I'm hungry, but not inclined to do anything about it.

Mom had slipped on ice at work and wrenched her shoulder. The doctor gave her an NSAID called Clinoril for the pain. Soon afterward, she came down with what was originally diagnosed as measles and was put in the isolation ward in the hospital in Joliet, but she wasn't getting any better.

A week later, a doctor from Chicago happened to be visiting the hospital, and Mom's doctor asked him to look at my mom. He recognized her symptoms as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, which was a severe allergic reaction to the medication, and had her transferred to Rush-St. Luke's in the city immediately. SJS was so rare at the time that this doc was an expert in it even though he'd only seen 25 cases in his career.

She was in Chicago for over two months, lost all of her hair, most of her skin, had a temp of 105+ for more than five days, nearly lost her vision but still ended up with permanently dried out eyes (she has to use drops and ointment for the rest of her life), and has scars over her body from the skin loss.

I was only 12 when she got sick, and my dad and older sibs did their best to protect me from how sick she really was. They took me up to Chicago to see her once early on, and it wasn't until a few years later that I realized it was to say goodbye to her since they didn't think she was going to last through the night.

I'm hungry, but not inclined to do anything about it.

That's the apathy diet, I'd like to go on it but I just can't work up the enthusiasm.

Would I hire a 13 year old to sit my kids now? Haven't yet, but when I was 13 I babysat all the time, including infants!

I started babysitting when I was 12--my first job was the neighbors' six-month-old daughter. By the time I was 13, I was in demand on the block, and I continued to babysit throughout high school. Actually, the year I was 13, I had a regular gig every Saturday for the local librarian; she and her hub were big partiers and went out every week.

Oh, man. Now I want to reach back in time and cuddle 12-year-old Kathy.

Not nearly as much as I want to reach back in time and meet Hec's mom and see her meet Emmett and Matilda.

Wow, Kathy, that's awful. Amazing that anyone figured it out, though.

I have a burrito. Tom, that Indian place is way too far from me!

I have a burrito.

A wise choice.

I got chicken tikka masala. With roti.

Yay, tikki masala!!

Amazing that anyone figured it out, though.

That was the miracle part. The fact that the one doctor in the entire Chicagoland area who was considered a SJS expert just happened to be in the relatively small Joliet hospital for another purpose and just happened to be asked to look into my mom's case because he was a more experienced doctor, not because of his SJS expertise, was the most amazing coincidence.

Tom, that Indian place is way too far from me!

It's a whole three blocks further than Chipotle.