by john | Jan 26, 2010 | Real Life, Travel
How’s that for a title? Yesterday was, in fact, my first time setting foot inside a gynecologist’s exam room. Suzy has surgery scheduled for Tuesday and the doc wanted to consult with both of us beforehand. Well, I don’t think he really gave a shit if I was there or not, but Suzy wanted me there, so there I was. This isn’t the first time Suzy’s had surgery on her woman parts, as we tend to refer to them here in the South, but hopefully it will be the last. She’s scheduled for a hysterectomy, which we’re having done to take care of some issues she’s had with uterine fibroids for several years. Apparently there’s a certain level of discomfort that folks experience when there are benign tumors the size of baseballs and golf balls growing on random internal organs. So that, along with our decision to not have kids, has led us to this point. And not without some discussion, and some fear to boot.
It took us a while to decide that we didn’t want kids, or maybe more to realize it. We’d both always thought we wanted kids when we were growing up, and even when we were married we thought we wanted kids. But over time our priorities shifted, and there was always something more important to work on, or plan for, or enjoy, and kids moved further and further into the rear-view. so now that option is going away, and it’s not without a little twinge on both our parts, but we know it’s the right decision for both of us. At this point I think we’re too old to start, even with the trend towards older parents that I’ve noticed over recent years. But Suzy’s a few years older than me, and the risks outweigh the potential at this point, and her health is paramount, so we’re moving ahead with it. And let’s face it – I’m a selfish bastard and enjoy living my life the way I want to live it, not the way some ankle-biter requires me to. And that’s not likely to change anytime in the near (or distant) future. But I will admit that it took a little while to adjust to the finality of the decision. It’s one thing when you make the decision yourself, it’s something else entirely when heath concerns take the decision away from you.
But the gene testing we did to see if she had the breast cancer gene mutation came back negative, so we’re looking at only removing the uterus, not the ovaries as well. So hopefully that will be able to be done via laproscopy, which would be much less invasive and have a significantly shorter recovery period. If they run into too much scar tissue from a myomectomy that was performed six years ago (remember the baseballs growing on internal organs? I was serious.) then they’ll have to do a full incision and that will make things more uncomfortable. We told the doc yesterday to take a look at the ovaries while he was in there, and as long as they looked normal, to leave them alone. He seemed to really want to remove them, but had no compelling arguments other than the fact that there isn’t great screening for ovarian cancer right now. I thought we should take the chance that Suzy won’t be the one woman in 80 that develops ovarian cancer, at least as long as it meant leaving as many factory-issued parts in place as possible. But I’m a non-surgery kinda guy, I don’t even like to go to the dentist, so my biases lean toward the least possible amount of cutting and removal.
The gene test coming back negative was a huge relief, because in addition to the ovary removal, he was recommending a preventative mastectomy if the test came back positive. Now on the bright side, what 40-year-old woman wouldn’t like to have a new set of boobs? But then we get back to my preference for original factory parts, and you see the conundrum. But the test says she’s no more likely to get breast cancer than anyone else, so that’s one for the win column.
But she’ll be laid up for a week or more, and unable to lift anything significant for several more, and that’s gonna seriously crimp my style. I’ve managed to avoid housework of any type for so long that Suzy has forgotten that I even know how to load a dishwasher, much less do anything more mentally taxing. This whole convalescence could screw up a good arrangement that we’ve had going. Because the last thing I want is for her to get back to full health and then still want me to do more around the house than sit on my fat ass hogging the remote. Yeah, I wanted to be Archie Bunker when I grew up, just without the racism. I pretty much got there, too. But seriously, I’ll be taking care of her while she’s recovering, and Bonnie (my sis) is coming up next weekend to stay with us and help out, so that’ll be good. I’ll be glad to have this in the rear-view, as it were, so we can get on to our Great Southeastern Tour 2010.
Yeah, that’s coming up faster than I expected. The Southeastern Theatre Conference is in Lexington, KY this year, and since Suzy has friends in Kentucky from childhood, she’s going with me. Then after the conference ends on Saturday afternoon, we’re going to take the next week to tour through the South taking pictures, seeing sights, seeing friends and generally hanging out. Our current plan is to be in Nashville Saturday night and Sunday (Spacefolks? Wanna see you!) then over to Memphis on Monday, tour Graceland and Sun Records and go to Tunica on Monday night. Tuesday we plan to drive south through Mississippi down to New Orleans and spend a couple days there. The nice folks at Harrah’s New Orleans would like for me to donate more to the local poker economy, so they’ve invited me to spend three nights at their lovely establishment. After that we’ll loop up through Alabama and Georgia and head home, hopefully getting home in time to do some laundry Sunday and get to work Monday, two weeks after we last saw our cat. This will be by far the longest road trip we’ve ever taken together, and it should be entertaining, to say the least. Adding vacation onto the end of a work trip is something I do a lot, but typically not this much. If our marriage can survive that much togetherness in a Nissan Versa, it’ll be a true testament to love. Or proof that I married a saint. One of those.
by john | Jan 19, 2010 | Travel
I’m not surprised to find out that there are a lot of bits of sushi etiquette that I didn’t know about, but some of these I think I’ll purposefully ignore moving forward.Now I like me some sushi, but the biggest problem I run into is with rolls. There’s a joint I frequent in Atlanta called Aqua Bistro in Buckhead, and I love a roll they have on their menu called the Yummy Yummy roll. I can be found there pretty much any Monday night that I’m in the ATL, because it’s 2 for 1 roll night, and fat boy likes to eat. But the rolls that I get some places are so big, it seems like it’s impossible to get it all in my mouth in one bite without cramming my mouth full and looking like a huge boor.
Now typically I don’t care, because in many cases I am a huge boor, but I wonder why the rolls are made so huge that I have to try to bite through it, which typically leads to a huge fail on my part. So I try to eat as delicately as possible, but often end up making a huge mess. But back to the rules – some of these just don’t work for me. For one, I like dipping my rice in the soy, so I’m going to dip my rice in the soy. And if you don’t like it, deal with it. And if I’m given disposable chopsticks, I’m gonna rub them together. That’s just the deal. If I get high-tone chopsticks, I’ll trust them to be splinter-free. And sometimes I like dropping a little wasabi in my soy. Not always, depends on the mood.
But more importantly, where are there some other good sushi joints that I’m missing? In Charlotte I love New Zealand Cafe, and Rousan’s is always harmless. But I’m always looking for recommendations in Charlotte and Atlanta, since those are the cities that I eat most of my meals in.
by john | Jan 11, 2010 | Real Life, Travel
and Jebus it’s cold! By now the temp is finally above freezing, and the pipes in our office have finally thawed, after being frozen solid all weekend. It’s funny that I spent my weekend 300 miles north of here, and it was warmer in NC than down here in Georgia. Weather’s funny that way, I guess.
This weekend saw the latest episode of 30-something Sales Goofs try to Drink Like College Kids, which is never an attractive show, and leads to random people in the wrong gender restroom and a very baffled hotel front desk the next day. It was a work event, and after we all worked all day we went to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner. Without reservations. In Winston-Salem, NC. In January. To say the restaurant staff was a little overwhelmed would be an exercise in understatement. To say that the smoke emanating from the kitchen was more reminiscent of a July 4th barbeque than anything resembling fine dining would be fairly accurate. To deliver six complimentary bottles of wine as an apology for six completely screwed up steaks is a pretty good trade, especially when none of the screwed-up steaks was mine. To close down the bar at 10PM, however, was completely unfortunate.
So since we knew the bar was going to close early, we ordered a bunch of rounds of shots right before last call. So that was painful enough, but we weren’t tired enough to do the reasonable thing and go to bed for our 10AM exhibition the next day. So I, in my incredibly poor judgement, went to the hotel lobby and bought some beer. Or more to the point, bought a dozen beers. And sent more people in after me to clean out the fridge. Not a big deal, since there were still a bunch of us, and only about two beers apiece at that point. On top of all the shots. Which came on top of the wine we drank at dinner. Which of course was preceded by a few cocktails before dinner. But I think if we’d only emptied the fridge the one time, we woulda been okay.
How’s that for foreshadowing? If we’d only emptied the fridge the one time…? Right there I tell you that we did indeed return to the fridge for more beer, and did indeed empty the fridge again, and this time since our number had dwindled, the one of our number that went for the beer was smart enough to leave it outside the door to the lobby so it would stay cold. Frankly it was probably chilling faster outside than it was in the fridge, given the relative temperatures of both last weekend. So none of us had our keychain bottle openers with us, and there was only one cigarette lighter to use as an opener, so the practice of opening beers on the brick steps was put into play. That of course led to a text message the next morning saying “I cut my tongue on a beer bottle last night?” To which I responded with a “yes,” and no further explanation.
So we drank all that beer, and then the restock beer, and then it was 4:30 AM, and we were truly not looking forward to being at the show by 10AM the next morning. But the rule is, you have to answer the bell. You can do whatever stupid shit you want at night, as long as you can answer the bell the next morning. And when I reached checkout the next morning right about on time, I looked over at one of my obviously worse-for-wear compatriots from the night before, and said “Welcome to the team.”
by john | Nov 24, 2009 | Real Life, Travel
Yeah, that whole post again tomorrow bit wasn’t working out, was it? Anyway, the front pocket of my backpack is pretty packed, but it gets a lot roomier moving backwards.
The second pocket is where I carry stuff that I don’t need that often, more for emergencies. I keep a USB-Car adaptor in there in case I’m in a rental car and forgot my car charger for the iPhone (happens more often than I care to admit). I also keep a small LED flashlight and a glow stick in there. Yeah, one of those snap it and shake it glow sticks. It’s kind of a just in case thing, but when the power’s out, you need a light source, and for less than a dollar, it’s worth keeping one on hand. I also keep one in the glove box of each car and a few stashed around the house for storms. They don’t give off much light, but enough to move around by, and they don’t run out of lamp oil or have their batteries die with no use.
My portable hard drive rides in this pocket when it’s not on the desk I’m working at. I carry a 500GB external HD pretty much everywhere, because it has a super-small form factor and holds all my music, all my family photos and pretty much everything I’ve ever written. And a bunch of porn, to boot! I picked it up for less than a hundred bucks, and it lets me keep my old MacBook plugging along without jamming up the hard drive.
I also carry a point n shoot digital camera with a 1GB SD card. It’s a Kodak that I picked up at Wal-Mart a couple years ago when I couldn’t find my Canon on the way to the airport. It’s worked out fine and takes decent pictures, and I typically am not carrying my SLR camera. I use it less and less since I got the iPhone, but it does take way better photos than the phone.
I turned an Altoids tin into an office emergency kit, with a few paperclips, binder clips and safety pins in there, along with a 512MB memory stick. I took a few rubber bands and wrapped them around the outside to keep the tin closed, and used them to hold an emergency sewing kit to the outside. There’s been more than one time when it’s been VERY important to have a needle and thread on hand, and a couple of spare buttons and safety pins are worth their weight in gold.
The last thing in the front pocket is a Do Not Disturb sign I swiped from a Marriott somewhere. The worst thing in the world is getting to a hotel very late at night and realizing that this is the ONE room in the building that doesn’t have a DND sign for door. So I grabbed one from a hotel and stuck it in my bag. It’s better than writing “Bugger OFF” on a notepad and jamming it into the keycard slot, which I’ve also done in a pinch.
Other things I always have with me are a book, a couple of copies of my book (because I have no idea when someone will develop a desperate need for poetry), a CAT5 cable (preferably 10′) and a notepad. If it’s a trip of any length I also have my noise-cancelling headphones, which I paid way too much for in the Atlanta airport one trip, but have proven themselves to be more than worth the cost every time I put them on. I also keep a couple of small caribiners clipped to the outside of the bag, just in case. Just in case of what I’m never really sure, but a couple of caribiners are usually pretty handy, and they’re lightweight enough not to bother me carrying them around everywhere.
Keeping this bag packed this way lets me grab it and go without having to think about packing, which means that there is less opportunity for me to forget shit when I’m on the way out the door. Having just gotten on blood pressure medication recently, the policy of keeping a few days’ worth of drugs in my bag is more important, as I recently found out what a flaming pain in the ass it is to get a prescription moved to another state in a hurry. So now I just drop in my laptop, portable HD and phone and I’m good to go. Now that cooler weather is here, I’ve moved back into my favorite jacket in the world, which has more pockets than I can keep track of, so I’ll be moving a few things back and forth from the backpack to the jacket, and adding a few trip-specific things like digital voice recorder, business cards, etc.
by john | Aug 17, 2009 | Travel
I’m thinking about starting a new feature here involving hotel and restaurant reviews, given the amount that I’m travelling lately. Of course, the information contained herein would likely only be of use to folks travelling to Atlanta or various portions of North Carolina, but who knows, maybe somebody would find those scribbles useful. There’s certainly nothing to report on the poker front, since I haven’t played a hand of cards in weeks. I’ve got a seat at a new small buy-in tourney tonight, though, so we’ll see how that goes. This weekend might even see a return of the home game if I can make the schedule work. Summer’s tough for home games with people taking long vacations and other travel, not to mention my screwy work schedule.
So last week was spent mostly on the road. I drove to Atlanta Sunday afternoon to be there in time to do my scintillating recap of the Sunday Warm-Up for PokerStars, then was in Atlanta through Tuesday afternoon. Spent Tuesday night at home, then headed east on Wednesday morning. I went to Elizabeth City on Wednesday, then continued on to Manteo (home of the first honky child born in the US and the Lost Colony outdoor drama). From Manteo went back to Elizabeth City, then to Greenville, NC (NOT G-Vegas, dammit), then to Washington, NC (also the less interesting of two cities of the same name), then back home after a couple of meetings in Raleigh. That road trip sucked up 3 days and roughly eight or nine hundred miles. I typically stay in Marriott hotels when I travel, because I’m high on the rewards list with Marriott, and the rooms are typically harmless. I crashed in a nice Marriott in Atlanta, then a decent Fairfield in Elizabeth City.
FairField Inns are kinda hit or miss. As the entry-level hotel in the Marriott chain, the older ones are pretty dumpy, with exterior doors (a big negative on my travel requirements) and crappy beds. But some of them (like the one in Wytheville, VA) are pretty damn swank. The one in Elizabeth City was pretty nice. I sprung for the jacuzzi room upgrade, which turned into a suite, with a pair of LCD TVs and an iHome stereo rig. So I put the iPod on the stereo and settled in for a nice soak. Just what the Dr. ordered after a long day in the car.
Less impressive was the Courtyard in Greenville, NC. I’m always baffled by the fact that the Courtyard, which is designed for business travelers, is typically more expensive with fewer amenities than a Fairfield. Yes, it did have wireless internet while the Fairfield had wired internet, but that was the only upgrade. The bed was hard as a rock, and the shower head was located at about 5’5″ off the floor of the tub. I’m 6’1″, so this was an issue. I do not enjoy doing backbends in the shower in the morning. Any place with low-hanging shower heads goes on my “not again” list.
So I’ve been skewing my lodging choices to the ends of the spectrum, either hitting a full-scale Marriott, or trying to find a new or newly renovated Fairfield. The rooms (and bathrooms) in the Marriotts tend to be bigger and nicer, but the automatic inclusion of the mini-fridge in a Fairfield counts for a lot when I’m going to be in the town for several days.
Later on, we’ll talk about road food, when to explore and when to concentrate on getting something harmless that won’t have you doing unpleasant butt-clenches on the highway.
