all took a stroll through Little Italy to do some more (surprise surprise) shopping. Pretty soon it was time for me to go, so we said goodbye to Susan's cousin and Susan and her grandparents and I made our way to Grand Central Terminal where we parted so that I could catch a train back to Westchester and everyone else could catch a subway back to Queens.


Phew! It was a really fun but REALLY busy couple of days. Happy birthday, Susan-- I hope you had a blast!!

Sensational Urination

The following is an excerpt from an email I sent to a friend. It's completely true and just interesting enough that I thought to include it on my blog so all you Noodle fans could read it, too. Welcome to my life... and enjoy!

"I laughed out loud the other day at work because I was bursting from having drank a liter or so of seltzer and holding it all in for awhile because I was busy with patients... so when I finally made it to the bathroom all I could do was turn around so my ass was facing the toilet, pull down my pants, squat over the edge and let go. It wasn't until a minute later when I'd emptied like 18 gallons from my bladder that I realized I'd sort of missed and had peed onto the little area of the toilet (I think most public bathrooms have this) where there's a break in the seat, so all of my urine had gone down the front of the bowl and had puddled at my feet on the floor. Heh. I'm a real winner."