ooo ooo ooo

Well, it’s been nearly a month since I wrote here. July was frenetic. I don’t remember a lot of it, which is quite unfortunate.

Adam is doing much better, basically normal. He may have re-injured the wrist, apparently had some issue with carrying a canoe at summer camp last week. I think he stopped wearing the wrist splint a bit too early and should have worn it while being active at camp. Oh well. Fuckin’ kids.

We went camping ourselves towards the end of July, at the Black Canyon lower campground. It was a ton of fun. The campground was somewhat secluded, only 15 or so units out in a pretty neat part of the base canyon area along the river. We stayed 2 nights, hiked around, took pictures. The sunset on the Saturday evening was pretty breathtaking.

That following Sunday, Ashley was going to drive back to hometown of Montrose. Her high school best friend’s dad had killed someone, and then killed himself. It was pretty sad to hear about the guy, everyone apparently loved him and was a good guy. But he did this. Just another reminder of how bad it can get and how good things really are, even when they seem bad. Whatever.

We spent four days out there at her parents’. They are super folks, really amazing. Thankfully I can work remotely, so I didn’t miss any work time. Same for Ashley.

Then, last weekend, we went backpacking, accompanied by her parents. We hiked six miles uphill to get there, Lake Constantine near Minturn (Vail).

It’s a pretty awesome area. Lots of flowers. Part of the trail follows a steep ridge, and is fairly dangerous in some parts. No serious climbing, but definitely no cakewalk.

We only camped for one night. We were pretty tired and there isn’t a lot to do up there. Fishing was unproductive, other than adding to our sunburns.

Other than that, not much going on lately. I haven’t done karate much this summer, mostly due to Adam’s injuries. We are going semi-regularly, but not often enough to be prepared for tournament nonsense. Maybe next year. Maybe never again.. who knows.

Fuck, it’s mid-August already. Fuck!

This summer is screaming by, it’s really weird.

Adam is doing well after the car-bike thing. His wrist cast was removed this week, and it’s healing well. Nose looks good, and his face almost looks 100% normal again. His memory’s doing a lot better, too.

He’s been doing karate for a couple weeks now, too. We went camping for a night (after watching USA-Ghana) a couple weekends ago. That included a pretty long, fun hike in Rocky Mountain National Park to the top of Bierstadt lake. “Top of lake” means it was a fairly steep climb to get there. Fun stuff.

Last weekend, Ashley and I, along with her friend and boyfriend, spent a few days in a cabin near Gunnison on Blue Mesa Lake. It’s pretty nice up there, not too crowded with people (assholes). We borrowed her parents’ boat and went fishing for a couple days. A few beers were consumed.

Ashley and I also checked out Black Canyon one morning, which was beautiful. I hadn’t even heard of the place until we went there, but I highly recommend it.

It was my first time to that part of the state. Crested Butte, not far from Gunnison, seems like a pretty fun little town. We ate dinner with one of Ashley’s longtime friends, getting to and from on bikes. Very friendly folk there.

Maybe someday I’ll upload some pictures of all of this — it’s on my camera.

Alright, after the fun of traveling, it was back to reality.

Tuesday afternoon was supposed to go like this: Work until 4pm, go home, relax for a bit, go pick up Adam at 6:15, and then karate.

Here’s what really happened:

At 3:45, I get a call from Adam’s phone, some girl’s voice telling me that “Adam has been hit by a car, he’s not doing real well.”

An adult gets the phone, and tells me Adam is headed to St. Anthony’s North.

Frantic actions ensue. I quickly bolt from work, head towards the hospital, but get another call as I’m about halfway on the 20-minute ride. This call is a bit more descriptive, I think it was a fireman, telling me that Adam had a head injury but was “okay” but was going to St. Anthony’s Central instead. We later learn this is because they were the nearest level one trauma center.

So, this means I get to navigate through downtown traffic, which thankfully wasn’t too bad as it was only roughly 4pm.

Upon arrival, Adam is not in his assigned room, but instead getting x-rays and scans. After about 15 minutes we get to see him. He looked pretty bad, but only because facial injuries tend to make you look more injured than you really are. Still, he was pretty messed up.

He had a concussion from the blow to his head which broke his nose and dislodged his front left tooth. Cuts all over his face and inside his mouth. He was really out of it, asking the same questions over and over, which is normal when one gets concussed.

A few hours later he’s moved to the ICU. I went home around 10pm, as they only allow one person to stay with him at night. Lisa wasn’t going anywhere, so I went home.

I arrived the next morning and he had improved some. He slept some. The oral surgeon arrived and wanted to do surgery on the nose later that night, since it wasn’t too swollen.

The major hurdle that day was getting Adam to drink the Contrast (I assume this is what it’s called), which was a dye-infused drink that Adam described as “salty orange flavor.” He didn’t want it, and was in tears when told he had to drink it. The doctors needed to run another CT scan on his intestines to confirm there was nothing wrong with them, after seeing something odd in the initial scan.

He did get it down, and thankfully, nothing else was seen.

Surgery on Wednesday at 7pm went smoothly. He’ll have shit crammed up his nose and a nose piece over his nose for the next 5 days, but, things could be a lot worse.

One more night there, and today he was discharged. He’s a little out of it, still unable to answer some questions to which answers would probably come quickly if he hadn’t just been bashed in the face.

He’ll be staying with me the rest of the week, as I can work from home on Friday and keep an eye on him, as well as make sure he gets fed. He’ll be eating a lot of soft food for the next week or so.

What a week. Bring on the World Cup, please.

Ridiculous past seven days. I start with a rewind to last weekend’s jaunt to New York.

The goal of the weekend was to meet up with Bob, stay at Peter’s apartment in Manhattan, and attend the Belmont Stakes in Long Island.

Friday morning flight, I get to Laguardia around 12:30pm. I planned it so I could bump around town for a few hours before Peter got off work. Bob wasn’t to arrive until 10 or so.

What to do? Not much. I walked. A lot. It was a wet hot, not something my dry-climate self was accustomed to. I felt out of place sweating my ass off while it seemed everyone else was generally comfortable. It was in the upper 80s with moderate humidity.

For close to two hours, I walked around, and finally decided to get a bite to eat at some crappy joint serving mediocre pizza. It was mid-afternoon and not really busy, but there were only three tables in the lower seating area, so I sat down in the upper seating area, which was an absolute sauna. I’ll never forget the goofy orange seats that reminded me of a run-down discolored McDonald’s from my youth.

After this I needed a break, which I chose would be at Madison Square Park. A very lovely little oasis, I plopped down on some bench for at least an hour.

I texted Peter asking for a good place to get a beer, and he suggested Rattle and Hum. To which I thank him, it was a fine little place, reminded me of a few other beer houses I’ve been to in Denver and other cities. I put down a couple tasty white beers before Peter arrived.

I had a couple more after Peter showed up. We were hungry, and Pete suggested a Persian place we could place an order at and have it delivered to his apartment. I got some steak/lamb combo kabob, and when it arrived 30 minutes later, it was quite delicious — well worth the $20.

Peter and I fired up the Brewers game on his laptop connected to his television, and we enjoyed Wainwright dazzling the Brewers’ lineup as the Cards easily won. This occurred while several beverages were being consumed.

By the time Bob showed up, I was pretty drunk, but we weren’t done drinking yet. We poured more, and went to the rooftop of the 50-floor tower to check out the night view. It was quite amazing.

A couple of Peter’s friends showed up, and we ended up finally going to bed sometime around 1.

Nine o’clock AM rolls around, and I was not feeling good. I didn’t drink much water the day prior, which was a massive mistake. We choked down english muffins topped with peanut butter, and water. Barely made the 10:30 train from Penn Station to Belmont Park. I was on the verge of getting sick, but not quite. I don’t do well with trains where objects close to the train are flying by quickly, sort of a merry-go-round effect. This was at least a 30-minute ride. Not fun.

Upon arrival, we noticed the ESPN “studio” set-up, or whatever it’s called, complete with Kenny Mayne getting ready for broadcast. Always a huge Mayne fan, I did snap a picture on my shitty phone-camera.

I drank two bottles of water and ate a pretzel before getting onto the beer. I think it was the 3rd race when I finally felt normal.

The races were fun, even though we only hit winners on two of the 12 we stayed for. The big race at 6:30 was pretty fun, the stands had nearly filled up and the place was abuzz.

We bolted after the second-to-last race, which was probably wise. Most left after the big race, number 11. Smooth train ride back. We decided to do some tourist-shit after unloading at Penn Station, checking out Times Square and Union Station. Why Michael Jordan has a steakhouse in Union Station is puzzling, at best.

Cab ride back to Peter’s, and by this time it was already 10pm or so. But before heading up, we hit Bella Rosa (I think?) pizza, which was very very good. I ate most of Bob’s calzone which consisted mostly of ricotta and mozzarella

We watched a movie, drank some more. I think I drank something like 15 16-oz beers that day. I apparently really like to brag about how much I drink. Peter and everyone else called it a night around 12, but Bob and I decided to stay up and play some xbox. At 2am, bedtime.

Sunday — we decided to roam around some more, heading on the subway to downtown, Wall Street, ground zero, and Battery Park. Lots of walking. We took another train to Chinatown, then walked more. It was getting hot and I was really done with walking. The italian restaurant we chose was a miracle, although any place would have been great assuming it had AC blowing.

Another cab back, and that pretty much sums up the weekend. Not sure if I’ll do the Belmont again next year, but some year is definitely in the cards.

Last weekend, Ashley and I flew to New Orleans. The only plans for the short trip were to see Of Montreal on Saturday night.

We arrived at our downtown hotel room around 11pm. Ashley was tired (as she should be for having to work a 5am-2pm shift that day), but we still wandered about and stumbled into the bar located at the front of some restaurant called US Prime.

Turned out to be a pretty fine selection, as they had $1 draws of something called Purple Haze (which she loved) and they were playing early 90s-era hip-hop over the speakers. And by early 90s hip-hop, we’re talking NWA, Tribe Called Quest, among other goodies. There’s something to be said about listening to “Express Yourself” in an unfamiliar environment in an unfamiliar city.

We didn’t stay long due to Ashley’s general exhaustion, and called it a night around 12:30.

Saturday morning, forecast high in the low 90s with heavy humidity, so we’re walking around looking for brunch and something to get us going for the day. This turned to be a pretty great breakfast at Cafe at the Square. I feasted on their Fried Green Tomato Benedict, which was freaking delicious. Simply a regular eggs benedict, but fried green tomato slices replaced the English muffins. Ashley had an omelet which she reported was also very tasty. The bloody marys were also a fine beginning to the day — I had two. Complete with pickled green beans and okra.

From there we attempted to find a cemetery which Ashley had wanted to visit. We didn’t find any cemetery, but we did walk through a fairly abandoned part of town, where surely one would be advised not to visit after dark. Thankfully, it was noon and not many folks around besides us.

After re-joining the more “regular” part of town, we decided to head to the Riverwalk. Once there, we contemplated a riverboat tour/cruise/whatever, but decided against it. The goal was to find somewhere to relax and consume a few drinks, and we settled on some generally crappy sports bar with a lot of outdoor seating. I settled on the Bourbon Sweet Tea, which was basically a long island iced tea. After a 32-ounce up of that goodness, I felt nice. Ashley’s mojito was pretty bad, so we shared the two cups of Tea I ordered.

After sitting outside for a few hours, we chose a quick nap before heading to dinner.

We got going around 8pm for the 10pm show, and settled on Pie. Not a ton of options in the area around the Howlin’ Wolf, we sort of had no other choice as everywhere nearby required reservations.

We got lucky again, as this place was delicious. We shared a garlic-parmesan-basil pizza, and it was really solid. We even noticed a mouse run across the floor, and thought it was more humorous than anything else, as a couple across the way also noticed the rodent. No big deal, as the food was tasty.

On to the music, and we had a blast. The Howlin’ Wolf is a fun little venue, lots of space — a nice variation from the theater-style venues that dominate Denver’s music scene.

Afterward, we stopped for a beer at some place that I do not recall the name of. I can say that the bottled Hoegaarden was only $4, which is a nice deal compared to what we’re used to in Denver. In general, prices for food/drinks seemed noticeably less at the places we visited. Drinks at the Wolf were reasonable — $5 for a mixed well drink.

We called it a night at that point, as it was nearly 2am.

Sunday morning — we had until about 2:30pm to do whatever. For breakfast, we decided on Daisy Duke’s, a 24-hour eatery not far from Bourbon Street. I ordered pork chops, eggs, and grits, while Ashley went with the vegetarian omelet. We were both pretty pleased with the meal.

I particularly enjoyed the friendly older man with a heavy Southern accent as he assumed I didn’t know what to do with my grits, and proceeded to give me some advice as to what I can put on top of it. Now, I don’t order grits very often — last time being Nate’s wedding trip at a Waffle House in Tennessee — but I am aware of what to do with them. I sort of ignored the guy, and I know he was trying to be nice, but I’d like to know what I was doing that made it appear like I needed help eating my food.

The goal for the morning/early afternoon was to find Bourbon Street. We found it, and quickly found a spot we liked: Cafe Beignet. Again, we were simply looking for a place to acquire a couple drinks and relax while we waited for our flight.

We ordered the beignets (3 for 2.69), and some frozen alcoholic drinks which were sufficiently sweet, cold and refreshing.

That pretty much sums up the weekend. Nothing groundbreaking, but that wasn’t the goal. We had a blast.