I asked for it.

The universe loves irony.

I whine about my boring life, it throws me paramedics.

I'm fine, by the way. Funny story actually.
Well, not so funny really but I've taken artistic liberty here.

The day before I had gotten very little sleep, so when I arrived home after class (a bit later than normal due to printing: 10:30 pm?) I, in a fit of responsibility, left my computer unpacked (my number one temptress for keeping me up) so I could plop into bed right away.

(I had to be up earlier than 2 pm you see, because I was meeting Anna to go look at a gallery or something.)

Sleep's like a credit card. Lack of it is like buying a bunch of stuff you can't afford. Eventually you have to pay your debt. Despite going to bed early (or reasonable time?) when 10 rolled around I most certainly was not ready to get up. (This might also be due to the broken-ness of my morning due to alarms, text messages, etc., that, when appearing in succession, only serve to make me more stubborn on getting the sleep I want.)

In any case, I was still up before 2 but by like 5 minutes. Sleep schedule fix FAIL.

So I had to make it downtown by 3, so I threw a bunch of stuff I thought I'd need into my bag o' random-stuff-I-think-I-need and sauntered to the train station where I promptly missed the train downtown by a staircase.

This happens sometimes, and is very annoying, but thus is the universe.

On the next train it was suddenly: too hot. And a bit nauseous. And light-headed. I got off at State/Lake to at least get some fresh air, maybe go sit on a red line bench or something, but didn't make it far past the turnstile before getting horribly dizzy. I stopped walking and hugged a nearby post.

Lucky for me, a nursing student was also getting off the train. No seriously, really lucky. It's not any fun feeling ill by yourself in a public area. I kept trying to think of a place of refuge for me to stumble to and sit, drink some water or something, but there wasn't anything around.

Nurse girl (she told me her name but I forgot) made me sit on the dirty pigeon-poop and garbage platform and asked a bunch of insightful questions, like "have you eaten today?" and "has this happened before?" and "any medical conditions?" which is how I knew she was a nurse. At least my inductive reasoning was working. (that is inductive, right?)

Anyway, she thought I had low blood sugar and got me some juice. Made me eat my granola bar, which was very difficult. I learned there's a store or at least someplace with a vending machine right below the station. Life is full of surprises.

This is getting really long, so I'll abbreviate the sitting-and-waiting:
"Are you feeling any better?"
"Not really. My hands are tingly. Now my legs are tingly."
Then a CTA guy came. Then he called some paramedics. (I actually might have started feeling better around then but it was hard to gauge because this whole time my uterus decided it needed some pain-enduced attention. Seriously, I think it was forming navy knots or something. Talk about obnoxious (it's hard to determin level of crappiness in one part of self while another is vying for negative attention).)

Paramedics took me down the stairs, tested things like blood pressure, asked if I wanted to go to the hospital.
"Um," I said.
"We recommend it," they said.
I was definately almost clear-headed but still shakey. Personally I didn't feel like getting back on the train to ride for another half hour to get back home.
"Ok." I said.
"Northwestern is really close," they said.
I didn't say anything else but was wondering, do they still charge you for the ambulance if it doesn't take you anywhere?

Hospital said:
Sign treatment release here.
Wait a bit here.
Answer some questions there.
Wait some more over here.
Get an EKG here.
Wait 4 hours there.
Run a test here.
You're fine, go home.

Then I walked out of the hospital and went, "..where the hell am I?"


p.s. Nothing makes you feel like you're making a big drama over nothing like sitting in a hospital waiting room for 4 hours feeling perfectly fine the whole time so that they could tell you you're perfectly fine (which you know they're going to tell you).
p.p.s Don't try making clever comments or jokes with the nurses because your hours of lethargically watching the news will dull your head into forgetting the key word in what you're saying. Twice.
p.p.p.s Did you know the Field Museum shipped in a giant whale (I'm assuming model..) for their exhibit? Like, it was massive. Life size. (Also, when CBS ends, Wheel of Fortune comes on. Seriously? That show's still running?)