I stopped by the chapel at the hospital. Every hospital has a chapel, right? This one did, but it wasn't a chapel really. It was a temple. Right out of Fiddler on the Roof. Complete with scrolls, and the ten commandment shaped carved box behind the altar. And the bible study advertisement said to bring your own Torah. Wow. I was a little nervous that the staff Rabbi was going to see me in there. There's something a little strange about crossing yourself in a Jewish temple. Then I saw the sign outside the door advertising roman catholic masses in the chapel three times a week.

So, the saga of finding the hospital. I decided to do a test drive last night, first of all because I'm staying 45 minutes south of the place, and secondly because I couldn't get ahold of Stacey to find out if she'd checked in before the surgery or not. So we looked on the map, and there it was -- very simple, right between three intersecting highways, in what looked like a four block square section of town. OH no. That would be too easy. I took the exit that I was told to, and wound up in the ghetto. L.A. ghetto is no laughing matter. So I started driving like a crazy woman until I wound up a mile north in some very expensive houses. I stopped a well dressed man walking three rediculously pampered dogs and asked directions to the hospital. It was two miles away. In Beverly Hills. I knew I was getting close by the kosher Thai restaurants on the corner. I finally found the hospital, 2 and a half hours later, but at least I wasn't lost this morning trying to get here at the crack of dawn.

Did I mention I'm thinking of getting my cat a kitten?

I'm in L.A. this weekend. A friend of mine was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and went in for surgery this morning. She made it through alright, and will spend a week in the hospital recovering. After that she'll be doing some rather nasty bits of chemotherapy, but they seem to think that even though the tumors were big, they caught it before it had time to spread elsewhere. I was at the hospital at just before 7am this morning, and there until noon. People need to write longer books. I finished my new one in 2 hours. Should have brought along Harry Potter. I'm going to be in L.A. until tuesday-ish, visiting Stacey in the hospital, and then I hope to come back down once a week or so to visit. Sucks to have one's life put on hold like that. She's only 34.