The Best Ideas Ever

The following are two of the best ideas ever. One of these ideas is currently in action, the other one is not but I am not sure how to institute it.

Grilled Cheese 24/7- So Saturday after going out we walked back to our neighborhood and as always is the case at 2:30 in the morning we were hungry. In Boston there would be no options, in DC we have tons, but the best option was Grilled Cheese and mashed potatoes. There was a line at the Diner which is open 24/7 but hey if I can get grilled cheese at 3am I will. I am convinced that being able to get homemade grilled cheese at 3am with fresh mashed potatoes is the best thing in the world. Have I mentioned that I love grilled cheese!

Restrooms On The Metro- Ok so this is just the best idea in the world because I always need to go to the bathroom on my walk home. And I am sure that logistically it would be a very big problem, but when I am on the train for an hour and a half i need a place to go. Nobdoy wants me to go behind a seat now do they.

Anyway those are just two great ideas. I am sure I will have others. Not sure that any will top grilled cheese at 3am... and that wasn't even mine!

A Scare on the Escalator

I have had to deal with many escalators in my stores but nothing compares to the escalator at the Dupont Circle Metro Stop. This escalator is one of the most impressive things I have seen. If you look down it when you are on the way down you will feel like you are going to plummet into the center of the earth and when you look up on the way up you get dizzy. The best bet is to look straight ahead if you are walking up or down so you don't notice the size of this monster.

I am not sure of the specifics on this escalator but it is at least five flights and its not like it is five consecutive escalators in a row, nope it is one big long escalator. There are rules in DC about riding on an escalator. You need to walk on one side and stand on the other. Seems simple right, well the problem is when a tourist is not aware of this rule and they get in your way, or better yet try to kill you by knocking you over in the middle of the escalator.

Yes you guess it, a woman tried to kill me the other day with her suitcase as I was being lifted through the earths crust to street level. I got on the escalator on my way home after a long day, I was walking up the side as instructed by the laws of the escalator when all of a sudden a woman pops out of the standing side with her huge red suitcase and bumps into me. I am scared that i am going to plunge into the molten core of the earth but manage to regain my balance as this woman stops moving in front of me. People start bumping into me behind and and after a subtle push and excuse me she gets back into the standing lane although we all need to climb over her suitcase.

If people only obeyed the rules things would be so much easier. And also, if the escalator wasn't 12 miles long!

On A Happier Note

Well, with the additional time I am on the train each day I am going to be flying (at least compared to my usual pace) through books. I took a week off from reading while I was unpacking the house and preparing for my visit from my parents. But so far this week I have read 240 pages of Waiter Rant. As a matter of fact I should finish reading it tomorrow on my way into work and I will need to start reading another book.

I love Waiter Rant as a blog and I even prefer his book. His book makes me want to become a better writer and tell better stories. In his book he mentions how telling and reading stories allows the reader/writer to live and experience things (I am horribly misquoting the quote he used in the book.) But that line struck me and the struggle and experience he went through in writing the book has struck me as well. It is also amazing the how in tune with humanity he was/ is as a waiter and I was astounded by some of his observations and theories. Not necessarily because they were ground breaking but because they were spot on. I wish I was as connected as he is to the nature of humanity. I guess the fact that he studied psychology and worked in a nursing home helped him with that.

And yes I have stories, and I love writing but my I am not a great writer. I am a manager- but I writer I am not. I am a reader- but once again not a writer. But what his book inspired me to do was continue to write, and continue to share my stories with the few people who log on and read them. If I continue to write then I will continue to learn and experience things and I will allow others to learn and experience things as well. It will help me in many different ways and I hope that some of my stories have the ability to enlighten and inform readers and if not I hope that they at least brighten somebodies day and maybe even make them laugh. I don't ever expect to publish a book, I am sure that I will never have the pop culture fame one needs to get recognized. But that doesn't mean I should stop writing- actually I think that it is an even better reason to continue writing and improving. What I am struggling for here is to entertain, but also to enjoy. I am writing for myself and my few readers.

I love writing this blog and "The Waiter" has inspired me to continue writing and experiencing things.

See I told you it was a happier note! I am trying here but the lack of sleep is tough to write through!

Therapy Part II

A while back I mentioned that my blog was like therapy but cheaper. Well I need therapy after what has happened over the past month and a half but I haven't found the right fit. In that time I have also strayed from writing regularly on my blog, that's not good because I haven't been able to get my emotions out. This has lead to a lot of crying and that's just not good. So here are some things that I need to process.

1) I am scared- I go to sleep scared and I wake up scared- that is when I actually sleep. I am scared that I will never get my life back. I am scared being in a new city, and I am scared just to be alone in the simplest sense. I walk to the train to go to work and I am worried that some creep is going to come up behind me and hit me in the head. I am scared of change. Obviously, most people are slightly nervous of what the future may bring, but all of these changes at once have been hard to digest. I guess all of these changes are hard to digest for everybody but when you throw in an attack that lead to you being hospitalized a number of times and not being able to force your body to deal with the trauma. I haven't had a good night sleep since the attack and that scares me and they have tried putting me on any number of medications but to no avail.

I woke up last night at 2:30 in the morning punching the headboard and screaming. That is damn scary. The psychiatrist response was "funny... I can't think of why that would happen." Needless to say I am never seeing him again and I have discontinued the pill he put me on to help me sleep... cause it doesn't work.

2) I feel alone- I am not alone but coming from a city where you spent ten years of your life it is inevitable that when you move to a new place you will feel like you are just a needle in a haystack. I knew it would happen but I wasn't prepared for how it would make me feel. It feels very empty and I feel like I am lost. It doesn't help that I have so little energy because I am not sleeping and because the commute to Fairfax that was supposed to take 45 minutes each direction is taking a minimum of an hour and a half.

Feeling alone and feeling scared are not the two things I wanted when I moved to DC. I wanted to start a new life and e happy. I wanted things to change. It was after all an opportunity to start my life again and change things. And DC still provides me with that chance and all that's happened will make me a stronger person and allow me to continue to take the risks that brought me here to DC. I just need to figure out a way to get my feet back under my body and my head screwed on straight. I just want to be my old bitchy happy self but a better bitchy happy self. Is that really too much to ask for?

Getting Settled! Progress?

Well I am in DC now and I am off all week. Since my parents are coming down this weekend the goal is to get our new house looking like it is livable at the very least. We are getting settled and you can move around the house. The doctor was even able to make dinner last night. I feel like we have a place for most things (at least big pieces of furniture) but there are a lot of little things that need to be done and put away.

Yesterday my focus was the desk and dining area, today I am focusing on the bedroom. I just want to be able to see visible progress each day so that on Friday night I am not running around house shoving boxes under beds and the couch etc etc.

Ah yes and on top of all of the stuff we have 4 cats and a dog. Let me tell you while they are basically getting along there are going to be some turf wars. And poor Tipsy is so she she barely leaves the bed.

Anyway, I wanted to write and give ya'll a quick update. I am going to take a quick lunch now, and then continue unpacking.

Should I Be Worried

JCH's Current Facebook Status: JCH is preparing to kidnap a certain gnome-like friend so he can't move to DC tonight.

My Current Facebook Status: JRH is going to call the police because he is afraid he might be kidnapped by JCH! Not sure why... maybe his facebook status!

What Are You Reading??

I noticed today that most of my posts have been kind of sad and depressing. I don't want to be sad and depressing it has just been a rough month. So I decided to post a funny story. Ok, so the funny story happened while I was in the hospital having my back sliced into but it was still a funny story!

On Saturday night I had to be rushed to the hospital again becase the grossness that was my back had lost it's wick (because my back was apparently a candle that could not be lit). This was fairly major, however, because a wick is what pulls and drains the infection from the cyst. So on the way out the door I made sure I packed my medicine and my book and all three sets of discharge papers from my previous visit. I knew I was going to be waiting a long time and I knew I wasn't going to remember everything I had been told.

After waiting for two hours in mild pain but general calmness I was called into the rooms to have my back looked at and to officially become a patient for the fourth time that week. This is when the panic attack begins and I go from being a mildly rational human being to being a blubbering sobbing mess who is petrified of needles and needs to run screaming from the hospital. The change is immediate and obvious and as the doctor presses on the cyst to expell puss and other grossness I scream in pain and curse the doctor and almost kick him in the head. My sister is tring to calm me down and asks if I want her to read some of my book to me. I grunt in pain so she opens up to the page I have marked and begins to read...

"... surprise to those of us who find it so convivial to our well-being, but that is only because we have evolved to exploit it. To other things it is a terror. It is what turns butter rancid and makes iron rust. Even we can tolerate it only up to a point. The oxygen level in our cells is only about a tenth the level found in the atmosphere..."

At this point my sister stops reading and looks at me with tears welling out of my eyes and asks, "What the F*** are you reading?" I couldn't help but giggle in between tears as the doctor finished what he was doing on my back and said he would return. I tried to explain to her that I was reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by one of my favorite travel writers and that I knew it would be a challenge because it is about science but that I was loving it.

She looked at me like I was crazy, and all was right in the world because I am crazy and I had my sister there to tell me that and I felt better for a moment (at least until the doctor returned).

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye to Boston is and has been an interesting and difficult experience. I was expecting to have a few weeks to slowly say goodbye to friends, family, co-workers, my home but instead I got kicked in the head and quickly said goodbye to my sanity and now I have relegated saying goodbye to friends to just a couple of days. I have been moved out of my house for three weeks now- the first house I owned is now occupied by a very nice woman and her child- but I never did say goodbye.

Boston has been my HOME for ten years. When I was crying in the hospital as they were sticking things in my back when I said I wanted to go home I meant my house in JP. It has been my worst month on record, but it has also been my last month in Boston. (By the way I had two more visits to the ER and one more to the surgeon this weekend). But beyond my home I am scared about saying goodbye to my friends.

Last night I had dinner with a couple friends and while it was nice to see them and dinner seemed normal enough as I was driving home I was struck by the fact that I probably wouldn't see one of my friends again. Yeah sure I would come up to Boston and we would talk but it wouldn't be the same. And tonight... I have to say goodbye to S. S has been a part of my life for a long time and while he abandoned me and moved to NYC to be happy (bastard) I still feel like he is part of Boston. And JCH is going to make me cry- hell he made me cry 4 weeks ago before we were attacked when he said he looked up to me and that he worried about me. Damn I am tearing up right now! Man I am going to miss going out for drinks after work with NS and LE and what am I going to do without HW who followed me here from New Haven (I still think her and J should follow me to DC).

People is really what makes a place a home and I have been lucky enough to surround myself with some really great people. People who love me and people who care. That is the one positive things that has come out of this whole attack experience. All of my friends who truly care have been by my side and helped me deal with it and its going to be hard to say goodbye to all of them.

All of this does not mean that I am not excited about the move to DC and moving in with the Doctor it is just a little nostalgia. It is and always will be hard to change you life and leave a place you call home but with a move comes new adventures and new fun and hopefully a lot less drama then I have had this month!

Links and Thanks

Once again thank you to everybody who has showed your support in all the ways that you have. I appreciate all of your kind words.

Also, some have asked for details in what happened. As I do not remember here are some of the articles that explain it. Most of them I find hard to read but they do include the details as well as the ass arrested.

http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc3=&id=79561

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/08/possible_south.html

http://www.innewsweekly.com/innews/index.php/?class_code=Ne&article_code=5998

http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=79871

http://wbz.com/pages/2869920.php?
http://www.universalhub.com/node/16247
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1116612&srvc=home&position=emailed

UPDATES

Yes, I have been MIA since I posted about the violent attack, but as many of you know I have been going through a lot of things and the violence just added another layer of stuff that I needed to deal with on top of back to school and moving.

UPDATE ON ATTACK: I am still doing well and I am starting to sleep a little bit better. I have my moments when I freak out. I have my moments when I am close to breaking down. But overall I am doing well. SC, JCH, and JC are doing better as well. Even the Doctor who had the joy of speeding back to Boston to find his friends in the hospital is doing better. We are all moving on with our lives, with this event still in our mind but not controlling us.

They have caught one of the suspects and charged him with four civil rights violations and a few counts of assault. He is out on $10,000 bail but he is restricted and has a curfew. I believe that his next court date is October 10. This has been a big media story in the Boston area so I am hearing a lot of updates from the local news and papers. I am happy with the fact that they caught one of these people but I am still concerned that the other 2 or 3 are out there. The first time I saw my attackers face was when they showed it on the news. It was weird to see, and now I see his face in my dreams. Yes, sleep still really eludes me but we are working on that.

UPDATE ON MOVE: Last weekend in the midst of nausea and concussion and some crying we moved. Thank god that my company is paying the best movers in the world to move me because overall the move was pain free except for the drive down to DC. I left work at 2:00pm last Friday and met up with the Doctor, we loaded his car and we were on the way with 4 cats and a dog between us to DC. I was concerned about my dizziness which had subsided for the most part but reared its ugly head at the most inopportune times. The drive took close to 12 hours with labor day traffic and dog walking stops. We got to DC around 2:30 in the morning unpacked our cars and the five animals. Threw a blanket and some pillows on the floor and passed out for a couple hours because my movers were set to arrive at 8:00am. My movers arrived on time and had the house full of boxes in less than two hours. The Doctor's movers were late and rude and were the exact opposite of my movers (awful) but by mid afternoon Saturday everything was in the house and now we just had to unpack and make things at home. The kitchen took two days, I had to leave to come back to Boston but the rest of the house is going to take forever!

UPDATE ON MY BACK: On Friday before I left I thought I was getting a pimple on my back, not really unexpected I am stressed and it happens but man it hurt. On Saturday after sleeping on the floor of our new apartment and driving 12 hours my back was sore but I didn't think anything of it but the bump was getting bigger. Maybe it was an ingrown hair. On Sunday night I drove back to NY on my way to Boston to work for two weeks for Rush. My back was killing me I was starting to think that maybe it was a spider bite. Some Tylenol and I went to bed to wake up the next morning to a gross looking back. I decided I would go to the hospital after work on Monday if it didn't start looking better. Monday after work I call JCH and see if he will go with me to the hospital since I am afraid of going back there. We go and sit for a while a nice nurse comes in and looks at me and explains that it looks like I have an infected cyst on my back that the doctor will need to look at. The Doctor come in and says he is going to cut open... (and then he sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher). All I know is I am face down on the bed after them having given me two Valium and two pain killers screaming in pain with my heart beating so fast I am worried it is going to pop out of my chest. When the procedure is done the doctor (not mine another doctor) says its amazing that the Valium didn't seem to calm me down/

On Wednesday I go for my followup alone, thinking they were going to change the bandage and say good job and send me on my way. No such luck. It appears that the infection has spread towards my shoulder and they needed to lance again and drain. Even with Oxycontin this hurts like a mother and I am lying face down on the bed screaming and crying in pain. Six hours later I am bandaged up and on my way to my sister only to wake up and go to work.

UPDATE ON RUSH: Rush (back to school) and moving was easy I have done hundreds of Rushes in the 10 years I have worked for my company so why not throw in a violent attack and back surgery and for good measure put me on Oxycontin so all i feel is my slices in my back and my ever changing emotions. Man this week was fun.

You know what they say... "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" I ain't dead yet bitch so bring it! On second thought... maybe I have had enough fun for one month!