music-makers, dreamers of dreams

Originally uploaded by Sarah Lebo.

I was on the unit last Saturday when I met two fellows.
They were in my patient's room, standing over her bed. She - 6 years old but looking 3 - just stared up at them while they bent over her making bizarre giggling noises and doofus sounds. She, with her left arm swollen for unknown reasons to four times it's normal size, looked up at them, and then looked down to attend to her coloring book.
The two men were not deflated by her lack of enthusiasm. Instead they signed two pieces of paper and tucked them under her pillow and said goodbye.
I heard them giggling and doofusing on down the hall to the next room. I looked under her pillow to discover two autographed pictures of Spongebob and Patrick. Those people were Spongebob and Patrick!
Patrick was tall and looked like Patrick and Songebob was small with a halfway Buddy Holly haircut, smallness being reminiscent of Spongebob. The woman who does the voice of Bobby from King of the Hill was there too along with a Simpson's artist. I got me a Wiggum from him. Chief. I felt like a whore, really really whore-like, for doing this afterwards because those people were there for the kids and not the staff. But I didnt reallly ask for one. I just asked if he did Wiggum portraiture, and bam, there it was.

Last night I heard some excellent people read some excellent things at our 826LA benefit: Aimee Bender read a short story about the Devil and a Skeleton who work for the International Red Cross rowing dead families across a river in Hades; there was a short excerpt about Teddy Roosevelt hunting 'squatch from an upcoming book on Yeti/Sasquatch by Joshua Bearman; a story about a cook working for a famous celebrity, referred to in the story only as 'Monster' and the celebrity's house only as "the Lair" by Jervey Tervalon; a brief display of drawings of "hand signs particular to El Monte flower-picking gangs now facing extinction" from one Salvador Plascencia; and a hot sticky one from Rachel Resnick who is the kind of person who emanates toughness, even through a fitted blazer.
The new site for 826LA is up, so go peek at it.
We are proud.

But this week I learned that I will never again attempt large-volume handsewing projects at the tail end of a very busy week of shifts and pediatric advanced life support certification courses. I watched Gattaca, some TiVoed Survivor and 24, the most recent U2 concert at Slane castle, and heard the director/writer commentary of Return of the King all while trying to finish pillowcases by hand. It went on into the night. It was a moment of futility defined.
In the morning I went to the Pasadena Sewing and Vacuum Supply Store with my sack, my five yards of pathetically handstitched, unfinished and incorrectly sized corduroy and dealt with a strange woman who helped me out in a manner that demonstrated that she didnt really want to help me but since I would probably start crying at any moment, she decided she would.

In other news, there isn't any.

Yer pal,
Lebo