i made it to mass general hospital by 9:20am. the ultrasound was at yawkey 6. i checked in, showed the receptionist my id, as she printed out a bracelet and taped it around my wrist. a digital bulletin board behind the reception desk showed that the ultrasounds were running a few minutes late. the waiting room was crowded but i could still find a seat. i sat facing the entrance, mesmerized by the view of boston beacon hill right out the glass wall.
a nurse came in and brought me to one of the exam rooms, where i met a doctor. the nurse did all the work, while the doctor just sat behind a curtain. i asked if i should disrobe, but the nurse told me i could just roll up my t-shirt as i laid down on top of an examining bed. dimming the lights (to better see the image on the ultrasound monitor), she squirted some warm petroleum jelly on my stomach and went to work with her ultrasound wand. she kept repeating, "breathe in. hold. breathe out," so i would inflate my organs for better imagining. first i laid on my back, then she asked me to turn around on my side so my back was to her. finally, she told me to turn around on my other side so i was facing her. the ultrasound beeped every time she took a photo, while at the same time she typed one-handed the name of the image. liver. kidneys. gallbladder. pancreas. all the major and minor organs. when she finished, she asked the doctor to check the images. a few needed to be retaken, which the doctor did. she had a thick accent, and i had a hard time understanding her even though she was just asking me to breathe in and out.
when they finished, i unceremoniously cleaned the jelly from my body with a towel that already had some jelly on it before rolling down my t-shirt. that wasn't the extent of my hospital fun, as i still had to get some lab work done as a followup to my annual physical a month ago. instead of leaving the building, i took the skywalk to the main hospital then up the stairs to wang 2. i've never had lab work done here before, and sort of regret not going to my usual place on wang 5. once again i found myself in another waiting room. this one was a little more depressing, with no view other than a ceiling mounted tv showing an episode of steve harvey.
when my name was finally called, it was a russian woman who didn't seem all that friendly or chatty. her first name was evgenia, same as the figureskater (medvedeva), but i didn't say anything. she used a butterfly needle, which i thought was for children or people overly sensitive to needles, of which i'm neither. i didn't look where she punctured me though, not that i'd get queasy, but it would be unpleasant. evgenia drew 5 test tubes of blood which she put on a tube rocker before sticking on the labels. after she finished, she tied me off with some gauze and pink bandage. i went to the waiting room before getting dressed and finally leaving MGH.
by that point it was 10:45am, still early. i wonder if sandy had left work or whether she was still home. i biked to haymarket, which was a short ways away. 
there was already a little drizzle but the sky was still bright so i was hoping it'd pass. i was in search of ugly fruit oranges (actually gold nuggets) for my mother, but they didn't have any. in fact, i haven't seen gold nuggets in the super markets either, although new this season are the sumo oranges, which look and taste similar but bigger in size. i ended up getting: a sleeve of garlic ($1), 2 scallions ($1), a bunch of cilantro ($1), box of sweet clementines ($4), box of black mission figs ($3), 6 plums ($2), 6 persimmons ($3), and a small papaya ($1).
originally i was going to go home, but decided to stop by the cafe first to drop off some produce. i ended up having lunch there, even though my original plan was to visit the chicken and rice food truck in at the harvard science center (i found out recently they're there every friday).
returning home, i saw a dog walker letting her dog trample all over the new perennial shoots emerging from the front yard. i went in the basement and got out the wire fencing to screen the garden area. during that time i also saw wild turkeys walking on my street. i've seen turkeys elsewhere but this was the first time seeing them here, expanding their territory. afterwards i went to rite aid to pick up my valsartan prescription. once again there was zero copayment so i think it's definitely something new with my health insurance.
i realized my oneplus one phone was missing and located as still at the cafe. by then it had started to drizzle a bit, but i couldn't wait until tomorrow so i got the bike and returned to the cafe to pick it up. i returned home slightly damp but at least i got my phone back.