2010 In Review, Part I: January - March

I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning. The end of 2009 saw Kirsten temporarily stranded in Blacksburg by the first of a couple massive snowfalls. Dylan had moved out of my apartment in Windsor Hills and Teddy was readying to move in (once he returned to the states from Hong Kong). I was preparing for my second semester of grad school, taking one required course in theory, and two electives, Creative Non Fiction and Business and Technical Writing. Kirsten, along with my roommates Teddy and Chris, was preparing to graduate. At the time she was considering grad school for the fall, namely Tech and Radford. In an attempt to bolster her resume, she joined an internship program to tutor at Blacksburg High School.

Honestly, the one definably "January" moment I can remember is recieving our electric bill at the end of the month for the period where no one was there. The bill was for over twice our previous highest bill, and unfortunately there was no mistake. However, a fonder memory is the week or so before classes began in which Teddy, Kirsten and I were able to spend some time together, mostly relaxing and catching up, hearing all about Hong Kong and Teddy's excursions to other parts of Asia. On one of his forrays to China, he bought himself a nice (cheap) suit, and very kindly, got one for me too. So of course, we had to wear them at the first opportunity, which happened to be initiation for brothers neither of us knew very well yet.


February seemed to primarily a blur of lots of snow. We had several sledding adventures on the hill with Zubie either in our laps or chasing us down the hill, barking the whole way and getting a face full of snow for his trouble. I got out of class with decent regularity. In one of my nights off, we decided to drive downtown to get some food. This trip should have been unremarkable if it weren't for the fact that Teddy locked his keys in his car, with it running. Fortunately, one door was only partially closed, and after much finagling, we were able to get a wire hanger in and pull the door handle from the inside. Of course, this event lead to a running joke every time we went anywhere, to make sure not to leave keys in the car.

In March, I began the month by visiting New York City during spring break for a few days with Kirsten, Anna, and some of Anna's friends, and we met Teddy there as well, who, along with his cousin, once again served as my guides through NYC. Our trip was only two days, but we did almost everything I had done on my first visit, which was four days. We took a Chinatown bus from DC to NYC Midtown (it drops you off by MSG). Going in, our goals were primarily gastronomic; Anna wanted to try to find the Best Burger in New York (courtesy of HIMYM), I insisted we had to try Katz and a Pizza too, and Teddy suggested we find a good Bagel place (something we'd failed to do in our first visit). We also located the bar that inspired MacClaren's from HIMYM, McGee's Pub, but ended up not stopping in.

Anywho, starting at the beginning, we took the Metro into Chinatown early in the morning and waited at our sketchy "bus stop" which was a sign over the door of an abandoned house's door. The bus, all black, eventually showed up, and we were on our way. We arrived in New York around 1:00 and made our way the half-dozen or so blocks from MSG to Madison Square Park, where our first (and only) Burger stop was: The Shake Shack. It's a little nicer than a shack, but it was a small building in the middle of a park. And we waited over an hour in line for our food. In addition to an amazing, heart-attack-inducing burger, we also got just as unhealthy cheese fries and something called a concrete. Our particular concrete was chocolate ice cream with brownie chunks, and probably some other chocolate items in the mix, with a consistency much like its name.


After our insanely delicious, and worth the wait meal, we took the subway to our hotel to put our stuff down and take a brief break. We then headed out and walked to Times Square. First stop was the Hershey's Store, which smelled deliciously of chocolate. I bought a Reese's shirt, and really hoped that it retained the smell of that store forever. Then we crossed the street and amused ourselves in the M&M's store for quite some time. It was much bigger than Hershey's (what with 3 floors), and was generally a little more ridiculous in the random things you could get with the M&M's logo on it. From there we headed into Times Square proper and looked into seeing a show, but even the cheapest tickets were a good bit more than we were looking to spend, and so we declined. Moving on down Times Square, we headed into the Toys R Us there and enjoyed the myriad displays and various toys themes, the Lego section, the Dinosaur section, and, of course, the Toy Story section. If you've never been, there's a Ferris Wheel inside the store. Truly a playland.

After Times Square, I think it was actually about dinner time, and with Teddy and I enthusiastically leading the way, we headed to Katz's Delicatessen. Kirsten followed Teddy and I's lead and ordered a pastrami Ruben (we probably should have shared). It wasn't quite as good as the first time, but that's like saying winning the lottery a second time wasn't as exciting as the first, it's that good. Anna wasn't nearly as pleased with her Philly Cheesesteak. Unfortunate, but we are in NY, not Philly. After our very filling dinner, we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked half-way across it. We had a heck of a view from there, even if I did keep looking at the ground and water hundreds of feet below through the planks.

Our next stop was Rockefeller Center. One of my driving goals in the visit was to take Kirsten ice-skating at Rockefeller, so we did. While we skated, Anna and the others were entertained by an older Asian man doing interpretive ice-dance. He was so into it and enthusiastic you couldn't help but admire him. After our brief skate, we walked over to Rockefeller center and went to the "Top of the Rock," which is cheaper and much easier than going to the top of the Empire State Building. The view was incredible, nearly indescribable.

The relatively dark spot is Central Park. After we descended from those heights, we parted ways from our guides and I insisted on returning to Times Square, since it is a different place at night. Compared to my previous visit, it was relatively quiet. By that I mean we didn't see any party buses or Lamborghinis. Regardless, it's still an explosion of light and sound. Once we were done taking in all the sights and sounds, we walked our way back to the hotel and gratefully removed our shoes and quickly slipped into unconsciousness.

On day two, we took the subway uptown to Teddy's cousin's apartment to meet up with them, and from there, went to a bagel place for breakfast/brunch. From there we walked a ways and walked by Tom's Restaurant (of Seinfeld fame). Cam, Anna's roommate, wanted to see Strawberry Fields, so we obliged, and went to Central Park, entering by Strawberry fields and then walking through the park to Columbus Circle. We walked by McGee's Pub, then took the subway downtown to see Ground Zero, then walked to the Liberty Island Ferry. We walked briefly around the island, taking the obligatory photos with Lady Liberty, then headed back to the ferry. For the second time in as many trips, rather than get off at Ellis Island, I was in a group that was too tired and too short on time to bother, and so we stayed on board. From there we went to Lombardi's in Little Italy for Pizza.


This was my favorite of the three pizzas: Meatball, green pepper, and sliced tomato. Having tried NY and Chicago pizza, I can't say they compare. They are two completely different things, and both of them are, quite simply, awesome. After dinner, we quickly made our way to Insomnia Cookies, which was just a few blocks away, where Anna got a box of delicious and (at the time) warm cookies. We then bolted for the subway to get us back to MSG to catch our bus. We were cutting it close, and our nerves were not helped by a delay on the line that had us waiting nearly fifteen minutes for the next train, which then stopped a few times in between stations. Getting off the train and in a hurry, we managed to go the wrong way for a couple blocks before realizing our mistake and then I ran ahead to hold the bus if need be. Fortunately, the bus itself had been running late and so we made it. Not by much, but we made it.

I could continue on in March by describing how I got a ticket for a right on red, and then continue on to April and beyond, but this post, due to my love for writing about trips, is already quite long enough, so I will conclude it here for now.

All the best to you and yours,

-TES

Malachi

This morning, we finally had to put Mally to sleep. He started having seizures on Friday night and hadn't been able to walk basically at all for a few days before that. On Saturday night, I drove up to Charlottesville to pick up Anna and head home. When we got home and saw him lying there, it was pretty heartbreaking. His breathing was erratic and when he had his eyes open, he had little control over them, but they looked frightened. I felt awful for him, and worried that maybe we selfishly put this off for too long. But that's a real hard call to make, and I'll never be sure.

We stayed up for a few hours, just hanging out with him and petting him a bit. The next morning, we carried him out to the car and I sat in the back seat with his head on my lap on the way to the vet. I carried him in and they weighed him. He was 45 pounds. When he had been healthy he'd been around 60. Then we carried him in to one of the rooms and set him on the table. They took him back in the back to insert his catheter, and then brought him back and gave us some time with him. Once we were ready, the vet came in with three syringes. She explained that the first was saline to flush the catheter. The second was a relaxing agent to calm him and basically put him to sleep. The last syringe was to stop his heart. She explained that it was valium based and would be completely painless, knocking him out and overloading his system, shutting down his heart.

We gave our OK and she gave the three injections. It seemed so fast. I had my hand on his chest and could feel his heartbeat fade away. She then left us there, telling us we could leave when ready and they would take care of him after we left the room. Seeing him on that table was surreal. The whole situation was surreal, and so contradictory. On one hand, I didn't want Mally to be in pain anymore. It was past time. On the other, I still didn't want to say goodbye.

The vet is associated with a cremation service, so we will get his ashes in a week or two. I'm not sure what to do with them. Mom suggested spreading them around the lake near our old house, but I feel a little selfishly against that. I would like to keep at least some of his ashes with me wherever life takes me, at least for the next few years. Admittedly though, it's still fresh, so I want to keep something to hold on to.

I think you can never get over your childhood pets, and honestly, your childhood dog in particular. Not that you should. Mally will always have a special place in my heart, and I will miss him.

Rest in peace Malachi, I will always miss you and love you. May angels guide you home.

-TES

My Dad

I've found myself thinking a lot about my dad recently (in the past year or so). In my Creative Non-Fiction class, I wrote a piece about him that, last I read it, I really liked, though I would like to add some things to it and work on it some more. Just a couple weeks ago I was struck with the need/desire to write a little poem focusing on my dad (which I will post a draft of below). And just the other night, I found myself thinking back to the summer of 2007, and how I wish I had done some things differently.

The thing that sticks out most in my mind is the last time I saw him. Anna, Kirsten, and I visited him at Georgetown Hospital. It was the day before I was leaving for Leadership Academy in Bethany, WV. Carl greeted us as we came to the floor he was on and was clearly agitated. I know he talked to us, but I can't remember anything of what he said. Then we went in to Dad's room. He looked bad and he was complaining about the doctors and how everyone working there were a bunch of idiots. I didn't say much. I told him I loved him, and hugged him on his bed, then I left the room. I don't think I was in there for more than a few minutes.

I don't know why that was. Looking back, I can see he was clearly scared. He knew what was happening and I feel like I didn't do enough to assure him that I loved him, that I forgave him for all his faults, that I was still proud of all the things he had taught me, and that he would always be my Dad. I wish I could have apologized for being intimidated by his problems, for avoiding him, for not spending enough time with him when no one else would.

Looking back, I feel like I dismissed the seriousness of the visit. I knew very well that he would probably never walk out of that hospital, but yet, I didn't spend much time with him when I was given one last chance to. And I don't know why.

He died the next morning, probably while I was in the air from D.C. to Pittsburgh. I got a call from Carl while I was on the bus from Pittsburgh to Bethany. It wasn't a shock, but it still wasn't pleasant. I felt so alone in that week.

A Father Son Sport

My father taught me the game
before I wore real pants.
A drainspout was home
backyard corners bases
and every hit a full lap.

My father whispered at my door
inning by inning updates.
I heard his tears
as he described a child like me
Robbing a city's dream.

My father called for clearance
before visiting the house
The basement my remains of home,
one of many rooms
With a glove long outgrown.

My father suddenly called often
to my home away from home.
As he always had
he awaited the heat
ending school and beginning.

My father died that summer
when LOVE was reintroduced.
Why did I rekindle an old flame
and never bring him
to one last game?