These days…

Life changes and reverts; it’s elastic like that. I finally find myself in the appropriate groove: Sleeping, Eating, Studying, Rinse and Repeat. On returning from Christmas break, I worried that I had become a dreamer (those guys never get anything done). As it were, I had in fact been suffering from a mild case of dreamer-itis but this was cured by mid-terms.

My hands find themselves hesitant towards the words that are supposed to come next. I am unsure of the best written structure of events recently transpired but here goes:

Birthdays

There have been a few birthdays this quarter. I bought one gift that unfortunately had the least meaning of any gift I think I’ve ever purchased but the circumstances account for this. Another birthday led me to a very good Korean place after which i was mildly disappointed by Watchmen. Yet another birthday, which was dignified with a small gift, engendered a lot of crap from friends of the “oooohhhhh” variety. The remainder of birthday celebrations in which I partook, thankfully, included alcoholic relaxation.

Pain

I moved into a new apartment at the end of January. Like any other self-respecting man, I prefer to do shit myself. I carried half of all my possessions (sadly this half consists entirely of books) in one trip in 3 full duffel bags and a backpack. The next morning I could not move. By nightfall of that night I managed to shuffle to my car, get to CVS, buy the strongest tylenol and back heating/cooling pads. I recalled making fun of Charles when he hurt his back and so I prayed and promised not to make fun of such pain again. Spasms are no joke. After about 1.5 weeks I was able to walk without much pain and by 2 weeks was almost 100%. Luckily, E was insistent enough about helping me move the rest of my belongings and I was prevented from being an idiot and moving them in my condition.

My grandmother was rushed to the emergency room on February 18th. She had a hernia and, being as “tough”/raw as she is simply decided to walk it off. Minor complications occurred during surgery but her convalescence is complete now.

I had an emergency appendectomy, talk about good times. Unfortunately, the clarity of this moment is striking. One Saturday night, after having some semi-decent Lebanese food with friends, after dropping off one of these friends at her house, and picking up some beer, I found myself at another friends house in mild pain. We spoke of culture and women as usual. The only unusual thing was I could not keep up with their alcoholic intake, in the 2 hours I was there I managed to finish half of a beer. I had been feeling involuntary shakes and some discomfort in my stomach during this time which I simply attributed to “new food effects”. However, when I started perspiring I decided to call it a night. The familiar 1 minute walk to my apartment took about 5 minutes as I discovered upon leaving my friend’s apartment I could only walk hunched over and in between waves of pain.

At first, the combined symptoms (sweating with 30 degree weather, stomach pain, the shaking) lead me to believe I had food poisoning. I forced myself to throw up 3 times and took to pacing in my room, trying to “walk it off”. I noticed the pain had centralized to my lower-right abdomen and from all the medical articles/books I had to read while working for FS I realized that I had appendicitis. As such, I put pressure on the problem area to relieve the pain and tried to sleep. By 3:30 a.m. I realized I could no longer withstand the pain. In desperation I called a friend, a long shot really since they were drunk, and ended up driving myself to the closest hospital.

There’s a lot more to this story but I would rather not recall the rest. The basic outline, however, is as follows: got to the hospital a little after 4 a.m.; had a misunderstanding with a security guard and the jackass at ER admissions; fell in and out of sleep (consciousness) while in triage; saw a real life doctor who took too long to diagnose me with appendicitis around 1pm; went into surgery 2 hours later; was released from the hospital late Monday afternoon; and over 1.5 months later am finally starting to feel good again.

Oh yeah, I also managed to pull out an internal stitch (I didn’t realize I had any) and get into a minor car accident within a week of getting back home.

Life.

Misc

* R came into town for the flyouts and I met with her and S one night. I couldn’t help but feel bad for them; innocently oblivious to what awaits them in the PhD and nervously excited. I convinced them to go to a friend’s birthday celebration with me just to have them get out a little while they still could. I was once in their position back in the day.

* I went to the Japanese Street Festival the other weekend which took place in the capital triangle downtown DC at the peak of Cherry Blossom bloom. So relaxing so fucking beautiful.

* I realized my Gift-Giving Rule for females is faulty; this makes complete sense since the female this is based on is certifiable.

* I became re-obsessed with Beirut (Link 1 Link 2) and Molly Marlette (only one song really).

* Just yesterday, I was “the nicest guy ever”. I was in a rush but noticed a cry for help. It was an old woman at the bus stop in a slow process of falling down. I caught her, she caught on to me and pulled the ol’ “show me compassion because I’m an old lady” card. I carried her 3 blocks (and then walked her 2 blocks downhill, she insisted she was strong enough) to her apartment. She wouldn’t let me call an ambulance for her and her husband was at work. I must admit, although i was late to my destination, I felt good having helped a stranger. It’s been a while.