Nosebleeds and me

I sat with my back to the cubical opening, hunched over a wastebasket, for several minutes yesterday while my nose dripped brilliant red magnolias of blood onto a paper towel in the office wastebasket. I had tried pressing the nose shut to no avail. Thoughts of brain tumors, ebola virus, pranks I could play, etc scampered through the attic of my reveries while i watched the truly beautiful red life fluid drip onto the white paper. It seemed to go on forever, but only lasted about 4 minutes.

Nosebleeds are not a common thing with me. I could only vaguely remember that I had one before, but couldn't remember when or where.

Earlier in the day, I had dropped Sam off at his bus stop. The other kids milled around, and at first he wanted me to drop him off half a block from the stop. I said "You don't want your friends to see me and this minivan, eh?" and he sighed and indicated I should move up to the actual stop. He turned to speak out the window to a pal just as I sensed something damp on my nose. Touching it, my hand came away covered in blood. As the young highschool students watched with the innocent horror of reebok antelopes watching one of their own be devoured by a lioness, I wiped tissue after tissue full of blood from the gore faucet of my nose.

After the office episode, while I imagined variations on sympathy and disgust playing over my coworkers faces, and imagined asking for the guards to administer some kind of first aid, I finally called the doctor.

I used my lunch break to duck in and confirm it was nothing serious. My doctor forced himself to give the standard warning: " I know this isn't too dignified, but it's really important to keep your fingers out of your nose."

A teaspoon of mortality painted in the wastebin does wonders to make you appreciate the good things in your life.