Checking In

It has been another eventful 24 hours in our household. My son was injured in a dirt bike accident at a friends' house. He suffered a concussion, a badly broken collar bone that will require surgery, and slight breaks in the humerus and the tip of his thumb. All on the right side.

It could be worse from a physical standpoint (head injury, neck injury etc). But from a trust standpoint, it could be no worse. He is grounded this week. He has a job. He told us that he was going to work. When I received the phone call on my cell that my son had been injured, I immediately believed that he had been in a car accident, as he would have been driving to work.

In my household, I like to be in charge of these events. My husband received the phone call, and informs me of the accident, and then proceeds to tell me that Reade felt like he could drive home. A broken collar bone and a stick shift don't compute. I indicated to him that he should get Reade. As it turned out, his friend brought him home, and Mark shuttled him to the hospital.

I had my KPMG alumni event that evening. It was at a nice hotel (The Jefferson), and I invited a friend to have a drink with me prior to the event. (I gotta get all my social stuff sandwiched while in town). When I received this phone call, I had a long pause as to what my response would be. Do I attend my event? Do I go to the hospital to meet them?

I let my maternal instincts be subjugated by my rather extreme anger that my son had purposefully lied to me about his whereabouts. In fact, the first thing out of his mouth in walking in the door was a lament that he had to go to work. He then went to stage two of his ruse by asking me if I minded if he took a month off from work. Would I be disappointed?

Now there is a classic irony--it's best not to tempt the fates. He'll get not a month, but about 6-8 weeks off from work. And there is no current measurement for the depth of my disappointment in being lied to in such a deliberately calculating way.

As such, I attended my event and reconnected with people with whom it was a privilege to work with. We remarked that though so many years had passed, getting together made us feel like family. We worked so many hours together, these people were indeed our family and our colleagues. Those four years forever shaped my career: it instilled a solid work ethic, the ability to meet deadlines, the facile working with other people of varying difficulties, the need to make choices against judiciously weighed evidence, and the value of happy hour in cementing relationships and blowing off steam! My career was immensely helped by these folks who recommended me for positions. I owe them much.

I'll be out all day tomorrow with his surgery.

Nothing makes sense in the market to me; so I continue to have little to say. Well....I'll say this...I don't see how we can avoid a protracted recession. I believe us already to be in a recession. Would that it stays in the r neighborhood of the alphabet.