following two epic drives and a whirlwind three full days in the Capitol, we are returned, there is a more detailed posted above, so i`m editing this cover the stuff that occurred while we were away, mostly and the getting to and fro.
i got home to mail from the Department of Homeland Security, who informed me that my application to change status had been received and deemed fit to process. one less thing hanging over my head, however i was greatly amused to go to their website and read two completely contradictory statements; according to the information listed with my receipt number, the application should take 120 to 180 days to process, but according to the processing dates for the office in Memphis where my application should be processed they are currently dealing with applications received in September 2002, either way i`m not going to stress it.
my other piece of good news was a letter from my doctor`s office, which read as follows:
The purpose of this memo is to inform you that the ultrasound result showed a benign mass in your liver which means that this is NOT cancer. This type of mass is called a hemangioma which means a collection of blood vessels. You should not expect to find any problems related to this finding. Also, the ultrasound did not show a fatty liver pattern.
there`s more but it`s just about scheduling a follow up appointment for my doctor to explain it to me in more detail.
about the trip; specifically the getting to and fro, we broke up the drive both to and from DC in two stages. stage one on the way to DC involved an overnight stop at my mother in law`s and then stage two was a drive from east Tennessee to DC, which took about eight hours including a couple bladder relief stops, lunch and one refuelling. before i continue i have to say how happy i am with our gas sipping Neon; 35 – 42 miles a gallon on the highway and zippy too. we spent more money on food for the entire trip than we did on gas, which considering that the median gas price for the duration of the trip was in the $2.30 vicinity is a pretty good deal.
i`m not big on touristy stuff, so my primary motivation for going to DC was food. DC has a fairly large Trinidadian populace and thus; a number of things i`ve missed dearly like; roti and doubles. that said we did manage to fit in a number of things in our short visit. which brings me to my major beef, DC politics and DC tourism are remarkably similar; if you`re not part of a group, you don`t get access to anything. the national monuments are barricaded for security purposes and what limited access and immediate parking there is, is consumed by the fleets of tour buses disgorging the carefully managed masses.
i must however take this opportunity to thank our hosts, my long time friend, e.b. and her lovely and talented husband, e.g. for housing us, feeding us and making the trip fun and entertaining.
there are pictures and as soon as i have them, they will be available in a gallery.
we are safely arrived in DC, slowly recovering from a day`s drive and too much good food last night. i`m currently poaching an unsecured wireless network in the neighbourhood as i wait for everyone to get up so we can get going to the Mall and the museums.
i thought i`d share the results of one of the in car games yesterday.
In gramma`s trunk, I saw an Atomic bomb-carrying Baby carrying a Couch with a pet Duck eating Eclairs and Farting furiously and hanging from a Grappling hook with a Hippo hanging from his hip, injecting India ink into his incisors while juggling Jaguars as Kids kicked his keister. He got so tired he went to lounge on his La-Z-Boy and masticate Marshmallows with his mandibles. He knocked over Nanny`s Nickels. When the nickels fell open he opened his Orifice and a glob of pickled Peaches plopped on his pumpkin as he quirkily quartered Quinces for robust Robots. Superman then streaked from sky to taunt his testy `Tude over his unruly Uniform as a variety of Vegetables vroomed by and whacked him a waxed Wimple and an x-rated Xylophone, yanking his Yurt to Yonkers. The moral of this story is that xenophobic Zebras are zoned for zero.
we were very idle in the car.
between my two medical appointments in as many days, i seem to be moving forward and standing still at the same time.
after a swift and successful vasectomy consult, i`ve been scheduled for the actual cut in early April and left armed with instructions and a script for some mighty powerful drugs.
this morning`s poking and prodding was a mite less conclusive or i should say, no one was saying squat to me. something wasn`t quite right with the ultrasound, but the lab tech wont say anything to me, other than i should wait to hear from my doctor. now there are words that don`t fill you with confidence. i also had to have more blood drawn to check my levels of iron and another test i don`t recognise. yes, i read my charts, i like to know what is being done to me and why.
today is my last day at work for a week, then it`s off to cool DC for four days. we`re not leaving until tomorrow afternoon because vic has class in the morning, which also means we`re not making the straight 11 hour drive. we`re stopping off at my mother in law`s and enjoying her amazing waffles and doing the last 8 hours on sunday, on the return trip it`s a non-stop drive back. the 11 hour drive back doesn`t faze me, i`ve done it before and gone to work the next day but i also have buns of steel and an large bladder. i`m not so sure about my passengers.
i don`t know if i have the willpower to stay away for a week but we`ll see how it goes. i`m taking the laptop under the guise of needing some way to dl the images from the camera we`re borrowing and it does have a wireless card and i`m sure i can find some bandwidth to poach. but if you don`t see me know i`m have fun in dc and i`ll be back home by friday; vic and her classes again; with pictures in tow.
it`s never simple.
when i went back to the good doctor on Tuesday we talked about me continuing to lose weight and getting more exercise and monitor my blood pressure; it`s usually fine, except when i see the doctor and then it starts high and levels out. just before i left his office, i mentioned my elevated SGPT levels from last July and he ordered blood work to check on them again.
i got a call this morning from the clinic, my SGPT levels are still elevated and i have to go in on Friday for more blood work and an ultrasound on my stomach. i`m not panicking because the levels are lower than they were in July of last year; thank goodness for my need to document the details of my life. i am however worried because i`m not in any of the risk groups mentioned; i`m still not an alcoholic, i don`t take tylenol and i don`t have hepatitis, coupled with the fact that it`s only my liver readings that are abnormal.
i think the source of my worry is the not knowing and for me, the information junkie, that is the greatest fear of all and the information offered by webmd isn`t helpful or comforting.
some time last year i was forwarded an opportunity to take a survey conducted by a University of Essex student at the institute for socio-techinical research doing his PhD. i did it and thought nothing of it, until an email showed up in my mailbox last week, explaining that he had moved to the next stage of his research and was preparing to interview individuals.
i found what he was doing fascinating and replied to his email almost immediately after i got. we negotiated the date and time for the interview, which was initially scheduled to be conducted via Skype on Sunday; early afternoon my time, early evening his; but due to aforementioned circumstances didn`t quite work out that way.
it was interesting to spend the better part of an hour documenting my history, inspiration and motivation as a blogger. i think the interview has given me a lot more perspective about what i do here. it`s never been about fame and fortune for me, there are no book deals or television appearances in my future. but as an exercise in writing, i have disseminated information in a coherent manner, i`ve improved my skills; i hope; and the people who read my journal; either once or repeatedly; have always gone away with something.
what an interesting weekend it has been and this week promises to be equally interesting.
i spend most of Saturday getting my dreads neatened. when i went to see the woman who would be doing it, she looked and my hair and agreed with my four hour estimation and quoted me $150 to get it done. it took the better part of seven and a half hours, but she did a spectacular job and only charged me an extra $25, i will be returning to her in about three months, when my hair wont be as unkempt.
for those of you that are puzzled, there is a lot of maintenance involved in having dreadlocks, which include washing; in my case at least once a week now and more frequently as it starts to warm up; and neatening to manage the new growth of hair that presents itself regularly every couple of months.
on Sunday, as spring fought a valiant battle to make its way to middle Tennessee and along with our house full of breakfast guest; no one can resist vic`s scones; we made our way to a nearby park to frolic in the sunshine. although i didn`t do as much frolicking because i was on the phone being interview about blogging; long story, but fear not, there is no adverse publicity or consumption of bandwidth involved.
this week i`ve got two doctor`s appointments; i`ve got one tomorrow morning, that was initially supposed to be my general check up but turned into the flu visit and one on Thursday to talk to and possibly get snipped. it`s about that time, vic and i have discussed it; we don`t want any more children – we`ve done our bit for the population explosion – our children and well-adjust and health, so there is no need to tempt fate any further. i`m getting snipped as the procedure is less invasive and less likely to have complications for me and if we change our minds down the road, it`s possible to reverse.
i should get back to work, today is already fiendishly busy and the rest of the week is only going to get worse.
i`ve been catching snippets of the Jackson trail every now and again, i`m not really that interested, but i`m getting inundated with them whether i want to or not and it`s given me enough to form one solid opinion.
whether or not he is found guilty, they need to send the parents of the child(ren) he is purported to have molested straight to jail. i`m sorry, i don`t care what kind of childhood issues Jackson had, this is not the first time these accusations have come up and for you to voluntarily send your children unaccompanied to the house of an adult once accused of inappropriate conduct with a child is a criminal act.
i`m not speaking legally, i`m speaking as a parent. what do you have to be thinking to voluntarily send your child to hang out with a 40-something old man, unsupervised. most normal parents wont send their child to spend time at their friends` houses, unless they meet and approve of the parents and even then there is a degree of worry, because this person isn`t you, much less to the home an adult man. what were these people thinking?
is it possible to become so star-struck that all good sense flees? or is it greed; are people are willing to sacrifice their child`s innocence for the possibility of the big pay off?
i`m following with abject fascination; you know the rubbernecking at a fatal crash kind of way; this new bankruptcy bill and it seems like indentureship and poorhouse are on the way in, again.
one of the reasons i`m watching on, in abject horror, is we are struggling with some debt of our own and have received all manner of threatening phone calls and completely untrue statements from the credit card company. vic had this credit card for over 10 years, making her payments until November 2003 when she lost her job, about two months after i arrived they phone calls started coming and it`s interesting the lengths these companies will go to get their money. they accused me of being a bad husband for letting my wife running up this credit card debit; never mind the majority of it currently is interest; then told her she was a bad wife and mother because she couldn`t pay, told me my credit would be ruined if she didn`t pay, because i`m married her, the debt was now mine legally; those last two statements are patently untrue. we`re currently making interest payments; just barely; and squirrelling money away until we can make a settlement offer.
we`re not intending to file for bankruptcy; we`re sort of solvent, we have no credit cards so we`re not incurring anymore debt and we`ve got health insurance; sort of; but we have no savings so in the case of major emergency we would be in trouble and we seem to be the lucky ones. i thought bankruptcy protection was supposed to help people out of a tight spot, not just the ones with money.
even without a formal education there are things i am qualified to do based on years of experience. there are things i will try my hand at because it seems straight forward and i`m fairly intelligent person. then there are things i have a natural aptitude for, but that doesn`t mean i`m going to make it my profession. which brings me to Bono.
now coming from a developing nation and seeing first hand the effects of World Bank policy, they`re not my favourite organisation in the world; but come on Bono?
what are his qualifications? he`s an advocate for third-world debt relief. how nice. that does not qualify him to run the World Bank. does he have a degree in economics, a background in finance? i`d really be interested to know.
you really want to do something about third world debt? how about giving up a percentage of the sales of the last U2 album. every little bit counts. jetting in and out and hobnobbing with other wealthy people and talking about bad the situation is doesn`t help.
when i was working in Florida, the agency i worked planned and staged an event to raise money for a food bank. it was a $500-a-head, three course charity dinner that eventually cost about $60,000 to produce and this figure didn`t included the wasted food in unfinished courses. the irony has never escaped me, in Trinidad there used to be a poor man`s dinner to benefit various organisations that were trying to help the less fortunate, it was black tie event that you paid through the nose to attend and dinner consisted of broth and a hard roll prepared by one of the organisations who would eventually benefit from the funds. that makes sense to me. if you`re really interested in helping people you need to make the sacrifice and not just when there is a press opportunity.
went to see Constantine; mispronunciation not withstanding; last night and i have to say i wasn`t disappointed. it was a hell; pun sincerely intended; of a lot better than i expected.
one of the many redeem factors about this movie, is unlike a lot of other movie treatments based on comics it wasn`t automatically made PG-13, which in a lot of cases just strips a lot of the best elements out of it in order to make it palatable. another saving grace was the supporting cast and visual effects; Tilda Swinton rocks. and unlike a lot of Kenau`s other recent roles he wasn`t clueless and a determined Kenau is kind of cute.
go see Constantine just for entertainment value alone.
