motion

It’s Orchesis (contemporary dance) weekend at OPRF. It’s always a highlight of the spring to watch Leah do her thing, but this year it’s been even more emotional than usual. These are the final performances of her high school career. She’s absolutely making the most of it, performing a solo, in several duets and ensemble pieces, and also choreographing several others, including a show-stopping rocker that closes the first act. There’s really nothing better than watching your kids kick ass, especially at things you could never do yourself.

Relatedly, Danny’s college team just completed a perfect 26-0 regular season. They only dropped a total of six sets all season. That’s good enough to be nationally ranked #2 in the NAIA¹. He’s played on some good teams over the years, going deep in the IHSA playoffs twice and winning a few club tournaments. Obviously nothing matches this level of excellence. Exciting stuff! Conference playoffs are this week, and nationals a couple of weeks after. The national finals are about nine days post-surgery, and we may make the trip to Cedar Rapids if I’m feeling up to it. And of course assuming they get through the prelims.

Yeah, surgery. I had my pre-surgical checkup last week, and all my labs and tests are in. We are go for launch, assuming something unexpected doesn’t pop up. All the same emotions (anxiety, dread, resignation) are still in play, but they’re joined by a new one, which is just a burning desire to get this shit over with.

I have been thinking a lot about my recovery. The list of things I can’t do has been taking up a lot of real estate in my head, already a deeply unhealthy place, so I am making a conscious effort to come up with what I can do. Assuming the surgery works and my fingers start moving again, it seems to me that sitting here with a guitar on my lap is very much allowed once I get through the immediate post-surgery discomfort. I’ve decided I’m going to tackle all the guitar solos on Steely Dan’s The Royal Scam, undoubtedly one of the great guitarist’s records of all time. Even at my peak a couple of decades ago, I couldn’t exactly pull them all off, especially the Larry Carlton masterpieces “Kid Charlemagne” and “Don’t Take Me Alive.” I don’t have the patience to sit and run scales and drills; never did. This project, however, should be a lot more fun.²

I’m taking advantage of my impending forced travel hiatus to renew my passport. There was a time early under the regime where the State Department’s renewal website was down. It’s back now, albeit with fewer choices under the gender drop-down than before. It doesn’t seem like the chainsaw has hit their staff too hard yet, and it appears they’re turning passports around about as quickly as ever. I don’t expect other kinds of trouble, but honestly, who knows. One thing I do know is that I need to retake the picture I got yesterday. Yikes.

After I mentioned my lifetime travel status last week, my friend Michael, clearly an avid journaler in addition to being a long-time business traveler, replied with a comprehensive list of all the airlines and airports he’d used/visited since [redacted]. He’s been to 78 airports! I tried to put my own list together from memory (probably not great!) and came up with 34 domestic and 15 international (49 total). How many have you been to?

• Domestic: BNA BOS CLE CLT DAB DAY DCA DEN DFW EWR HNL JFK KOA LAS LAX LGA LIH MCI MCO MDW MIA MSY ORD ORF PHL PHX RNO RSW SAN SAT SFO SJU SNA TPA
• International: BOM BZE CDG DXB GCM LHR MBJ MEX MUC PVR SJD SPR UVF YYZ ZRH

I ran a 5k yesterday down near my ancestral homeland on the southwest side. I’ve never run this race before. It was one of these “wine races” put together by some national organization, coordinated across many locations around the country. Definitely more of a fun run than a hardcore competitive thing, but that’s OK for where I am fitness-wise right now. There was a lot to like about the event. Great people, a pretty route through Dan Ryan Woods, perfect weather, and a quirky crossing of 87th Street aided by cops who stopped traffic for us on this major thoroughfare as needed. My favorite part³ was that it was held at Chicago’s only meadery. I didn’t know that was a thing; I thought mead was made by beardy guys in their basements who later show up at Ren Faires with it. They had samples for us at the end, and the one I tried was terrific. Sweet, but not so much as a dessert wine, and with a really nice citrus finish. I expected heaviness, but it was light, and really quite refreshing. I doubt quaffing mead will become a regular part of my post-run cooldowns, however.