The awesome weekend

Tuesday 06.10.2008 12:16AM

Now that summer is here and LOST is over, Thursday nights are freer for me and most of my friends. Instead of our usual viewing party, we made plans to hang out downtown. We went to Mo'Joes coffeehouse to get our caffeination, then walked along the canal while looking really cool – like we're in some TV show.

I was a bit concerned about being thrown into the canal. See, most of us enjoy using Twitter, but Lauren has always strongly resisted joining. For kicks, Ian and I conspired to set up an account for her and post Lauren-y things on it. When she found out, she was quite “upset” and said that I would be going for a swim in the canal. Thankfully, her bark was worse than her bite, at least in this instance. I did not go for a swim, but we had to at least pose a shot.

Ironically, she has actually started to use the Twitter account.

Then we took some self-timer, family vacation shots that turned out quite well.

Shane (the guy in the white shirt) we met at the last Indianapolis TweetUp and this was his first time hanging out with us. He seems like a cool guy, and I do not think we scared him too much, so he might come to future shindigs. The night ended up being its own TweetUp of sorts, since everyone there is on Twitter. There just were not as many laptops or geeky conversations about “social media.” :-]

On Friday the plan was to go see Grease at the IMA. They have summer film nights outside in their amphitheater, letting you bring in your own food and drinks, so it is quite fun. Unfortunately, the weather looked like it definitely was not going to cooperate, so I voted we watch the DVD instead. It probably comes as a shock to most, but Doug, Isha, and I had not seen Grease before. We all enjoyed it quite a bit. Then for our second feature we watched Kung Pow: Enter the Fist accompanied by copious amounts of laughter.

After we had exhausted the entertainment of the movies, the YouTubes, shown some leg, and re-enacted Mango from SNL, we decided to go to Denny's. I rode in the back, with the ladies.

Saturday rolled around, and by then my body was starting to get tired from all the activity. Well, and staying up late at Denny's. And that I'm just getting old. Anyway. Saturday evening the plan was to go to Tibbs Drive-In to see Kung Fu Panda and Iron Man. Thankfully the weather cooperated this time. We met another new person, Jeremiah's friend Asim or “Awesome”, if you so desire to pronounce it that way.

At this point, this post is getting quite long, and words don't quite do it all justice. About 500 photos were taken by various people, of which I have included a few favorites here. This was definitely one of the best weekends of the year so far, and Sunday was definitely a day of doing nothing, to recuperate.

Somewhere amidst all that, I got a date next Friday. Then Saturday is Death Cab for Cutie, which I'm quite excited to finally see for the first time. So yeah, next weekend should be awesome as well.

Tagged: life / friends / twitter
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The First Year

Friday 05.23.2008 04:21AM

It has been an interesting month or so, with the anniversary of my heart incident on my mind. It feels weird – difficult to put into words. Not a “bad” feeling, mostly introspection and reminiscing, gratitude and celebration. When it comes down to it, I can be a sentimental sap, and this is certainly an instance.

It was the evening of May 12, 2007 that it happened. May 16 I started to come out of my coma. May 23 I had the pacemaker/defibrillator put in, and May 24 I was released from the hospital. Just a year later, most of that recovery time seems a blur and I wish I remembered more specifics. Thanks to the forum Doug set up, I am able to refresh my memory on several things. Reading it often makes me tear up. I do not want to forget that time when I really realized what was going on, how blessed I felt to be alive, and the feeling of the outpouring of love from everyone.

I was watching Lars and the Real Girl last week (which is a really good movie that I recommend). There's a scene that when a crisis hits, a few older ladies come to the house, bring food, sit and knit. Lars feels a bit awkward, unsure of what he should be doing...

Lars: Um, is there something I should be doing right now?
Lady 1: No, dear. You eat.
Lady 2: We came over to sit.
Lady 3: That's what people do when tragedy strikes.
Lady 2: They come over, and sit.

Those few simple lines of dialogue brought tears to my eyes because it struck me that is exactly what my friends had done for me. I just re-read a forum post where Ron said, “our friend is in trouble, and if we can't sit with him, then we can sit near him.” They did just that, waiting in the lobby together, and holding prayer vigils. It's all just very humbling.

I remember Ron's birthday party that he organized last summer, which turned out to really be a party in my honor; Sheryl's “Wake Up” mix CDs that I listened to in the hospital; the angel that Sarah sent me (it still sits right by my monitor on my desk); Allison visiting, laughing a lot, and freaking out my mom; the LOST season finale party in my hospital room; Tara, the nurse that I never met but that my friends will always tell me is “super cute” and that I should go for her since I squeezed her hand when I was unconscious.

I would enjoy hearing some of the things you remember.

Tagged: life
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Late Night Thoughts

Wednesday 05.07.2008 02:42AM

I should write a blog post, eh?

I keep thinking that, but have not made the time to do it. That usually makes me think about the busyness of life and how I have not been doing well at balance, as far as being productive with my time. It is easy to let the free time slide, especially now that Spring is here and there is plenty of fun to be had. I am not too hard on myself about it, but have been breaking my to-do list into easier, discrete tasks and using rememberthemilk.com to keep on top of them.

I have not done the “No Screen Night” consistently, unfortunately. The other week I really needed it though, so disconnected for a night. Nothing interesting to report there, except that I got several things done and it was relaxing.

For some reason, I have never really jotted notes or drafts for blog posts. I should probably do that more often, then I would have more frequent posts – and of a better quality than this one.

Changes. It was back in February that I started to decrease the dosage on my anti-spasmodic prescription, and as of April 22 I am off it entirely. I have had no symptoms or side-effects during that time or since stopping entirely, so that's good. Since they do not know how my body might react after being on the medicine for about a year, I'm not supposed to drive for several months (seizure risk while driving).

My California plans are most likely on hold for a little while longer. I need to finish my degree, which unfortunately means enrolling as a returning student and putting me under a different course bulletin than I was before. It has not changed a lot and all of my courses will apply, but I will probably have to take two or three more classes instead of one. I'm ok with it, I guess. I'm not as concerned about the “safety net” of having the degree as I am just accomplishing it. Plus, I get to be around my Midwest friends a bit longer; leaving was never going to be easy.

I voted for Ron Paul today in the Indiana primary. I never got around to writing more in-depth about him and why I support him, unfortunately. Maybe I'll write something later, in retrospect (or not, since that will fall in my to-do list and disappear :). I know McCain has the nomination sealed up, but it's just a primary and Paul is still on the ballot. It was symbolic support for the message, which I always thought was more important than his chances at the nomination / Presidency.

I am excited to see that Mary Ruwart recently announced she's seeking the Libertarian Party nomination. She's the author of the book I have been reading, Healing our World in an Age of Aggression. Every article I have read (and her book) has been principled, consistent, and articulately deals with issues of liberty. She has a long history as a liberty activist and knows her stuff; I'm really hoping she gets the nomination.

And now it's quite late. Stream of consciousness over.

Tagged: general / life / health / politics
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Health update

Thursday 03.06.2008 12:57AM

Overall: alive.

++ In January I had another echocardiogram, this time with an exercise stress test. I have not been exercising much over the winter, so I was out of shape and the treadmill wiped me out. The result was “normal”, which means an ejection fraction of about 55-60%. When I initially left the hospital it was 20-25%, a month later it was 40-45% – so this is very good news, meaning my heart is recovering and working well.

++ The other week I met with my neurologist. The results of my EEG were normal, which I guess means I still have something like a brain up there. I have been on an anti-spasmodic prescription because I did have a seizure during the event. Since the EEG looks good, I have no prior history of seizures, and it's been 8 months, they're starting to slowly take me off of that. As long as I'm responding well and there are no problems in April, they will take me off it completely. She did advise me to be more careful about driving distances, and if I notice any symptoms, including staring - like zoning out for a bit. These aren't very likely, but are possible, so let me know if you see me zone out. :)

-- I have shingles on the left side of my face. I had a bit of lymph node pain the middle of last week and started to notice a small blotch on my cheek on Friday, but did not think much of it until over the weekend I realized it was a rash of some sort. I should have gone to immediate care on Saturday, but oh well. I went to my doctor on Monday and they got me on some Valtrex (yeah, har har. Shingles is in the herpes virus family). Thankfully, there hasn't been a lot of pain associated with it so far and hopefully it will clear up soon. There is a bit of reaction on my eardrum. There is a risk of Bell's palsy if that were infected, but currently it's looking good, so that should not be a problem. If sharp ear pain develops, I'll see the ear doctor again and we'll go from there.

-- Most likely I got shingles because my immune system was weakened about a month ago by the flu, which hit me for about 5 days despite the vaccination (aside: I've heard this round of vaccination has a rather poor 40% rate of effectiveness).

So yeah, that's the health update. Overall, pretty good, but the last month or two, not so great with the flu and shingles. I think my body has just decided to get all the typically “older” health issues over with now, so when I'm 40+ I can be fit as a fiddle and not worry about them. :)

It is pretty crazy how many medicines I'm on at this age.

Tagged: life / health
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Happy 303

Monday 03.03.2008 06:31PM

Back in the good 'ole days, this was a closely guarded secret. Now, in the good new days, it's not so much. Let's just say that... security was breached. It is still fun, though, and thus I share:

Circa mid-nineties, when I was in high school, my friends Tim and Andrew (I believe; correct me if I'm wrong) were responsible for coining the phrase “303.” It was clever because saying “303” among your friends drew less attention and was easier than saying “Wow!” when some hottie came by. It was cool (well, okay, to us *) because it was derived by holding your hands with your thumbs touching and your index fingers touching. It kind of looks like “wow”; 3 fingers on your left hand, an O in the middle, and then 3 fingers on your right hand. Thus, 303. It was even cooler* because it worked by addition, too. 2 pretty girls? 606. 3? 909. Ad infinitum.

So yes, we were known to toss around “303” or occasionally make the hand sign when appropriate.

Years later, after the secret was leaked and the female populace became familiar with it (via The Mothership; that's another post entirely), there was a surprise party that I was planning and I did not even realize it fell on 3/03. Sheryl, Lindsay, and Ronda did, though, and made a “Happy 3/03” cake, which was pretty awesome. I might have pictures of it around here, somewhere.

So, that's the summary of “303”, and why March 3rd is 1000 times better than Valentine's Day.

Happy 3/03!

The sign. Did it open up your eyes? Yes, I framed it this way on purpose.

* and to those who aspired to be as cool as us. what!? we weren't socially awkward at all!

Tagged: general / life / holidays
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