Adventures in Anniston.

Today was another daylong stint in the wonderful city of Anniston, Alabama. Everybody was tired, as we all got less than 4 hours of sleep, but we made the trip to Anniston in one piece.

We bounced to a lot of places. After stopping into the surgeon's main building, we drove across the street to the first of several hospital buildings we visited today. The ground floor lobby was extremely large and almost looked palatial, causing everybody to pause temporarily and gaze around. After we got Shelby signed in, Steve and I wandered off to find some vending machines... caffeine was craved. After venturing to the third floor, we realized the vending area was on the ground level, which meant another trip in the elevators. (Elevators make me jittery, because they abruptly start and stop, shake and rumble while moving, and are small. I'm always afraid of getting trapped in one, and I'm mildly claustrophobic.) After getting to the ground floor, we wandered aimlessly until we finally found the vending area, only to find a poor selection. So we returned to Shelby and Mama.

What was supposed to be a 45-minute appointment for an ultrasound turned into an appointment that lasted way over an hour. We had to rush to the next place, which was the massive hospital across the street.

Upon finally finding our destination, Mama informed Steve and I that we didn't have to wait in the crowded waiting room if we didn't want to. She had found a large, open, empty lobby on the second floor we could go chill in. We left, then decided to go exploring instead.

The hospital was seven stories tall, so naturally we went to the top floor. We wandered until there was nowhere else to go, and came across a window with an awesome view. I took a few pictures of the view on my cell phone, as it was just amazing... even for someone who is generally afraid of heights. We got back into the elevator and found there was a button that would take the elevator to the roof... we hit it several times, but it did nothing. We went to the first floor instead (these were express elevators so the trip took all of fifteen seconds) and found the "tunnel," a looooooong corridor that, I think, runs underground and connects you to the main hospital across the street.

We ventured through it and popped out in some random surgery wing. Using an utility elevator and random luck, we found the main lobby. (We were on our quest for caffeine again.) We wandered into the gift shop, which had some fun items... a very steamy romance novel and a plush rat that vibrated way too hard for it to be a simple toy... then decided to try and find our way back to where Mama was.

That was probably the most fun part. As we were now across the street from the place, we had to find the tunnel again so we could safely get back to the building. We got turned around a couple of times and wound up finding where they handle all the used hospital sheets. After all that, we finally made it back to where Mama was... Steve and I laid on the floor in the corner and tried to nap.

(There's something about hospitals that'll just zap all the strength out of you. And the adventuring in it just goes to show I like wandering about and getting lost.)

After lunch, we ventured back to the surgeon's office, where we spent well on 3 hours. Steve and I were sitting on a nice couch in the waiting room, and he laid his head on my shoulder and napped for about 40 minutes. We were all getting tired, and my patience was wearing thin... a woman brought her two children and didn't bother to control them, and I was very tempted to scold them.

So yeah. We traveled back to Newnan, and I was finally able to get my sinus medication into my system. Mama is taking a nap, and Shelby is lounging about. I figure that I'll probably go catch a nap too, as I think it's too late to conjure up any worthwhile conversations on MSN.

Tomorrow I get to rest a little... I'm looking forward to it.

Although I'd love to find another large building and wander its halls aimlessly.