My Bloody Holidays

How do Waterhouses celebrate Easter?

By performing minor surgeries on each other at the kitchen table, of course!

Rachel wanted to have a few moles removed, and I figured that as long as the tools were prepped I might as well go under the knife myself.  The evening also included my learning how to remove stitches because Sisters Take Care of Each Other in Time of Need ("time of need" being one week post-op when we're both back in Denver and the stitches need to come out).  Rachel, a nurse with plenty of experience (as she repeatedly pointed out to Dad), didn't need the practice so I had the pleasure of taking tweezers and scissors to the back of Mom's scalp to take out the stitches Dad gave her the weekend before.

Hey, everybody, it's Family Night!  Whoo!

Aside from the fascination I have with any kind of medical training, I found this to be an appropriate holiday activity given my adventures on Valentine's Day.  One of my students fell off the stage mid-class and hit her head on a bench on her way down.  She gave herself a pretty good gash on the back of the head and a concussion, which meant I got to flex my own medical skillz while waiting for the ambulance.  For the record, it was bloodier than the Easter surgeries (being a head wound and all), plus I had an audience of 17 wide-eyed teenagers watching me with that eerie quiet that teenagers get when they know something serious is going down.

Both bloody holidays turned out fine in the end; although I'm still glad that Memorial Day falls on the weekend after school gets out.