Month: October 2023

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personal

A Week of Birthdays, Pt 1: Pour House

An open book exam

While I didn’t have the best time around Columbus Circle the other day, got a chance for a do-over with the help of the NFL Player.

He invited me and my buddy Thor over for dinner at the Pour House, some place I’ve always wanted to go but never had the chance to.

I headed there after a full day of work.

Greeter: You’re the first one here. Would you like to sit at the bar?
Me: It’s good to be first, and sure.

After a bit, my buddy Thor rolled up. He’s recovering for some surgery himself; it seems the be the destiny of aging athletes.

Not soon afterward, the birthday boy came in and we all went to get settled. Turns out that he eats there regularly and the Maitre’d got us a central table with each seat having a copy of Tom Holland’s Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age. That was a nice touch.

Me: Will there be a test? Is it open book?
Him: It’ll be multiple choice.
Me: But will it be open book?!

That’s one of my favorite bottles of rum.

Thor and I sat together but the fella on my right was one of the producers of Oppenheimer and Thor, who’s in film himself, wanted to speak to him.

Me: Let’s switch seats.
Thor: You sure?
Me: (getting up) Yeah, you talk shop. It’s fine.

Ended up chatting with the fella next to me, who was a football player at Yale and ran a real estate company. He was acquaintances with the fella that got killed by a career criminal last week.

Him: The killer had 66 prior arrests!
Me: That’s insane. (shaking head) I’m so sorry.
Him: He just had a kid too.

Thor and I are both in 8/16 intermittent fasting, which means that we eat for eight hours and fast for 16 – well, most days, anywho.

But the fella I was chatting with was on 2/22 IF, which means that he eats for TWO hours and fasts for 22.

Me: Jeez-louise, how does that work?
Him: It’s not terrible but I have to eat a lot during those 1.5-2 hours.

He ordered two appetizers – bone marrow and the steak tartar – which made sense considering he ate nuthin else all day.

Thor and I ordered the creamed spinach with bacon but the waiter told us we should share since one was probably enough for the two of us. We took his advice.

We should not have.

Thor: We need another one of these.
Me: At least!

But it was too late. The main course had arrived so we dug into that and chatted up everyone else.

We were out for a while but then dessert came, and it was a mountain of stuff.

Him: Are you having any?
Me: Looks that way. We’re in it.

Both Thor and I weren’t planning on having any, but we ate and drank enough that our defenses were down – which should be the theme for the next several entries, for reasons I’m sure you’ll figure out.

Waiter: Do you want some coffee?
Me: Yes, decaf please, with cream.
NFL Player: Oh no, never with cream.
Guest: Did he ever tell you why he never has cream in his coffee?
Me: No, but I’m assuming that he’s gonna do it now.

And he did.

Afterward, Thor and I walked back to my pad from the place because it was a beautiful night.

Him: Nice group of people – and it was great finally meeting his wife.
Me: Yeah, she’s great. They all are, really.
Him: If there’s anything [our old coach did], he did get us all together.
Me: I suppose.

Location: early today, waking up with another hangover from a night out with my college buddies
Mood: pretty fat
Music: not saying that I am a saint I just don’t want to live that way (Spotify)

Categories
personal

Bone Spurs up the Wazoo

5 Columbus Circle

After I saw the musical with the Firecracker, we had this talk.

Her: Do you ever want to start new somewhere, Lo? Like sell this apartment and move someplace completely new.
Me: (thinking) Sometimes. But I can’t because of the kid.
Her: But you’re always running into old ghosts.
Me: I am. But sometimes – most times, really – it’s nice. Visiting my possible pasts.


Almost exactly 11 years ago, I went to an office at 5 Columbus Circle, where I met a doctor and asked him if he was a betting man.

It wasn’t my first time in that building.

But it also wasn’t my last because when I met that doc, he and I weren’t sure if I tore my ACL. During my second visit, he confirmed I did.

Went there a few more times for the ACL and then didn’t go for years.

That is, until about 2013 – I’d stopped writing the blog then because Alison and I kept losing pregnancies – when I’d gone there with Alison to see another doc for fertility issues.

That was harder than for the ACL.

And then I went there again for another specialist when Alison got sick, a couple of years after that.

Those days were the hardest of my life. Still are.

This time around, the Firecracker was concerned because my fingers have been so messed up – I can barely type some days – that she insisted that I get them checked out.

Didn’t realize where I was going until I arrived.

So, I stood outside for a few minutes, just to regain my composure and went up.

This time, not only was I in the same building again, I was in the same office – but with a different doc.

Long story short, the new doc came out, took one look at my x-rays, and whistled.

Me: So, what’s the prognosis, doc?
Him: Well, you’ve got bone spurs up the wazoo!
Me: (amused) Is that the medical term?
Him: (laughing) Not exactly…but, yeah.

He pulled up a normal looking hand and then my hand and pointed out all the differences.

Him: Now, this is what a normal hand looks like. (switches screens) This is yours. You see that there’s essentially no gap here, here, here, here…actually, just let me show you where there is a gap…
Me: OK, what am I looking at?
Him: Well, those gaps are cartilige. You’re supposed to have them between your joints. And you…don’t. And these things here (pointing at mini-horns on my fingers) these are what bone spurs are. You’ve got them everywhere. Do you know how this all happened?
Me: (sighing) Yeah, I do. A lifetime of poor life choices.

Left the doctor’s office with my head swirling.

He said that there was nuthin to do and it would only get worse as the years went on.

Him: When the pain becomes too much, we can talk about surgery. But until then, just try to wrap it often and take it easy.

What’s promised me is a future of mild-to-worsening pain.

But I suppose that’s better than the alternative.

In any case, I still think that – most times – visiting my possible pasts is a good thing.

Not always, though. Not always.

Location: early today, waking up with a hangover from a night out with the NFL Player
Mood: hard to say
Music: Acting out our old parts, let’s perform our favourite little scene (Spotify)

Categories
personal

Living on the island

It was a huge day

The Frenchman and my friends around the way met up the other day for tacos and beers near my pad, along with the Firecracker.

Not soon afterward, we all went to the ABFF’s for dinner as well.

That’s the thing about living in Manhattan; everyone who lives here is generally pretty willing to meet up anywhere on the island for a last minute something.

Back when Alison got sick, I did a pretty deep dive into medicinal mushrooms, particularly things like Turkey Tail for anti-cancer properties.

But I also discovered that lots of culinary mushrooms have pretty impressive health benefits as well so the past year or so, I’ve been growing all types of mushrooms in the pad.

My fave is probably Lion’s Mane as it has a taste and texture similar to seafood – which you know I love – and cooks very easily.

But it’s not the easiest one to grow.

In any case, I had to stop because it turns out that fruit flies love mushrooms as well so it was a constant fight keeping them at bay.

It’s a shame – it was nice having a constant supply of fresh mushrooms to eat.

Her: (cooking) Do you have any mushrooms?
Me: Shoot I’m out.
Her: You’re out!?
Me: Yeah, I’m as surprised as you are.

Today was a huge day for me, professionally, for a number of various reasons.

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you anything about it but…yeah, it was huge.

Her: I think it would take me 20 weeks to do what you did in two.
Me: It doesn’t happen very often but it’s pretty cool when it does.

Maybe I’ll tell you about it someday.

Location: reading legal papers at my dining room table with a young woman who signed everything
Mood: pleasantly surprised
Music: just need a moment to get back down (Spotify)

Categories
personal

Everyone needs a magic drawer

My kinda weekend

The kid and I had quite the weekend.

On Friday, he went to watch The Super Mario Brothers movie with his school – we originally didn’t have tickets but one of his friend’s mom’s, Debbie, had a spare ticket for us.

Me: AWESOME! What’s your venmo?
Her: No, don’t worry about it.
Me: You’re the worst. (laughing) But seriously, thank you so much.

Now, I was supposed to host a birthday party for Pac at Solas but NYC got the most rain it’s ever had so I had to cancel just so I could watch my basement and make sure it didn’t flood.

We had some water come in but nothing serious – a far cry from what had happened previously.

Still, I wasn’t taking any chances so I just spent the entire night watching my pipes and basement like a hawk.

The next day, the Firecracker brought her kid and mine to the Transit Museum in the morning so I could catch up on some work.

Later on that evening, we all went to the Surgeon’s pad – but the Surgeon was in Chicago so we just hung out with his wife and their two kids.

Her: Mexican? Rice and beans never disappoint 😊
Me: OK! The kid loves putting together tacos and such – basically, everything spread out and everyone puts on what they like.

So that’s what we ended up doing.

Because it was just us three adults, we spent the night just chatting, stuffing ourselves silly with tacos, and drinking everything they had.

Her: Just help yourself to anything in the [alcohol] drawer.
Firecracker: (looking at it) This is a magic drawer!
Me: Can we open the prosecco?
Her: Yes! That thing takes up so much room, enjoy it.
Me: Done!

Just between the Firecracker and me, we had:

        • An entire bottle of prosecco
        • Three 20oz cans of beer
        • Three cans of hard kombucha

We got to know the Surgeon’s wife better; she’s a professional musician and I found out that she toured with an artist that both the Firecracker and I liked.

Me: You toured with Bright Eyes!? That’s so cool.
Her: Yup! I’m actually in one of his music videos (pulls it up)
Me: That’s wild!My fave song from him is I Believe in Symmetry.
Her: You know him? That’s so great!
Firecracker: Of course! I listened to him in my emo days.

Despite the copious amounts of alcohol, we all had, we were only lightly buzzed by the time we wrapped up – which is good because several stations on our line were still closed because of the flooding.

Then, the next day, the kid went to an indoor playground in LIC with his sitter while I worked, and then I made lamb for everyone for dinner.

It was a pretty quiet weekend where the kid had a grand time, even despite all the rain – exactly what I wanted.

Massive flooding notwithstanding.

Location: a playground bench with the two boys watching Marcus Samuelsson play with his kid.
Mood: busy
Music: On silver stars I wish and wish and wish (Spotify)