"Are you really Stacey McGill--a person--or are you just 'the patient in Room 322'?" #43 Stacey's Emergency

Before I get started on this post, I have to say this: My husband saw my birthday post from yesterday and he laughed at me! Then he said, "A little egocentric, are we?" I said, "Get bent, it's my birthday, I don't care." I suppose I could have titled it something else but I didn't want to. Now, on to the good stuff.





This one starts off with Stacey sitting for Charlotte Johanssen. Stacey's doing her homework and Charlotte's reading the newspapers. She's already finished the Stoneybrook News, and now she's reading The New York Times. And pointing out all the crime and such that happens there. Stacey suggests they read a book instead and while she reads to Charlotte, her mind starts wandering and we hear Stacey's thoughts about her diabetes. She also bitches about being a "divorced kid." When Dr. Johanssen gets home, Stacey talks to her about how weird she's been feeling. Dr. J tells her to go see her diabetes specialist while she's in New York. She also tells Stacey to slow down a little. Then comes Stacey's Chapter 2, and it even takes over the first half of Chapter 3.

Stacey decides to go over to Claudia's so they can have a gabfest before the club meeting. At the meeting, she gets another job with Charlotte. The rest is probably the most uneventful meeting ever recorded in the series. Well, they get two goof calls and Mal and Jessi are playing with Cootie Catchers. I know, big whoopee. After the meeting, everyone hustles out and Stacey steals a Ring-Ding from Claudia's drawer. I can't believe no one sees it.

Stacey's home, crashed on her bed and the phone rings. It's her dad, telling Stacey about his/their plans for her upcoming weekend in the city. Going out to eat everywhere, museums, special exhibits, etc. She's not looking forward to it; she'd rather have the time to work on all the homework she's behind on, and relax. Then Dad asks where Mrs. McGill is (she's at the Pikes') and grills Stacey about being home alone and why isn't your mother there with you? Mrs. McG gets home and Stacey passes the phone off, but still listens in. First thing he says to her is, "Did you decide on a hat?" which I'll explain later (it's a WTF Moment). Mrs. McG blows him off and tells him that Stacey needs downtime instead of doing touristy things. They sort of argue about it. Stacey gets depressed listening to it and pigs out on a chocolate bar. Seriously.

Ah, sugar, I thought. I peeled back the top of the paper and, for a second, just breathed in the incredible smell of chocolate. ... Oh I had longed for the taste of chocolate again. I had not had any since the doctors first discovered I was diabetic. Claudia's Ring-Dings had tasted out of this world. When I'd eaten them, I'd felt as if I were tasting chocolate for the first time.

So I ate the entire candy bar.

Then I felt guilty.

I just couldn't win.

Stacey sits for Charlotte one more time before she leaves for her New York weekend. Charlotte's in kind of a productive mood, and she decides she wants to make fudge. Stacey tries to talk her out of it, but Char insists. She calls Becca Ramsey over and by the time Becca gets there, Charlotte's decided that they're Martian chefs and fudge is their universally-known specialty. To make a long story short (too late!), the girls make a huge mess (I love that the cover shows this!) and Stacey tells them they can continue only if they're nice, normal girls cooking in a nice, normal Connecticut kitchen. When the fudge is done baking, Stacey takes it out and starts to cut it into squares. The girls remember there's something on TV right now and they have to watch it. They scamper off, and Stacey steals some fudge and stashes it in her purse.

Since she's taking the arriving-at-6:04 train to the city, Stacey misses a BSC meeting. She's trying to study on the the trip, but falls asleep reading her French book and wastes an hour. She wakes up halfway to New York with raging thirst. Remembering there's no snack car on this train, Stacey goes into the bathroom and chugs tap water out of the dirty sink. First thing she does when she meets her dad at the station is ask him to buy her a soda. He does, and seeing her glug it down (and how tired she is), decides to cancel their dinner reservations and just get sandwiches from a deli. All night, Stacey makes trip after trip to the bathroom to drink and pee. Dad catches up to her on one trip and suggests she check her blood sugar level. She declines and goes back to bed. In the morning, he doesn't even bother with her blood sugar, just throws her in a cab and they zoom off to the hospital.

Turns out, her blood sugar is way off and they admit her, pronto. The doctors also can't figure out why she's so out-of-whack [all the candy she's been sneaking didn't help a bit] and run test after test. Mrs. McG gets there Sunday morning and Stacey apologizes about the state of her room. Mrs. McG doesn't understand what Stacey's talking about, because she's only been in the hospital one night and hasn't really had a chance to make a mess. Stacey says, "No, my bedroom at Dad's." Mrs. McG says she's not staying there, she's staying in the Cummings' apartment instead. Stacey gets pissed and doesn't get why her parents can't share an apartment. Hey Stacey? Your parents are DIVORCED, which means they don't want to be together anymore. That's why she's not staying in your room at her ex-husband's place.

Stacey's in the hospital all week, and Laine comes to see her one day. She brings electric-blue plastic tulips, a wind-up spider wearing red eyeglasses, a humongous get-well card, and news that she'd talked to the BSC, who were holding an emergency meeting, natch. That brings Stacey out of the funk she'd been in since she discovered her parents couldn't stand to be in the room with each other for longer than about three seconds.

Next weekend, Stacey's still in the hospital, and even though she'd been making her days as "normal as possible," i.e. getting dressed and doing her schoolwork, she's still feeling pretty crappy. Saturday morning rolls around, and Stacey commands a nurse to help her wash her hair in the bathroom sink because the BSC (minus Mal and Jessi--their parents said no way) was coming for a visit. The night before the gang gets there Stacey has somewhat of a setback and the doctors decide to put in an IV dripping insulin continuously. It does the job, sort of, and while the gang's there, the doctor decides to pull the IV. The BSC gets the boot pretty quick, and after hanging around the hospital for a few hours, they decide to go back to Stoneybrook.

All in all, Stacey's in the hospital for two weeks, and after she gets home, no school for another week, and she has to wait another week to do any baby-sitting. Turns out that puberty is what made her blood sugar go whacko and after they adjust the insulin level, she'll be fine. Well, as fine as she'll be for a awhile. When she and Mrs. McG get back to Stoneybrook, they find a banner stretched across their front door that reads, "We're glad you're home, Stacey!" Say it with me: Awww.

Subplot: Charlotte Johanssen, Stacey's favorite kid and "almost-sister," is pretty worked up about Stacey being in the hospital. She pulls some major hypochondria until she hears the news that Stacey's being freed from the joint. Charlotte's maladies: sore throat, stomachache, headache, earache, a pinched nerve in her spine, an ulcer, diabetes, anemia, Lyme disease, arthritis, a kidney problem, and strep throat. Insert miraculous recovery here.

WTF Moments:

*In Stacey's description of Claudia, she says she wonders why Janine just doesn't go to college already and leave Claudia alone. When I read that I was like, whaa? I always thought Janine tried to be pretty sisterly and Claudia just didn't care enough to be friends with her.

*Ok, the Mrs. Pike's hat situation. Stacey told her dad that Mrs. McG went to Mrs. Pike's to give some advice about Mrs. P's new dress. Like picking out a hat or something.

... Dad greeted her with, "Did you pick out a hat? He thought he was being cagey. If Mom didn't know what he was talking about, then Dad could assume she'd been out somewhere with Wonder Date.
"A hat?" Mom repeated. "For Mrs. Pike? Yes. Why?"

So Mrs. McG calls her friend "Mrs. Pike"? Not by her first name, Dee?


*When Stacey gets admitted to the hospital Saturday morning, Mr. McGill doesn't call Mrs. McGill until late Saturday afternoon. Hey, Mr. McG, that shoulda been like your first phone call.


*The BSC taking the train to New York City by themselves. THEY'RE THIRTEEN! They should not be by themselves!!!! I don't care who you are!

*Stacey didn't admit to her mother about all the candy she gorged on until after she was back home in Stoneybrook. Like, not a peep to the doctors or anything.

Continuity Issues:

*Mary Anne remembering her mother. Some books say she doesn't remember her mother at all, some books say Mary Anne barely remembers her. This one is a "barely remembers" book. If Mary Anne's mother died when Mary Anne was less than a year old, she won't remember. She never remembered about her maternal grandparents, who raised her until she was 18 months old.

*Stacey's description of Dawn: "She's really into exercising." She is? The only book I remember that being in was Super Special #4, Claud and Dawn Get Shipwrecked. Dawn is all about healthy food and the environment, but I don't recall her being all that gung-ho about exercising.

*HUMONGOUS continuity issue!! Stacey says the older members are thirteen and in SEVENTH grade! Not my count, sister. You've been through eighth grade at least three times, why go back to seventh gr-----Wait, this might be the answer to all of our questions of how many times they went through eighth grade! owefnxtboswn;sduio Sorry, my brain just exploded.

Other notable:

*I think this book is one of the few episodes that actually say "puberty" and "urine." I know, I just turned 10.


This one was pretty boring, really. Absolutely zero outfits, and the majority of this book took place in the hospital. Next up: Jessi's Horrible Prank. Another reason to rank on Jessi.