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I'm one quarter Neapolitan. I've seen more scooters in Naples in one week than I've ever seen in my entire life. I'm taking this as a very serious sign. Time to get a scooter -- hey, it's in 1/4 of my blood.

Well, after an unbelievably arduous 10.5 days, I am out of the hospital! And let me tell you, it was a struggle to get out of there. I was sensing that they might not release me by today, so on Wednesday/Thursday I was telling every one of my doctors/residents that I would NOT stay over the holiday weekend. There was just no way I could handle that. No way on earth. I wasn't being petulant and flippant about my condition either. On Monday, they discovered that I had re-clotted and they went in and cleared it out. It was a setback to be sure, but not a big one. I recovered from that as speedily as I did from the previous two "procedures". Things there are open now and blood's a-flowin' through.

Toward the end, they were essentially waiting for my blood anti-coagulant levels to reach a therapeutic level which it seemed to be creeping towards slowly. It's really a guessing game about the dosage of a certain medication, which even after release from the hospital needs to be adjusted anyway. Today I was super close to the level they were looking for, and that, combined with my threat of checking myself out, finally got me out of there. Oh, and by the way, on Wednesday night, I had to request my medication (the one I needed to get my anti-coag level up) because someone (one of the 5 or 6 residents on my case probably) dropped the ball and didn't order it for me. I'm glad I wanted to get out so badly, I was on top of things.

So now, I'll need to inject myself in the stomach with a hypo for a few days and take another medication (pill) for about a year (though it could end up being longer). And I can't get hurt for a year or I might bleed to death. Nice.

Thanks again to everyone for their well-wishes and support. It helped so much.

Been a long time since I've posted anything. I'm doing so now because I just wanted to thank everyone SO much for their concern, well-wishes, kind words, visits, food and reading material. It really helps to know I've got such good friends who care so much. It's meant more than you know. And of course, I'd be a wreck if it weren't for my absolutely wonderful Sarah who has watched out for me, taken care of me, and worried more than enough for the both of us.

As Sarah has said, I'm back at home, waiting (and giving myself shots of blood thinner) until I return to the hospital on Tuesday for surgery to remove my top right rib which should relieve the compression in that area and has been determined as the cause of the blood clot. Then on Thursday, I'll have the procedure to remove the clot. That second surgery is proving to be the one that's got me more nervous, since although it shouldn't be painful (as the rib removal is supposed to be), it seems more dangerous and I'll only be getting a local anasthetic for it. I'd rather not be aware during it. (I'm trying to avoid thinking about the surgeries at all). After that, some recovery and monitoring in the hospital, and if all goes well, I'm told I could be out next weekend.

The whole experience has been really odd and almost surreal, since I've never had any medical problems before and this one is nothing to sneeze at. I've been in hardly any pain, even though I was told that clots are usually very painful. I'm quite lucky then to have had it caught when it was.

I've asked for my rib as a souvenir and of course was denied. Legally, they're not allowed to give it to me, even though it's rightfully mine. Damn.

Thanks again to everyone, especially Sarah who knows I love her more than anything!

so she got me again. Sarah threw me a surprise birthday party last night. i was expecting an evening of slouching on the couch watching W.C. Fields & Jean-Paul Belmondo (not in the same movie obviously) with Sarah & Craig and a beer in each hand. instead, i was treated to a night surrounded by some of the best people on this planet, with a beer in one hand and the best bourbon i've ever had (courtesy of Pete) in the other.

Sarah set the whole thing up and Craig was her accomplice. He played deliveryman and got me there right on time, along the way showing some acting chops that would have done Sean Penn proud ("Wait, hold on... I'm feeling lightheaded. Give me a few minutes..."). i almost had a heart attack when a dark room shouted 'surprise!' at me. as someone (sorry, i can't remember who) said, this sort of thing can be dangerous when you get to this age. it took me some time to actually recover enough to say hello to everyone (you might have noticed) -- i was really pretty stunned.

it was a fantastic night all around and i want to thank everyone for making it so wonderful. especially my sweet, selfless Sarah.

a small epilogue: even with the quite respectable level of beverage intake i reached last night, i woke up today feeling better than i have any other morning of a week-long cold that began on my actual birthday.

if i needed more memory, this would be necessary:



a flash drive in tiki god's clothing.  oh my.

Maybe it was too much wine.  Maybe I need to sleep.  But I just looked out the window at a tree across the street and could swear there is snow on the lower branches.  Sure, it has the sickly orange tint of the sodium vapor streetlight glow, but it still reads as white.  And the rest of the tree is DARK BROWN.  For now I must assume someone has spray-painted white select portions of the tree.  There will have to be a thorough examination in the light of day to determine exactly what the hell is going on.  Of course, not having had my coffee, I won't be clear-headed enough to check on my way to work in the morning.

I don't understand.  I could explain it away if the street lights were white LED -- which will happen someday soon -- but they aren't.  The walk signals are, but the one in the direction of the white coloration is too far away and the coloration is constant.  Help.

So Sarah and I decided to make a date of this evening and take advantage of "Dine In Brooklyn" (the Brooklyn version of Manhattan's restaurant week) at the same time.  We ate at a place called Gia, down the street from our apartment, which opened in the last year but which we've never been to.  The food was quite good, even if the portions were a bit small (which is to be expected during these set-price-restaurant-week 3 course meal specials).  The kicker came with the check...



Beautiful.  Funny thing is, that and the glass of Prosecco are the only accurate items on the bill.

Let's start off quickly with some liquor-related fun (I'll probably be making many of my entries under its influence anyway). Do I drink too much? Nah, I just KNOW a lot about it. Yes, that's it (and I'm sticking to it).

Bacardi 151 Congratulations! You're 148 proof, with specific scores in beer (100) , wine (133), and liquor (121).

All right. No more messing around. Your knowledge of alcohol is so high that you have drinking and getting plastered down to a science. Sure, you could get wasted drinking beer, but who needs all those trips to the bathroom? You head straight for the bar and pick up that which is most efficient.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 85% on proof You scored higher than 92% on beer index You scored higher than 98% on wine index You scored higher than 97% on liquor index

Link: The Alcohol Knowledge Test written by hoppersplit on Ok Cupid

Got myself a livejournal account, for the most part because eliane 's got one, and it just seems a good way to keep up with friends, particularly since I hate using the phone and I'm pretty bad about emailing.

I figure anyone who'd be reading this knows me well enough that I don't need to bother with a bio-type entry.  Also, if you're going to learn anything about me from this journal, wouldn't it be better to learn as we go?

For now, suffice it to say that what I'm excited about most right now are the impending nuptuals with my sweet seppia.  She is absolutely the greatest thing that has ever happened to me and I'm so lucky for what we have.

Let the journaling begin...