knocked out by a head cold (lyn)

What I do today pales in comparison to what I was supposed to do.

I was supposed to meet two friends, Ellen and Penny, at a museum tour at the Guggenheim to see the new Maurizio Catttelan exhibit (I mention his name as if I know his art; I don’t, but Penny does).

I am supposed to meet Robyn later to see a screening of Young Adult with a Q&A after with Charlize Theron, Diablo Cody, and Jason Reitman.

This is what I do instead:

• Wake up with a horrible sore throat, chills, stuffy nose, and headache.
• Drink hot tea.
• Catch up on blogging.
• Drink more hot tea.
• Schedule an appointment to have oral surgery.
• Have the squash soap I made last Saturday; it’s still great.
• Drink more tea.
• Order three sushi rolls for dinner (from the lunch special at Ging’s).
• Walk a couple of blocks to buy Cold-Eeze and DayQuil.
• Come home exhausted from the effort and crawl onto my bed.
• Go through five days of mail, mostly catalogues and junk.
• Have an afternoon snack of a few cashews and a ¼ cup (5 points) of the chocolate pomegranate candies.
• Get in bed to read the paper and fall asleep.
• Sleep through dinner.
• Wake up to finish this post.
• Go back to bed; this time to go to sleep; it’s not even 7pm.

bob evans, I love you (m)

This (Jamestown, New York) is the town that time passed by.  It used to be an old mill town but, as times changed, life moved on everywhere but here.  Even the weather has been unkind to this place.  On Tuesday night, one of our families got caught in a tornado, her car spun around.  Last night, it snowed, bilzzard-like conditions for about an hour (the same time I was walking to the rink, sans socks).

We have been scratching our heads, wondering where to eat here.  Every egg seems to be processed beyond recognition, all chicken parts are fried.  Lots of pizza, strombolis and calzones.  The local grocery store has dust on the packages.

And then, I saw it.  A Bob Evans restaurant.  I remember these from our trips with Sam's baseball teams to the South.  Bob Evans...who could argue with a motto that says, "Where we treat strangers like friends and friends like family?"

I had a hard time convincing the Whole Foods crowd that we should eat here.  I found a menu in the lobby of our Best Western hotel (along with a pamphlet for the Cutco factory ("knives sharpened free" --I'm kicking myself for not having brought my set of knives with me on this trip).

The menu speaks for itself.  Breakfasts all day.  Lots of soups, sandwiches, Thanksgiving dinner (and you can pre-order your own Thanksgiving in a Box with all the trimmings for your own holiday dinner at home).  The salad section has the full count of protein, carbs, calories and fat.  Who can argue with this?  The price point is under 10 dollars for every item.

I got the chicken pecan salad. $8.99.  Free ice tea refills.  That was lunch yesterday.  Today, I get the egg white omelet with mushrooms, spinach, onions and broccoli. Divine.  $7.99.

Little by little, word is getting around the rink that this is the place to eat.  Today, Harrison and I see a few more of our Bob Evans recruits at the restaurant.

I'm happy here.  A clean room at the Best Western and a good meal at a great value at Bob Evans.

What more could you ask for?

sam's birthday (m)

Today is Sam's 22nd birthday.  I am with Harrison at a skating competition and Sam is headed to his first hockey game of the season.  Sophie's Choice--I went with Harrison and T is going to Sam's game.

We celebrated Sam's birthday last weekend when he came home for a couple of days.  A nice dinner with the family, Sam's girlfriend J and my nephew Chris.  Dal Frisco's in Boston.  My husband almost choked when he saw the bill.  There's a high price associated with eating well...oysters, Gulf shrimp, Australian lobster, etc.

Sitting in the stands with one of the mothers from our skating club, I learn today that her daughter shares this birth day with Sam.  We compare war stories of what were two traumatic births.

In Sam's case, I was ten days past my due date.  I remember being housebound, waiting for this baby to arrive.  My friend, Mary, came over to distract me by suggesting we do a craft.  She brought wood, an electric drill, hammer, fabric, ribbon and glue.  We made a two-panel screen for my living room (which I still have and is in perfect condition).

Later that night, T got us spicy food from Bertucci's.  I woke up the next day....nothing.  So, I went out shopping at Conran's in Cambridge and bought some blue and white trays.  Got cramps, went into the bathroom there and learned that I was bleeding.

The rest is a blur.  Mary rushed me home; T rushed me to the hospital.  The staff rushed me into the Operating Room.  Sam arrived at 7:40 p.m.  I looked at the clock and realized it was the exact same time another friend was exchanging wedding vows.

The doctor announced it was a boy.  T and I told them the full name.  One doctor said "Lawyer"  another said "Banker."  It was fun...for a minute.  Then the pediatric intensive care people rushed in and whisked him off to a respirator.  I saw him for less than one minute.  He was white and his face was all scrunched up, trying to breathe.

In the recovery room, we waited for news of my baby's condition.  I couldn't stop shaking as the anesthesia was wearing off.  I held the railing of the bed but the shaking was loud.  T was sitting there, stunned as the priest rushed in to say he was doing an emergency baptism on Sam.

While we were waiting for more news, I noticed something that irks me to this day.  T was eating my Tootsie Roll pops which I had packed assuming I would need this when I was in labor to keep my mouth and lips moist.  He took the red one, too.  My favorite.

Funny what we remember.

another screening (lyn)

I meet Gail for lunch before our screening of Take Shelter, an interesting movie with a stunning performance by Michael Shannon.

The place I’ve chosen for lunch is a tiny midtown restaurant called Macaron.  I’ve been there before.  They have unusual sandwiches and salads, and yummy little macarons.  I arrive at two, assuming the place that has about four tables will be empty.  It isn’t.  People are squeezed in everywhere and every table is taken. Fortunately,  Gail is already there and is seated at one of the few tables.  “I just want to tell you, they are out of bread.”  It’s a sandwich place, and they are out of bread?  We leave.

We walk a block and go to David Burke’s restaurant at Bloomingdales.  It’s perfect.  There are at least five things on the menu that I’d love, although none of them are even remotely weight-watcher friendly.  Maybe that’s why it is so appealing.  I order the crab cake sliders with fries.  The little crab cakes are adorable. They come on teeny-tiny hamburger buns, and each one (there are three) is perfectly prepared.  They look like they belong in a doll house, except that they are filling and delicious with more crab than batter.  They’d be wasted on Barbie and her friends. 

a birthday dinner gone bad (lyn)

I am the first one to arrive at Beyoglu, a smallish Turkish restaurant not far from my apartment.  Even at 8pm on a miserable rainy night, the restaurant is packed and loud.  I arrive starving which is never a good thing.  Before the night begins, and so we don’t forget, we take a group photo.  Everyone is smiling and here to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

We start with an appetizer of hummus and some Turkish bread.  All but one skip the alcohol and settle on water.  I order lamb chops with white rice pilaf and some onions and carrots (which pretty much go uneaten).  The conversation is on par with the food…interesting and plentiful. 

But somewhere along the way things go astray, and well, the night takes a turn.  Without going into details (think Vegas), suffice it say, that before the night ends,

• I order a glass of wine around 11, because I really need a drink…maybe for the first time ever.
• Feelings are hurt (including mine).
• And one fragile friendship (not mine) appears to end.

We leave around midnight, as the wait staff stands around anxious to go home.  All other tables in this once-busy restaurant are empty. It’s been a memorable night, but for all the wrong reasons.

that tooth again (lyn)

In 2006, I nearly lost my mind. It started with a tooth.  In short, my dentist at the time thought I needed to have an old filling refilled; without much thought I said fine.  Then my dentist discovered that the tooth was too small to be refilled  and instead I needed a crown.  I got one, and with it, unrelenting pain.  My dentist and his colleague  re-did the crown three times.  The pain persisted.  So next came a  root canal.  And still, the pain would not stop. I went to other dentists, ENT doctors, jaw doctors, oral surgeons, holistic healers;  I tried everything. The pain spread throughout my body.  I got sore throats that could not be diagnosed as anything serious.  A strange tinny taste sat in my mouth.  Throbbing pain continued.  It was worse than child birth.  I became anxious. My hands tingled.  I was dizzy. I was incapable of functioning normally.  I lost my appetite, totally.  This went on for months.  I was eventually put on an antidepressant called Lexapro that I am still on, five years later.  Going back to where I was still scares me.  It took four months before I began to feel normal again.  It was truly the most frightening experience of my life.

Today I go to an oral surgeon and am told that the very same tooth is not in contact with the tooth next to it.  X-rays from 2007 confirm that it’s been this way for a while.  How come no one saw this?  I see a dentist every four months or so.  Because there has been a small space between two teeth, food has gotten in and settled.  Over time, the food has worked its way into the gum and is now eating away at the bone.  It is seeping pus. 

I now have to have a bone graft on that same tooth with the hope of saving it.  If that doesn’t work and the tooth needs to be removed, well, that’s a whole other nightmare I’d rather not think about.  The surgeon won’t know until he’s in cleaning out the tooth.  The expense of this is exorbitant, but the doctor says I can pay it out over time.

I have to wonder:  Couldn’t this whole mess have been avoided?  Why wasn’t this seen when dentists looked at my x-rays from as far back as 2007?  Had it been noted then, I wouldn’t be in this situation now.

I’m scared.  This doctor seems good and I like his style.  I saw rave reviews for him when I googled his name.  He was a White House dentist and worked on both George Bush and Hillary Clinton.  I doubt they’d have a bad dentist.

Grrrrrr …hate even thinking about this stuff.  Just wish it were over.

a play (lyn)

The sun has barely set and I'm having dinner.  It's 5:30,  I eat a small salad,  half a Fairway’s chicken pot pie, and a slice of a chocolate cake from Zabars.  I feel like I'm back on the Cape visiting my parents.  By 6, the dishes are cleared and I'm on a bus to meet Meredith.  We are seeing Venus in Fur, a new Broadway play starring Hugh Dancy and an extraordinary Nina Ariandra.  Curtain is at 7.

The play, like the performances, is exhilarating.  It's all the nourishment I really need.  I should have skipped the chocolate cake.