saturday march 1, 2008

Music, Hospitals, Babies, Tattoos and Travel / San Francisco, CA / 48 months ago

The past month has been pretty eventful in a lot of atypical ways for me. When trying to break it out into categories all I end up with is "Music, Hospitals, Babies, Tattoos and Travel". So let's run through them one at a time to not completely confuse you, the reader (assuming you will even get through the first paragraph).

Music
While Tom and I haven't had a follow-up meal, there has been some more music industry related excitement, for me anyway. Back in early February I got to meet up with Brett and Gina who were in the studio with Rancid while they were recording their new album. Being a fan of both Brett and Gina as well as Rancid, this was an exciting afternoon to say the least.

February was a big month for Glen Hansard and The Frames with Glen and Marketa's oscar win. Being a longtime fan of The Frames I thought I would put up a mix here that has some of my favorite tracks from all of their albums and several of their live shows. I have mentioned the album in the track name in case you are interested in where to find a particular song version. Most of their stuff is available on iTunes, so it shouldn't be a problem to purchase (hint-hint).

Hospitals
On my way home from the recording studio with Rancid I was on the phone with Dara when I experienced two sharp pains in my chest followed by my body entering into shock. Basically I felt as though I couldn't breath, I was very dizzy, my left arm went numb and I began to black out, all while driving down the freeway at 70MPH in the dark. Luckily I managed to focus enough to pull off at the next exit while Dara called 9-1-1. The ambulance arrived and shuttled me to the local hospital where they did the normal rundown of tests and scans. Everything came back clean and I was released about an hour later with no definitive diagnosis.

I have since followed up with a cardiologist who keeps forgetting to return my calls. At this point the most likely diagnosis is a panic attack, which is different than an anxiety attack and can have similar physiological symptoms as a heart attack. Either way, I'm doing fine now and haven't had a relapse or similar experience since.

Babies
As I hinted before, Dara and I are pregnant with our first child, and this week we found out that we are having a boy. We're both very excited (nervous) and looking forward to welcoming our little one into the world on or around July 24th. We're now getting into the naming puzzle and would really love any outside advice on sites that may offer some help. If you know of any, please send an email to nonsense AT blather DOT org.

Tattoos
Ever since my father passed away almost four years ago I have been considering a memorial tattoo of sorts, but I have never really settled on anything. As an attempt to motivate myself, Ferris and I made an appointment a couple of months ago with Henry Lewis over at Everlasting Tattoo. With days left until the appointment, and realizing that Henry is particularly outstanding at birds and lettering, I decided to get a buzzard with the words "March Forth". The day my dad died was March 4, 2004 and I have always thought it interesting that the word can also be interpreted as "forth" or forward. So far I have the outline (which is outstanding on its own) and an appointment for the shading in mid April, so I will post some photos when it's all done. This makes number three, and they keep getting larger, so Dara is slightly concerned about what's next.

Travel
With NY out of the way for now, I have a trip coming up that goes SF, Charlotte, Berlin, Charlotte, SF. In an effort to try to minimize time zone acclimation, I planned it this way. But thinking about the paradigm shifts between North Carolina and Germany, I think that even if my sleep is normal my mind may be a bit twisted up culturally. We also may head to LA near the end of the month to visit some friends instead of the usual business trip.

That's it for now folks and make sure to send me some baby name websites!