My sister and I have emptied our mom's apartment, and I'm about to drive across the country in a minivan. So many things I never predicted at this point in my life. I'll be going through Cheney country. If you don't hear from me by Thursday, send in the Black Panthers. Actually, send them anyway
Viewing entries in
Personal
Hey good people. For some of you this will be a bit sudden, and for that I apologize, but on October 12, 2005 my mother passed away at 6:30pm in the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston. She was 65 years old and left behind two (dare I say wonderful) kids: me and my older sister, Belinda.
It's' getting a bit late, and I don't have time or energy to call everyone I'd like, but thanks to Al Gore and the fact the Google runsthe planet, you can read this email.
Since the last update I sent some of you a week ago, my mom's condition (stage 4 colon cancer spread to liver and lungs) took a pretty sudden downward turn. Last Friday she was complaining about getting confused, being in more pain and really being unable to sleep, so we checked her in to the ER.
Over the weekend, after various tests, the oncologists gave us (me, mom, sister) two choices: a) pursue a mild chemotherapy with minimal chance of improvement and guaranteed side effects or b) control the
pain.
My mom chose the morphine, and we supported that.
The hospital stay then turned into a real tragicomedy raising such important questions as:
- Why did my mom nearly poo in my sister's face? While I had a great laugh, my sis wasn't so impressed.
- How is it that ma forgot the names of her children but remembered her Apple Powerbook?
- On the hospital lunch menu there is a "Cold Entrees" section. One of the items offered is simply "American Cheese." Why?
- When the nurses were checking my mom's mental faculties, they asked her the date, year, location. She answered all these flawlessly. When they asked who the president was, she answered, "I'd rather not say." How can a woman on morphine, lactulose, lasics, potassium, with high amonia and low sodium and tumors flooding her liver and lungs see something half the country still doesn't?
More blogging and podcasting to come. Send me happy birthday wishes NOW!
These are the words of my cell phone in Barcelona. I'm here for just a few days this week to attend a telecom conference for my other life. I was quick to get out of a taxi yesterday and forgot the phone, ended up racing down the middle of the street for the cab, but the lights were against me. The driver was so nice, though, he returned it to my hotel! Te amo, Barcelona!!
Today was hot in more ways than one. Not only did the sun reveal itself in Boston after hiding for what seemed like weeks in an undisclosed secure location, but I had one of the most interesting days in a long time. Lessons learned: power yoga rocks, HDTV sucks, Crash is a great movie and I'm a whore for conversation
Get Your Asana On
First let me get into the power yoga. My girlfriend and I started about three weeks ago with a beginner's workshop at Baron Baptiste Power Yoga Vinyasa studio in Cambridge. I haven't become so instantly addicted to something since those Entenmann's Pop'ems my freshman year in college.
This ain't your calm, cool and collected pretzel yoga. This is that hot, sweaty haven't-gotten-a-full-body-workout-like-this-since-high-school-wrestling kinda yoga. I've got a goal of three classes a week, and did Class 7 today. Go Me. Go Me. Go Me. Anyway, I woke up at 8:45 for a class that began at 9, but still managed to make it pretty much on time. Afterward, I felt more energized than anything. Leave it to television to try and sap that life out of me.
How TV Almost Ruined My Life
Ok, that was strongly worded, but TV most definitely almost ruined my day. Earlier this week I ordered the HDTV package from RCN so I could take advantage of the better quality picture with my new HDTV screen. I knew my TiVo couldn't benefit, but for $5 extra a month, I thought it would be nice to watch a live feed occasionally on HBO or one of te major US networks.
Problems first started when the cable guy couldn't get a straight picture to show up. Then I noticed that the connectors on the back of the new box didn't match the last one, so I wasn't sure how TiVo would be able to change the channels. I should have taken it as a sign and sent the man packin, but he fixed the picture and I was distracted. An hour after he left, I was still messing around with cables and decided to drop it. I called RCN and told them to come pick up their shit. I wanted to go back to the system that worked. Of course, cable homeboy was off duty, so I had to make an appointment for Thursday! No worries. It got me outside
Lookin up
Once I turned the TV off, it was all good. I went for a beautiful walk all across Cambridge -- picked up some ice cream frrom Christina's, stopped by my mailbox in Central Square, then decided to walk to Boston to see "Crash." What a good choice!
I love seeing movies and having NO idea what they are about. That's how it went with Crash. All I knew is that my man Don Cheadle was in it. I don't want to ruin the full experience for those of you living under rocks. I won't tell you anything about the movie, except you must see it!
Friendly Reunions
Leaving the theatre, I noticed a voicemail from my friend, Enko. I had been talking about him last night with my moms, and he was in town for the night. I was planning on walking to Harvard Square anyway, but he warned me that it was pouring rain up there. About 10 minutes later, the rain made it to Boston, but with his warning, I had time to grab a garbage bag from 7-Eleven and find a spot under an awning to wait it out.
It's pretty amazing to witness a downpour from beginning to end while standing in the same spot. It's like a symphony. First you feel the little drops, like the orchestra tuning up before a big concert. Then, with very little warning, the sky opens up causing a chain reaction everywhere. People run. Cars slow down. And where there used to be dust and dry ground, water now flows. When you get used to that, a whole new instrument section starts up when the gutters on the roofs overflow. It's beautiful.
I made it up to Harvard and spent the next few hours talking with Enko and his girlfriend Silva, then rolled to Cambridge 1 where I ran into cool couple of the millenium, Uyen-Khahn and Eoin, and we talked for hours more about comedy, consumerism, world travel and more...
I'm too tired to go into the detail of all of it, but the moral of the story is clear: life for me went a lot better today once I walked away from the TV
Picture188_02Apr05,
originally uploaded by baratunde.
this is a test
We've stopped in Auburn, Washington which is 20 miles outside of Tacoma!! Today's drive from Burley, Idaho was breathtaking. Sooo. Many. Mountains. They just kind of creep up on you. Really, they should be charged with stalking or looming or something
We had arrived in Idaho last night under the cover of darkness, so we really didn't know what the terrain looked like around us. However, looking out the window in the morning, we couldn't help but notice a large, snow-covered mountain outside. Just like that. Even David Blain can't do magic like that.
Then on the drive out of Idaho, across the Northeast corner of Oregon and into Washington, we climbed and descended mountains, cut through valleys and paid way too much for gas. I think the record for the trip was at a Chevron in Ellensberg, Washington: $2.39 per gallon!!! For that price, I at least want universal healthcare, dammit.
At one point today, we stopped at a scenic overlook on I-82. There was a lot of graffiti inside the overlook gazebo proclaiming love or good blowjobs or gibberish. But one listed a website that I decided to check out. Just because I admire the guy for putting his website as graffiti on a scenic overlook, I want you to check out dieselducy.com and check out this guy's love of his wife, Jesus and the road.
That's about it. The end is basically here, with my mom and I having driven over 3,200 miles. I may do a final Westward Bound entry once we've scene the apartment my mom will be moving into.
Until later
So the westward journey continues, and right now I'm at a Best Western in Burley, Idaho. Burley's alright. They've got at least one black person here, an all-day breakfast restaurant open till 1am (which is better than big city Cambridge, Mass) and a rather large mountain just outside my window
We've got about 675 miles left to get to Tacoma, and then it's time to explore -- finding grocery stores and furniture and the police department. You know, the usual.
Yesterday we had some fun drama as my sister freaked out that she hadn't heard from us since friday evening. My girlfriend actually called the state troopers about us! Never ever call the police on black people driving through Nebraska. It makes the locals nervous
Well folks, sorry for the radio/blog silence, but I'm on a road trip to Tacoma, Washington with my mother. Am currently in North Platte, Nebraska, and oh what an interesting town. They don't display the gas prices up in here! Also, Canada can kiss my ass -- lack of road signs and a wrong turn had me ending up in a Toronto ghetto. You can expect some great podcasts out of this trip, so be patient. Gotta run!
So, I'm on this ride west, cutting through Iowa as fast as possible, when my mother and sister (in the car in front of me) pull off at an exit. Turns out they saw a sign for LT Organic Farm Restaurant & Market. There we found what I'll say is hands down the best meal in America (outside of mom's cookin). I had an opportunity to interview LT and his wife, and you're gonna like what I found. Stay tuned...