W

It's been another whirlwind weekend.  Say that five times fast.

I got back into town last Wednesday, which was a day late due to the current state of travel affairs.  My little cute family picked me up at the airport, and we spent the day together.  Of course since I am a slacker blogger I don't have a freaking clue what we did that day, but I'm sure it was fun.  You'll have to check out Erica's blog to get a real sense of our goings-on.  Oh, and she'll also explain the pictures above.

Work was fairly calm on Thursday and Friday.  Our PACS (that's the computer system that we use to do EVERY BIT of our jobs in radiology world) was acting up, but what can you do but be patient?  We went to the game Thursday and Dam Goode Pies on Friday.  Saturday was jam packed with errands and such.  I am dying for a Vespa scooter, so we went and looked at those.  Did you know that they hold 2.3 Gallons of gas?  That they get over 80 mpg?  That that means I could drive 184 miles for about 9 dollars?  Did I multiply correctly (it's late)?

Alas, I have credit cards to pay off, a tree that needs cutting down, insulation that needs to be put in my attic, three holes in my entry way sheetrock, and the desire for more STUFF, including a dining room table and 2 new Macs?  Not to mention the prospect of a new nanny.  I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton of stuff.  Oh well, W will be sending me a check soon, and I'm sure that will make it all better.

We did interview a nanny hopeful.  She is young but totally taken with the boy.  He loved her.  We're going to give it a shot. Sunday was church, lunch with Bebbie and Erin, and then work day for me.  I sat my behind in the office chair and sorted.  I got a ton of stuff done, but there is a lot more to do.  

The other big pressing issue is finding a home for Mae.  Our Aussie is born to herd and born to pester toddlers.  We are having territory issues.  No one has been injured in the making of this blog, but I'm afraid that's just a matter of time.  We will be printing flyers, talking with the vet, and all-out begging.

Ross has had another explosion of change in the last week.  Maybe his haircut prompted it.  He is putting words together, pointing at things in his books, playing hide and seek, and gesturing.  The new favorite game is "On your mark, get set, go!"  He played with a turtle today and smeared pear juice in his hair yesterday.  He is a nut.  Favorite names:  Rossy-man, gooberhead, angel baby boy.

I'm off to sleep to regenerate muscle fibers.  I've overdone it with starting out running (again) this weekend.  Ouch

Dear Boston

Dear Boston,

Thank you for hosting the 17th International Workshop on Vascular Anomalies.  I am thrilled to be here.  I will always remember this meeting as the jumping off place for what will hopefully define my career as a pediatric interventional radiologist.  Thank you for investing in the Charles Street Jail and transforming it into a boutique hotel to which I will gladly return.  The Liberty Hotel has been a wonderful home base in Beacon Hill.  Every staff member calls me "Doctor Braswell," the toiletries are delightful in the granite-tiled shower, and the mini-bar is well stocked (well, it was).  The flat screen doesn't hurt, either.

Dear Boston,

Thank you for the sailboats and wind surfers on the Charles River, the gaslights and cobblestones on Charles St., the swan boats at the Public Gardens, and the infinite rows of brownstones.  Thank you for selling me my first (first!) copy of the Oxford American today so that I would not have to stare into space while eating alone a slice of whole wheat crust Daily Special pizza at the Upper Crust.  Who would have thought I would have to come here to buy Arkansas literature? Thank you for my long walks and sore calves.  

Dear Boston,

You hosted me a couple of times before.  When I was a little kid in the eighties, you probably thought I was barefoot and straight out of Walker Percy's Mississippi.  You weren't completely wrong.  You told me "We don't carry Dr. Pepper in these pahts" without a hint of irony.  You showed me for the first time what real wind and cold are.  I didn't forget.  When I was a college student tagging along with my roommate and her family for the MIT family weekend, you laid the Freedom Trail out before my feet, and I loved knowing why history matters and stays and doesn't fundamentally change.

Dear Boston,

Thank you for hosting the St. Louis Cardinals during the weekend I am in town.  What luck!  I am very interested in your sports culture and have read all the Globe's coverage of the Celtics championships last week.  A city that loves their teams is a place I can love.  I took great pains to plan a potential outing at the country's oldest ball field.  I scouted internet bargains, asked questions, and walked to Fenway to see for myself.  The Cards were trouncing your Sox and it was well into the game, so I knew my scalper was going to be easy to find and ready to sell.  I couldn't find him or anyone else, though, so I walked and loitered outside the bars and caught TV snippets and shopped for baseball caps.  I turned back.  On my way, the only guy left selling tickets gave me a deal.  I retraced my steps again and found the gate, made small talk with the attendant, smelled the hot dogs, felt the roar of the crowd.  

Dear Boston,

Your ticket man robbed me and sold me a bogus ticket.

Dear Boston,

I will never forget that.  I might never forgive it.  Please find your crumpled ticket in the green trash receptacle on Newbury Street amongst the coffee-stained newspapers.  Thanks for nothing.  When I bring my son to your ball park, I will not let him know that such things happen in the name of the greatest game on earth.  Let's just keep it a secret, shall we?

Set list

indigo girls

Little Rock's Robinson Center Music Hall

June 10th, 2008 8PM

pendulum swinger

yield

fill it up again

heartache for everyone

power of two

hope alone*

world falls*

get out the map

sugar time?

fleet of hope?

three hits

hammer & nail

devotion

last tears*

another new song?

prince of darkness

shame on you

"don't think twice it's all right"?*

kid fears*

closer to fine**

-encore-

tried to be true*

rock and roll heaven's gate**

galileo**

Legend:  * = brandi carlile joined, **= brandi and her band, ?=new songs I don't know the names to very well

It was a really great show.  But the whole story would take pages and pages, because the night was screwed up by melancholy and fighting and breakdown.  I have some work to do.  We have some work to do.  My whole life has been on hold since that night, and I have experienced the full range of human emotions.  Let's just say there are three mental health appointments for me in the next 48 hours as I attend to myself.  It happens.  I am not immune to my humanity.