yet another trip to the Emergency Room

One of the great pleasures of my job is working with interns. I've been really lucky, and have worked with some truly creative artists. My current intern, Erin is a particular delight. She's bright, talented, funny, and has seemingly boundless good spirits.

Erin has taken to life in California like the proverbial fish to water. She has been exploring San Francisco's art galleries, taking weekend trips to Los Angeles, expanding her culinary horizons, and riding her new bike all over the place. (She timed one bike trip so that she could be in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge in time for the sunset.)

And this morning, she was hit by a car, while biking to work.

She was riding along on a main street, and a man coasted through his stop sign and drove right into her. Erin was thrown to the ground, and got pretty banged up. She must have charmed the police officer who made the report (and ticketed the man who hit her), because he tossed her bike and helmet in the trunk of his cruiser and accompanied Erin's ambulance to the hospital. I arrived at the hospital about the time that Erin did, retrieved her bike from the police officer, and then met her in the examination room.

I'm unwittingly becoming quite the little expert on the emergency rooms of the East Bay, and I have to say that Alta Bates did a very nice job. Erin was quickly examined, cleaned up, and sent on her way. She was very lucky, and is home now, nursing her scrapes, and watching her bruises turn interesting colors. I know she's going to be one sore girlie tomorrow.

I'm not sure which I found more charming, the fact that when I met her in the examination room, Erin was wearing a hospital gown and paint-covered legs. Or while she was wincing through the cleaning of her wounds, she kept assuring the nurse that she wasn't making a horrible face because she disliked him.

So, if anyone has any extra healing energy to send out, you couldn't send it to a sweeter intern than Erin.