Last Week in Review

Time for an update, I suppose.  I'm not feeling particularly poetic or insightful, but I feel like it's been too long since my last post, so here's what's new:

-  I'm slowly recovering from surgery.  I went to my post-op and the doc had a feeling I might have had a little infection, or something, that had caused the healing process to take it's time.  He gave me an anti-biotic and I think it's finally starting to help.

-  Last weekend, Steve and Jess came to visit.  We only really got to hang out Saturday, but boy, did we squeeze every minute out of it.  Jess and I were up til 7am Sunday morning chatting it up.  We had an amazing dinner at Barcelona and it was so nice to have familiar faces in our home.

-  This week, Dan and I were like honeymooners.  I don't know what got into us, but it was all romance, cutesy giggling back and forth, tickling each other, sappy notes showing up in our cars or little presents waiting for each other when we got home. Just stupid crazy lovey dovey-ness.  It's been amazing, not that it isn't always, but it's just been a notch further in the gross sappiness.

  Our weekend was no exception.  We ended up going to a great show on Saturday.  We saw a great little band called Heavy Breath and a fun band called Hostage Calm (Their song "Ballots/Stones was on my bday mix cd Dan made me and you can listen to here.) in a sweet little spot called "The Space" in Hamden.  The energy of the show was intense.  It was pretty nuts and fun to watch.  I didn't realize how much you use your abs to block people from flying into you while standing on the inside ring of the pit...  Not smart being 2 weeks out from surgery and having incisions still pretty fresh...

It was also a blinding reminder that I'm too old for that shit.  Unfortunately, a lot of these up and coming hardcore bands Dan finds only play these shitty "all-ages" venues.  No bars/clubs...  It's kind of a pain in the ass.  There are rarely seats, sometimes no AC, tons of children (17 and younger...  Like pre-pubescent younger) and very rarely alcohol.  This venue was better in the way that it had a bar across the parking lot that was affiliated.  They too had live music and ended up being a pretty chill spot that I would visit again.  The actual show, however, was filled with these teeny boppers wearing ballerina flats and thrift store outfits being loud and obnoxious.  It's hard to be around when you're 28.  It's easy for me to remember how irritating I was at their age.  A few years ago, I found a VHS of me from high school and was left cringing after viewing.  I couldn't stand being around the teenaged me, now, and it's no different with these kids.

It's great that they have a place to go and get to absorb so much live music, but it's hard to go from seeing shows at badass venues and Baltimore and DC to these holes in the wall (though Bmore had some of these venues popping up, as well, that ended up getting annoying pretty quickly).  It's just this movement and this generation.  It's different.  I was telling Dan how I remember growing up, the band members were always way older than me.  Now, they're all way younger.  Our generation were lazy or something.  There was never a time where the band members were my age.  Wtf?

-  The most important thing that's happened since my last post was that a good friend of mine found out his 4 year old daughter has leukemia.  It's terrifying and tragic.  I hate that I can't be there with him and his daughter, but a flight out to Tennessee isn't cheap on such short notice, and I could only do a weekend since I have zero time left to take from work.  It's been weighing on me heavily because I feel so helpless.  I can't imagine what he must be feeling.  We talk every day, but I know there's a lot he's holding in to be strong for her (and himself).  He's basically doing this alone and it's heartbreaking.  I set up a site for him at The Caring Bridge which is a great free organization that makes blogging/progress reporting/photo uploading and guestbook signing super easy for anyone going through any tough illness.  It's a nice way to keep in touch and keep loved ones informed without having to put forth much energy.  it's also nice to be able to write her notes directly just to brighten her day and let her know people are thinking of her.  The whole thing is so painful.  I wish there was more I could do.

On that note, I'm going to dive into this crazy busy week.  Hopefully I'll somehow end up being productive.

xo,
Rachael