Adam Wagner: Still The Sassy Bitch I Love

I got in last night to Joplin's airport about 9pm local time.  Congratulations, Joplin!  You officially have the tiniest airport I've ever seen.

After the stress of the past few days, a pitcher of beer was definitely called for, so Denver and Heather (a brother/sister team who are good friends of Adam's) took me out for a couple hours.  We visited one of the local divey joints, then I got taken to Joplin's gay bar, where the beer was light and the clientele... classy.  Sidebar: you can still smoke in bars here!  WTF?  While many of you may be horrified, it was a novelty for a chimney like myself.

For once, I was in bed before midnight, being exhausted after my travels.  By the way, Dallas/Fort Worth airport?  I get that you might not believe in providing wireless access to freeloadin' hippies, but I think your capitalist sensibilities can possibly allow for people buying expensive plane tickets to be able to check their goddamn e-mail between flights.  

This morning the trolley to the hospital wasn't running until 10am, but we didn't want to wait to see Adam, so we walked a few miles across Joplin to get there.  We walked through the tornado zone.  I couldn't help but compare the devastation to the kind of ruin I had seen in war-torn Iraq.

We got to the hospital and then went to the ICU, where I met Adam's parents, who had kindly arranged with the ICU staff to allow Denver and I to visit him.  

I'm happy to report that although he is drugged, loopy, and does not yet quite understand what has happened to him, Adam is not only awake but is still the man that many of us love.  For those readers of mine who don't know Adam, he is a stubborn, foulmouthed, trashtalking little man, and after we hugged he related to me that he had cussed out a nurse then told Denver some rather ribald stories of the time that Adam and I worked together in a Seattle bathhouse. 

I.  Am.  So.  Happy.

Adam is fighting off pneumonia and has some form of blood infection, but is pumped full of antibiotics and I'm incredibly hopeful.  Even more amazing?  He has zero impairment to his brain function, and it shows.  He was lively, cheerful, and happy to see his friends.

So I'm going to breathe a sigh of relief and hopefully take the rest of the weekend off from blogging.  I've spent the past four days on the phone updating everyone and their mother, it feels, and while I will continue to update his condition on the "Friends of Adam Wagner" fan page on Facebook, OAQ will once again start putting up news stories by Monday.  There's fast and reliable wireless at the hospital, so I am looking forward to getting back to work in between visiting Adam.  As far as he goes?  No news is good news, so as long as you don't hear more about him on here, he is most likely still improving.

Thank you, all of you, for your support.  You've helped me through a very dark time, and when Adam is in a condition to peruse the blog, I'm sure he will appreciate the outpouring of love and prayers for his condition.  Please, feel free to leave a message of support in the "comments" section of this post, and I will ensure he gets them.  

Kisses, and stay well.  

Ian Awesome