Thursday, February 02, 2006
Hit Number 10,000!
J. Riley, my blog is almost as popular as my collection of Porsche pictures was in college!
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Clean Bill of Health
1.) I have no social life at the moment, due to:
a.) Surgery costs => lack of flow (as stated in my previous blog, more on this later)
b.) Everyone is out of town
c.) Lack of taste-buds => lack of dining out
2.) I made the mistake of stopping by the soccer store on Saturday to talk to my new African buddy who works there, causing:
a.) Me to subscribe to the magazine 4-4-2, which is imported from the UK (I have finnacial priorities!)
b.) Me to purchase (and not subscribe - yet - to) the magazine Champion, another UK import.
c.) 1 + 2A + 2B => Sitting on my futon all weekend reading about soccer and anticipating the Liverpool game on TV on Sunday afternoon.
To occupy my time on Saturday, I considered going to a museum that I get free access too, or going to Long Island City in Queens (where I happen to work) to the Harley Davidson dealer to check out a not-too-distant-in-the-future purchase. It's funny how I talk about being so cheap in one paragraph and then talk about major purchases like this in the next sentence. My Uncle Mike, an avid Harley rider and travelling salesman, turned me onto the idea of the practicality of the purchase, especially since he knows people and can get me a good deal. For better or worse, he's always one to offer his opinion on these matters and, like the salesman he is, can pretty much get you thinking like him pretty quick. And, to be honest, I've been thinking about making a purchase like this anyway, though I probably would have waited for the summer, since that's when it would be most practical. After Mike mentioned it to me though, I was pretty stoked on the idea. It would definitely be cheaper than some of my other options, so why not? Anyway, Saturyday was a research mission. I was hoping they would have the model that I wanted, since Manhattan's HD dealer didn't. No surprise there, they didn't have a lot of inventory because their store was small. But, I found out pretty quick that the Long Island City dealer had a much more diverse and larger inventory and I found what I was looking for. I gave them a test drive and definitely liked what I was seeing. But there was still an elusive model that they didn't have. Mike set me up with someone he knew that had that model - in Manhattan, of course - so I could take it for a spin. Sure enough, he had what I was looking for - Panoptx Vector sunglasses with the polarized gray lense! Tonight, in fact, I placed my order through Mike for a pair of subscription sunglasses since he works for the company! Thanks Mikey!
After checking out the Harley dealer, I decided to try to find the elusive, hip neighborhood in Queens called Astoria. It is notoriously Greek and Brazillian and has a large Central-European contingent as well (including a large Czech beer garden that I plan to check out one summer). After walking a few miles through warehouse and delivery districts (sketchy!), I stumbled onto Broadway, which was chock-full of Greek and Cypriot restaurants, bakeries, meat shops, etc. etc. It was very authentic because Queens has no tourists for the most part. I sat down and attempted to eat a salad (which got stuck in my braces and arch expander and made me miserable) and spinach canelloni - except it was in a crepe rather than a pasta shell, which was awesome. And of course a Cypriot beer (Keo, the Budweiser of Greece and Cyprus) in Paul and Cathy's honor! The rest of the day was involved with reading about soccer until about midnight.
Sunday I read about soccer somemore and watched the Liverpool game. After wasting most of the day doing the former, I decided to cook on Sunday night, so I made a monster-vat full of butternut squash soup which was fantastic. Next time, I'll do a double-dosage of that stuff, it was great.
Monday was a good health day for me. My surgeon said that my mouth was healing perfectly and went ahead and removed the sutures from the three cuts above my gums. These are little plastic staple things that I guess held stuff together up there. They would have eventually dissolved, but he'd rather remove them so that nothing happens. He proceeded to use these scissor things and cut these damn things out of my gums. Snip-snip-snip, ouch-ouch-ouch, I guess my gums are still pretty sensitive up there. I was watching his hands like a hawk and thinking about how this was the same guy that was using a chisle in my upper maxilla to open up my bone sutures a few weeks back. So I was looking for any un-precise movements on his part and probably was a little more critical (in my head) than I should have been about his hand stability :o). In any case, he had good things to say about my teeth and my progress, which felt good.
Doctor number two of the evening was my opthamologist, who I've been going to for months because of my eyelid issues. I was expecting the usual comments from her (this is the worst case I've ever seen, I can't believe it's so bad, your eyelids are infected, have you been having facials with subway-track-pond sewage water, etc.). But, sure enough, she said that my eyes looked normal! Like a normal homo sapien! I never thought that would happen. So hopefully those things stabilize for the next few months until my next appointment.
Finally, Monday morning I checked my medical insurance account to see if my insurance claim had posted yet. Although my original out-of-pocket estimate was $4200, I had reduced it to $2000 because that was the maximum out-of-pockey for my insurance. And then dad was over-generous and gave me some dough to cut that down. Then, I saw that my insurance claim had posted and 1.) it turns out that for some reason the surgery was in-network, not out-of-network, and 2.) the total owed by the patient was $215! Damn!!! So of course I went and bought some upgraded components for my Mac :o)...
J. Riley, positive health news is a rarity for me these days!
Thursday, January 26, 2006
What I Had Done
All I Want For Christmas....
I had an interesting discussion with the manager at my client today. Apparently my consulting company-employer is charging them too much and the client can only afford me through March 8th. Hmm...ok. So will I be fired and able to travel the world for six months? No, but the client wants to hire me, which makes things interesting. I guess I should have thought about that in the past since my employment as a consultant was contingent on me being open to this idea. So now I'm on the spot and my manager wants to talk numbers. I walked back to my office to get my wallet so we could go get some coffee and talk, so I had about 2 minutes to figure out my strategy. Item to focus on: vacation time :o). I don't care much about salary increases at this point (I'm comfortable enough), I just want to make sure my next surgery is covered and I get some more vacation time. I guess they give out 3-4 weeks for someone at my "level". Negotiations are going well with having to negotiate ;o) !!
J. Riley, we'll see what they come back with
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Fashion Trend-setter or Klutz?
The blue-collar-worker look has been popular in fashion for several years as far
as I know. First it was the cargo pants, then the carpenter pants (you know the
ones with the little loop near the hip to hold your hammer), then the whole
"distressed denim" look with holes in various places from all the manual labor
that the guys with blazers or the girls with high-heels do. Lately, I've seen
guys a plenty down in Chelsea wearing jeans with splattered paint all over
them, though I'm pretty sure that the lawyers wearing them didn't get that look
by painting their 2500 square foot penthouses in the Meat Packing District. This
begs the question - what's next?
I think I may know. I made the discovery on Sunday morning as I was rushing to
get downtown to Nevada Smiths to watch the Man United vs. Liverpool football
game, Liverpool scarf around my neck and hat on my head (thanks Summer) and
all. Lacking time because of Skype conference calls with Spain (World Cup
preperations) and Peru (Don't ask) early in the morning, I ate some yogurt at
home and grabbed a Jamba Juice on my way to the subway. I heard the downtown
express train coming and scrambled through the turnstiles and ran down the
stairs as fast as I could. Actually, faster than I could because I lost balance
towards the bottom of the first staircase. My body's first reaction was to
clench my fists and brace for a face-first dive onto the not-so clean ground.
And that is when set the trend for the latest chic look - tight, lightly
distressed jeans that are fashioned like those of a garbage man, complete
with a Bright Eyed & Blueberry jamba juice smoothy running down my jacket, into
my gloves, and all over the front of my pants. When I'd clenched my fists, I
punctured that $6 fruity morning beverage and it ran all over me. And, oh, what
a cool look it was.
To top the morning off, Liverpool lost in the 90th minute of a 90 minute game
:-| , which pretty much made me depressed for the rest of the day (seriously).
Thankfully, D had invited me to a NY Rangers hockey game on Sunday night, which
they subsequently won in an action packed sixty minutes....
J. Riley, remind me not to send my friends or family down to Peru to visit.....
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Battle of the Reds
As I've stated before, my social life has come to a crawling halt because of the mess with my teeth. So, what better way to fit in than to spend a Sunday morning with a bunch of people with teeth like mine - the British? I think I may have found "my people" to spend time with now while my teeth improve and their teeth continue to deteriorate ;o). I even found out where the Liverpool Supporters Club (NYC Division) meet to watch games. I hope I can sleep tonight!!
A few months back I signed up to be a volunteer leader for NY Cares, a volunteer organization. I've been waiting months for an opportunity to lead a children's recreational project and one finally appeared on the list. To make it even better, it's located in East Harlem, which is pretty much where I live! So it could be just a bus or a few subway stops away, perfecto. So look for future stories about that....
Yes, the email that you received from Plaxo about updating your address and phone numbers for me is legit! I am using this online service to keep track of phone numbers, addresses, birthdays, etc., so please fill it out and submit it!
Yesterday I found out that since I "work at" the large bank that pays my employer (well, I have a badge anyway!), I, and up to four guests, can get free admission to most of the famous museums in the city. So today Alan and I went to the New York Historical Society museum to see what they had going on. Most of the items they had were kind of boring, but on the first floor they had their special exhibit, which was about slavery in New York. It was very interesting and captivating despite the throngs of people crowding the isles and blocking my view of stories and historical descriptions of the time. The museum is focusing on slavery for the next year or so, so buy your plane tickets now if you want to come see it. At least the entrance fee is free....
J. Riley, You'll Never Walk Alone!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Framed!
A few years ago, I had a bad experience with getting pictures framed. Some of you may recall the infamous Kills Bugs Fast framing incident at Michael's that made me gun-shy for buying frames at anywhere other than the cheapest retail stores possible (like Walmart; what was wrong with me??). However, I bought a nice canvas oil painting on the beaches of Brazil and I knew it deserved something better than a Target frame. I invested a significant amount of reais into the painting (probably $5), so I figured I'd check out one of those custom frames at one of many neighborhood picture frame shops (I didn't realize there were so many until I started looking). Of course I chose the closest one to my apartment. This is usually how I choose everything, including important things like doctors, opthamologists, dentists, and maxillofacial surgeons ;o) . In any case, I picked up my painting today and they did a beautiful job with a simple black frame. As soon as I get my camera back from the repair shop (it had a rough life in Brazil), you'll be able to see it. It's practically a wall mural in my tiny apartment....
My face is recovering nicely and the swelling is pretty much gone as far as I can tell. The hole in my jaw expander appears to have disappeared and I haven't been able to widen my jaw in two days even while toiling with it constantly at work. I get braces on tomorrow, so hopefully my orthodontist can set my jaw on the path to true width in short order - and hopefully it's not too late! Because recovering from surgery and having headaches all day isn't bad enough, I've also somehow managed to grow a nasty canker sore on my tongue that gets pissed whenever I move it, which makes talking a challenge. I guess having $10k worth of metal in my mouth isn't bad enough, my body decided it was important to make me more miserable. How is it that it takes me longer to recover from a canker sore than it does to recover from maxillofacial surgery? Bastard! Maybe the vicadin I have left over can be used to fight the pain this thing is causing ;o).
Paul and Cathy moved to Cyprus, check out the link to their new blog on the right. They've also sent me some great-sounding recipes for soup, which I've been putting to use. Tonight I made a pumpkin soup that had a gynormous amount of curry in it along with some coriander and onions. My tongue was pleased with that decision!
J. Riley, I haven't resumed my gym activities yet. But when I do, there will be no stopping me!
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Back On Track
Today I've returned to work after a nearly one week hiatus. It was pretty nice
spending copious amounts of time at home with no responsibilities except making
sure that all the shows I wanted to watch were Tivo'd and ensuring that no
Liverpool or other soccer news was released for more than 15 minutes before I'd
read it. Luckily I didn't have to worry
I have to admit that I'm getting a little tired of buying all of this liquid
food and sustaining myself soley on this. In an effort to make it all better
(and to realize significant cost savings), last night I did some grocery
shopping after looking up a few recipes for some tasty new soups to cook at
home. Last week I made a hearty lentil-vegetable soup (thanks Brie and
Graham!), but I really should have eaten some steak instead, seeing as how I
don't have that option at the moment :). So last night I made a sweet-potato
minestrone soup that turned out pretty good, especially when it was pureed for
my dining satisfaction. Alan and Andrea came over to enjoy some of it as well
since my large pot was overflowing with broth and vegetables (including celery,
garlic, onion, sweet potato, carrots, green beans, and tomatoes). I'm looking
forward to leftovers this week for lunch!
A few people have commented that I look better with my face swollen. Or maybe
it's not so much swollen anymore, but rather a bit meatier since my upper jaw
is wider now. Vas even said that now I look like a young boy rather than the
old man that I am ;o) . I have no comment, all I notice are the yellow bags
under my eyes!
Besides the liquid diet (note: I have progressed to overcooked pasta that is
small enough to swallow without chewing), the most annoying part is turning the
key on this arch expander appliance up in the roof of my mouth. I have to tie
this thing up to my left hand so it doesn't fall down my throat if I drop it
and then squeeze more sore jaw joints open so I can fit my right hand inside my
mouth and feel around for the hole the size of a pinhead in this damn thing.
Last night it took me about 20 minutes to find the stupid hole and then this
morning, after I'd woken up early to get to work early, I spent at least that
amount of time laying on my back poking around and couldn't find it for the
life of me. I was frustrated so I decided to give up on this turn and put the
key in my backpack in case I got bored at work and felt like sticking my hand
in my mouth in front of my coworkers. Well, I had a few free minutes so I went
for it and within a minute I had the thing cranked. Oh well, Thursday will be
the last turn of the thing, which I'm very much looking forward to....
J. Riley, my right-hand jaw joint is still very sore :-/
Friday, January 13, 2006
Recovering Body Part #1, Meet Recovering Body Part #2
Naturally, this is affecting - what else - my problematic eyelids. The lower-right eyelid, the one that was first infected and that has never really gotten much better, is nice and cherry-red. I've been without problems for a whole month and a half, and I'm sure that this will cause some problems. I guess that's more trips to the opthamologist to schedule....
J. Riley, sigh.






