Birthday week

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:30:28 -0500

I've definitely had worse birthday weeks. I made sure to stock this one with all the fun I could handle, and it worked out great.

In Austin, I ate and shopped and celebrated Chris and Meghan's wedding. Raeanne and I watched the whole first season of "Downton Abbey" on Netflix. We went to the usual spots but also tried new ones, such as tea at Full English (which is great and which we totally need in Atlanta), Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Gourdough's gourmet donuts. At the latter, Amy (also in town for the wedding) and I shared a donut topped with grilled strawberries and fudge icing. It was stupendous.

Really it's just nice to chill with my peeps and stuff myself with excellent food.

When I got back to town, I introduced Kyle to Chuy's after months and months of hype. I thought for sure he'd find it mediocre, but he said the chicken taco was the best he'd ever had. So, bonus.

The next day I hit up Dr. Sun again for a checkup. This time he cleared my chi by cupping my lower back. It was really odd. I had fun-looking bruises for a few days, like an octopus had hugged me really hard. But it seems to have worked so far, at least as much as traditional chiropractic ever did.

And then Kyle and I headed off to Nashville. On Friday night we caught his favorite band, Graveyard, at a little club near Vanderbilt (think classic stoner rock, a la Cream or Black Sabbath). Being olds, we were sure to get there early so we could stake out a spot in the mezzanine, which had bar stools and an unobstructed view. There's no smoking indoors in Nashville, either, so by the time the concert was over, our backs weren't sore and we didn't smell like smoke. Bonus! We felt so great that we walked the mile or so back to the hotel.

I splurged a bit on the hotel, since it was my birthday and all, and chose the Union Station. As expected, it's a former train station. It's really quite nice, great service, great food. Great location within walking distance of downtown and even Vandy. The only drawback was that our room was right next to the train tracks, so it vibrated every time a freight train rumbled past.

Saturday we froze our butts off wandering Broadway and then went to the Blackhawks-Predators game. What a fantastic organization. They had good entertainment, good video clips, great songs (their goal song is Tim McGraw's "I Like It, I Love It"). Their fans love yelling that the other team sucks (“daaaaa na na na na na hey! You suck!” to Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll, Part Two”). The team itself isn't going to break any records but played 60 straight minutes of strong hockey, which I never got at a Thrashers game. The only complaint I had was that the concessions were sort of mediocre.

It was a sold-out game because a ton of Blackhawks fans had evidently driven down from Chicago, so the house was rocking like it was a playoff game. The home team posted a solid win, much to the chagrin of the grumpy Hawks guys behind us. But everyone else was nice. It was just a great overall experience.

And then it was back on the road Sunday morning, past the many many Cracker Barrels, and back to the grind.

Photos from Austin are here and Nashville here.

Zen master

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:44:40 -0500

My trouble began with a back spasm one night in June 2005. It was the most intense pain I have felt before or since. I went to an orthopedic surgeon who diagnosed me with arthritis and sent me to physical therapy. The therapist said it was a sacroiliac joint disorder -- my sacrum, the triangular bone at the base of the spine, would tilt out of alignment and pull my right leg up shorter than the left -- and I spent a year and a half learning stretches and exercises and getting electrical stimulation treatments. I still do some of those exercises twice a day.

When I left, she told me to find an orthopedist, not a chiropractor, because the latter would try to shift everything around, but I only needed one focus: my back.

I didn't really listen. I got a chiropractor and figured it would work in the short term. Well, that was four years ago. He's great, but the prospect of monthly trips for the rest of my life was extremely daunting. So I put out a call on the EAV message board for orthopedist recommendations, and one woman gave me the name of the acupuncturist who had fixed her own SI joint disorder. I was skeptical, because I'd always heard that they were for muscles more than bones. But I figured it was worth a try.

Dr. Sun is in Buckhead, the fancy schmancy neighborhood in North Atlanta. Not an ideal location, but I'll go wherever it takes to get my back fixed.

First he put everything back where it should be and then tried a few things to get it to shift again. I was lying on my stomach on the table when he told me to press my face down, and "Bingo." That simple motion had pulled my right leg two inches shorter than the left.

He explained that tension and muscle issues in my head and neck were traveling down my spine to knock everything out of whack and that until we treated that one cause, all the corrections in the world weren't going to matter. So out came this tool that looks like a drill with a rubber nub on the end. It thumps up and down to shift bone or to "reset" muscles. And then there were the needles.

I'm not much on needles in general. I figured the acupuncture kind were so thin as to be relatively painless, but the idea still wasn't an appealing one. The first six went into my hips, and my muscles immediately released. Amazing how such a tiny thing can have such an effect. Then I got one beneath my belly button, one in each hand, one on each elbow, one in each ear and three along both sides of my jaw. Dr. Sun instructed me on breathing with my stomach rather than my chest and then left me for 20 minutes to count my breaths. "You think too much," he said. Sure, doc, no problem.

So I lay there and counted breaths and listened to the traffic outside and sneaked peeks at all the needles poking out. It was so strange and yet very relaxing.

We talked about some of the things he'd learned from his Zen master (one lesson: they don't like being disrespected and will smack you upside the head if you do, despite the stereotypes about laid-back Zen masters). There were instructions on letting go of anger and tension. I grind my teeth at night because I'm chewing on some stress in my life. I carry so much tension in my shoulders, yet a simple awareness exercise releases it. It was logical, simple, fascinating stuff.

I'm going back next week for a follow-up, and then he said most of his patients come back yearly or so. I can't imagine being able to do all the things I want without monthly chiro treatments. I'm so looking forward to it.

But first: Birthday week kicks off with a few days in Austin, introducing Kyle to Chuy's and then a weekend in Nashville for hockey yay.

Year in review

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:01:21 -0500

Yeah, it's been a while. I had nothing to report until suddenly I did and then I was too overcome to put it all into words.
I hosted a lovely Halloween party. I had already been planning to dress as a baseball player, but then the Cardinals went and won the World Series the day before, so I wore an STL hat and my 2006 World Champs t-shirt in addition to my baseball pants and high socks and eye black. Lots of folks came, many of whom I did not know. And then just as I was sick of everyone and ready to shut myself in my bedroom, they all decided to go up to the village for some concert, and it was blissfully quiet again.
Thanksgiving was me and the folks and Kyle and Dad’s new dog, Baby, a peekapoo (part Pekingese, part poodle) who is kind of ugly and pretty dumb but a real sweetheart. She snorts when she’s really excited. We fed her a ton of turkey, and she fell asleep on the couch, snoring. The cat was not as enthused.
Chuy's finally opened in Atlanta, hallelujah. Luckily/unluckily it's all the way up north at Perimeter Center, but I've already been twice and stuffed myself stupid both times and it's just like the one in Austin. I'm ready to go again any time soon.
For Christmas, Kyle gave me seasons 1 and 2 of "Footballers' Wives," this fantastically trashy British soap opera about soccer players and their wives (fictional, not reality TV). It really is the best. I watch the entire thing while grinning like a fool. In one of the first episodes, for example, one of the Wives (Chardonnay, who is what the British euphemistically call a glamour model, which is to say she poses topless), goes to her bachelorette party and hijinx ensue and her boobs catch fire.
I'll just let that sit there for a minute.
So this touches off a whole crisis about her career (see above in re: topless model) and whether her fiancee/husband, Kyle (though with her marble-mouthed accent it always sounds like "Carl"), will still love her while her mother-in-law, who lives with them, schemes to cut her out of Kyle's life while SHE is getting knocked up by Kyle's whore teammate Jason, who is ALSO sleeping with teammate Ian's wife's 16-year-old yokel sister. Spectacular stuff.
And finally -- and this is what we in the news business call burying the lede -- Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer over Christmas. So that was a tough trip. He starts chemo on Tuesday.
And now is the time for the traditional Summation of the Year That Was.
1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Went to Asia. Went to Baltimore. Used hockey skates. Watched a professional tennis tournament. Fielded a fantasy Premier League soccer team. Got a dog. Gave up a dog.
2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Even if I did, I can't think of anything I'd change right now. Spend more time with my folks, I think.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nick and Annie had baby Sadie.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope.
5. What countries did you visit?
Indonesia, with a layover in South Korea.
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Actually, 2011 had just about everything. I suppose I’ll go with the old standby of “more romance.”
7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
December 24 is when we found out about Dad.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Buying a house again.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I had to give up on a friendship, and I hate doing that.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing out of the ordinary.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
My house.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Kyle stood by me through a lot of crap. And Mom is one tough lady.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The commenters on our website. Two of my acquaintances who failed to act their age.
14. Where did most of your money go?
House, house, house.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My house. Going to the Auburn-SC football game with Kyle. Getting a puppy (:/)
16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Pitbull, "Let's Have a Real Good Time"
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    i. happier or sadder? Both.
    ii. thinner or fatter? Technically I think I weigh the same, but it all seems to have ... spread a little.
    iii. richer or poorer? Probably poorer.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Sit and just be.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Eat crap.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
At home with the folks.
21. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Kind of?
22. What was your favorite TV program?
"The Walking Dead"
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nah.
24. What was the best book you read?
Justin Cronin, "The Passage"
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Amazon MP3 downloads.
26. What did you want and get?
A house.
27. What was your favorite film of this year?
"Thor"
28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Went to brunch with Mike and Michelle at Ria’s Bluebird, lazed around, went to dinner with Kyle at Sound Table; 34.
29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
An actual boyfriend?
30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Comfortable classics (still)
31. What kept you sane?
My friends.
32. What political issue stirred you the most?
Ugh, politics.
33. Who did you miss?
Everybody, at one point or another.
34. Who was the best new person you met?
All my new EAV neighbors.
35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
You can't control what other people are going to do, so don't try. Just do your thing and let them do theirs, and if it works out, grand.
36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Whenever this world is cruel to me
I got you to help me forgive
Ooo you make me live

And then there were two

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:46:08 -0400

I gave Neville back to the beagle rescue.

It’s entirely my fault. He was a great dog -- never barked, learned “sit” in like five minutes, was doing okay on house training -- but I underestimated just how much time and energy is required with a puppy. I felt terrible having to leave him in the crate all day and all night. He deserved an owner who could spend that time and energy with him.

It sounds like a cop-out, but it would’ve been a lot easier if I’d had somebody to help out, but it was me by myself trying to train this high-energy dog, and I just couldn’t do it. I wanted to sleep in and stay out late and do my own thing again.

Luckily, the cat handled it all with aplomb. She hissed if the dog got too close, but otherwise she just went about her business. I tried to keep Nev out of the bedroom as much as possible, to keep that the cat’s safe area.

In hindsight, I should’ve gotten an old lazy dog. I still might. But not right away.

In other news, I had a big housewarming-slash-Halloween party Saturday night, the first party I’ve hosted in five years. It was a rousing success, mostly work friends but also friends-of-friends I’d never met. Lots of food and drinks. And then everybody left to party in EAV at just about the right time, as I was getting tired and cranky.

And the night before, of course, my Cardinals won the World Series! It still hasn’t quite sunk in. I gave them up for dead in August, so just making the postseason was gravy. What a crazy year.

Introducing ...

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 21:26:53 -0400

Neville Busch, born May 23, beagle.

It’s been a busy ... uh, two months? Working and some golfing and pitching in at the EAV Strut, one of the neighborhood festivals. Visits from my family and Raeanne and Amy, which meant a lot of eating and occasionally doing other things like shopping or going back to the zoo. It’s so nice to have so many visitors!

And then today I got a permanent visitor, young Neville, from the Atlanta Beagle Rescue. I’d been playing around with the idea of a dog for a while -- I do have an awesome yard for one -- and happened upon Nev’s photo on the EAV online message board. But I fretted about the cat and who would take care of him while I was gone.

Eventually I realized I couldn’t stop thinking about his little face. When I heard that someone else’s application to adopt him had fallen through, I figured it was my signal. So I filled out an app for him and for another beagle, slightly older, named Wobbles.

After they came by to play in the yard, I was sold on Neville. He was calm, sweet, playful but a little cautious around new people and new situations. And now here he is, watching football on the couch with me.

He loves the yard and the couch and anything edible. We’re still working on the last bit of potty-training. But he’s a good dog.

Grimmy is, as expected, unsure. But she’s been wandering around the house instead of hiding under the bed, which is better than I expected. Neville really wants to play with her. Hopefully they’ll reach detente at some point.