BI Hilton by the women on the street reporter

The whole family arrived at the BI Hilton at 5:45am. Mimita came in looking composed and smiling in his sweatpants and T-shirt. In typical BI fashion where things go like clockwork by 6:45 Mima was going to the much awaited surgery. The fact that the surgeon came to meet and reassure everyone by 8:00 always works like magic and again, even if scared, there is comfort in knowing that our Mima is in the best hands. Promptly at 10:30 the Drs. (yes, including the handsome one who does not look as handsome in his surgeon gown) came in to explain that they had done "everything they set out to accomplish". By 2:00 Mimita was back in the room looking very handsome: good color, a smile and even tried to keep up with the conversation. Nothing like having a conversation with Mima on drugs! He could be leaving the hospital as early as tomorrow or the next day.

As I try to describe the scene at the waiting room I will need to go to Tolstoy for guidance. He said, "All happy families are alike; each dysfunctional family is dysfunctional in its own way." For the purists, yes, I am paraphrasing. We got through the day with a heavy dosage of humor and with my younger brother playing at times interference and at others, Dennis the Menace. I am forever indebted to him and may need to do his windows for quite some time. Paul wins the award for the most cool, collected and diplomatic person. It turns out Paul speaks Spanish better than anyone knew and when speaking in English he speaks so slowly and pronounces so well that my mother understands him perfectly. He won over my mother which is no easy task.

We all muddled through as best we could and if we keep this up, we might actually make it to Friday.