Ch 4
I've been spending the last 2 days cleaning and sorting here and my emotions have finally gotten to me. So, to create a diversion I decided to give Ethan a call to see if he was able to have lunch and go over foundation business. After lunch, Ethan asked me what my plans were for the rest of the day and I told him that I have a Hospital Advisory Board Meeting later this afternoon. We said our good byes and went our separate ways.
I drove over to Oakdale Regional Medical Center to see how things are going since my leave of absence. Once inside, I was greeted by the receptionist. We talked for a few moments about the happenings here and, she asked me how things were going and, I said that things are going okay just taking one day at a time as the saying goes. As I walked towards my office, I was greeted by other hospital employees and, it was just then that I thought that it felt really good to be getting back to normal.
I reached my office and was warmly greeted by my secretary. She was excited to see me and, was curious as to why I was here. I told her that I had the Hospital Advisory Board Meeting in a few hours. She asked if I was coming back to work and, I said yes, I'll be back on Monday. I went to my desk and was checking my many emails and saw one that caught my eye. The email address was unfamiliar and all it said in the subject line was "Hello" which made me curious. I was hesitant on opening it because just recently there is the possibility of email viruses going around out there so, I didn't take any chances on opening it and, hit the delete icon.
After sorting through the rest of my emails, I glanced down at my watch and realized that it was almost time for the board meeting and, down to the board room I went. One of the items that were discussed at the meeting was the selection of the new Chief of Staff. Since our current long time Chief of Staff, Dr Chris Hughes has decided to retire. Chris' son, Dr Michael Hughes has been working here and has expressed an interest in the position. Chris' son and family just recently moved here from Llanview, Pa we decided to table the selection until next months meeting.
After the meeting it was around dinner time and, I was getting hungry but, I didn't want to eat at home alone. So, I called Casey and Allison to see if they would like to join me for dinner. We met at Al's where we talked and laughed for hours. I looked at my watch and noticed at how late it was getting but, we were still talking away. It just felt really good to talk about nothing of any great importance. I mentioned that I should be heading home and Casey and Allison said the same thing. So, I thanked Casey and Allison for their company, we hugged each other, said our good byes and went our separate ways.
I finally made my way home it's a good thing that I thought of leaving the porch light on because I'm still quite vulnerable about going into the house ever since Reid has been gone. Once inside, I quickly changed into a t-shirt and sweats, grabbed myself a non-alcoholic beer turned the computer on to check any emails and lo and behold, that same email I got at the hospital today, I got here as well. Now this was starting to make me frustrated. But, I still didn't think that I wanted to open it because there are a lot of strangers out there wanting to scam people out of money. But, the more I looked at that email, the more curious I got as to see who it was from.
So, I finally walked away from the computer to go to the mailbox and check to see if I had any regular mail after getting the mail, I walked back to the computer still staring at that email and, by now the anticipating was greatly mounting as to whether or not I wanted to even bother opening it. Having finishing my non-alcoholic beer, I thought that it tasted mighty damn good so, back to the refrigerator I went and, grabbed me one more and, I decided to open that email.