On Tuesday, I picked up my friend from the medical center in a remote part of Fort Myers. I breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled into the medical complex (a woodsy area and you can’t see any buildings from the paths). I sailed right by the main entrance because the only sign at the turn point said “Golisano Children’s Hospital” – it was a huge sign. Well, I thought, I am picking up a senior with a cardiac problem, this can’t be it. Wrong.

I finally got pointed in the right direction and found John and got him home. Then I wrote a letter to Health Park and said that the Children’s Hospital sign was misleading and they should instead have a sign that said, for instance, “Hospital Main Entrance” and beneath it the children’s hospital designation and other units that particular road led to. I also suggested they do what Moffitt Cancer Center does. They give new patients instructions to follow the gold arrows to the woman’s oncology unit, the blue areas to the radiology unit, etc. I realize, I added, this means you will have to spend money on signs. I was a bit testy. (May I also voice an annoyed reaction to the perception that the only thing that matters, ever, is children? This has annoyed me since I was 15.)

Since it will take John a while to get some energy back, I am walking Buster in the late afternoon. Buster loves me. It’s tiring sometimes, but I can manage. Buster has been so eager to go out that he trots up the street, forcing me to walk very fast to keep up. I asked John how he manages and John said that Buster “knows” and walks very slowly when he is with him and I actually did see this when John took the dog for a short walk. The dog was ambling along in front of him at a very slow pace, nothing like the Marmaduke thing he does with me.

Sol, my tutee, came by on Wednesday and I took her to some of the local art shops that she had wanted to visit. When we got back, she checked for her course grade on line and was devastated because she got an 89.5 which, she said, was a “B”. She was traumatized. She needs all As, she said, to get into Edison College for the nursing program. But today all was well because the grader rounded the score up, so it went to 90 and that is an A. Her tutor for the nursing courses will be Ed, who has been to medical school.
In any case, Edison College is choosing its students from a group, very few, I am guessing, with Sol’s diligence. Even if she had a B, I am fairly certain that grades for the rest of the group were mostly below hers.

Sol and I also went to a local market for a couple of items and we ran into one of her professors. She introduced me and had already told him someone was helping her with her English. They have a mild flirtation going. But I think he is one of those phobes who dances up to an almost date and then backs off. A while ago I advised her to write him off unless he got very specific with his interest. None of this “I think this is what he meant,” stuff. Assuming a certain level of “savvy”, if a guy wants to date you, he will not hedge and keep you guessing.

Or he is schmoozing all the attractive potential students for his course so they will sign up, and has no intention on following through with any of them. I had this experience years ago in New York, when the head of a dance studio flirted with me – totally inappropriate – it was also very obvious he was looking for students. I was supposed to keel over and of course, sign up and forever after hope to be noticed. Not bloody likely.

xx, Teal