Posts in the “personal” category

I recently went through a period where my blood pressure (BP) went up to 150/100 and stayed there. My normal BP is ~115/70, so I monitored it for a few days, and when it stayed there I made an appointment with my primary care physician (PCP). I explained everything to her, how I eat almost exclusively organic foods that I prepare at home, and I exercise harder than I have since 2011. I told her that I started feeling a little sick about two weeks ago, and that I was now feeling worse. I suggested that I probably had an infection, because that had been a recurring problem before we knew about the mast cell disease, and I had also just had a surgery in December. To me there was no logical reason that my BP should be that high unless I’m having an infection or some sort of heart issue.

Nonetheless, without doing any tests, her recommendation was that I should increase my Lisinopril dosage from 20mg to 40mg — which is the max you can take, and also has potentially severe side effects. My response was along the lines of, “Okay, whatev,” and after I left her office I made an appointment to see a specialist. I felt like she was just medicating the effect, and had little interest in understanding the cause.

“Keep it small, but keep it going.”

~ a good quote from Pete Seeger, via John Mellencamp (from the IndyStar)

My college admission story is that my dad said, “Son, go to college, I’ll figure out a way to pay for it.” Then after my freshman year he said, “Sorry, it turns out I can’t really afford to pay for it. Go get yourself some more grants and loans, and keep up the good work. May the Force be with you.”

“If you’re best player has an unhappy attitude when he shows up to work, there’s no joy, there’s no passion to what he brings, that affects the team, it affects the locker room, it’s huge. Teams need leaders, teams need passion, teams need energy, they need positiveness, they need joy.”

~ Chad Brown, about thirteen minutes into this 104.3 The Fan recording, in a discussion about star player Kyrie Irving of the Celtics constantly appearing unhappy, and the team being 10-2 without him.

On March 4, 1993, Jim Valvano gave a very emotional and inspirational video. “Time is very precious to me, and I don’t know how much I have left, and I have some things I would like to say.”

A terrific quote from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar about auctioning off his memorabilia and giving the $3M+ proceeds to his Skyhook Foundation charity that helps kids learn about science, technology, engineering and math:

“When it comes to choosing between storing a championship ring or trophy in a room or providing kids with an opportunity to change their lives, the choice is pretty simple: Sell it all. Looking back on what I have done with my life, instead of gazing at the sparkle of jewels or gold plating celebrating something I did a long time ago, I’d rather look into the delighted face of a child holding their first caterpillar and think about what I might be doing for their future. That’s a history that has no price.”

From 2015-17 I spent most of my time in hospitals and in bed, and went unconscious seven times. Today I can bench 210 (all the weight on the machine), work the elliptical thirty minutes, and practice yoga every night. Never give up.

Happy Rare Disease Day!

(If you’d like to donate to people working to cure my disease, please visit The Mastocytosis Society website.)

One woman can make you fly like an eagle, another can give you the strength of a lion, but only one in the Cycle Of Life can fill your heart with wonder and the wisdom that you have known a singular joy.

~ Twin Peaks

Carlos Castaneda meets Denali: “Does this path have a heart?”

For me, the path that led me to Alaska had a heart. For others, that path may have no heart, but another path does.

“Long, uninterrupted, alert practice is the firm foundation for restraining the fluctuations of the consciousness.”

~ Patanjali (via Iyengar)

Some properties one can gain from practicing yoga, from the The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Think I’m going to work on “invisibility” in 2015. :)

We walked the narrow path,
Beneath the smoking skies.
Sometimes you can barely tell the difference
Between darkness and light.
Do we have faith
In what we believe?
The truest test is when we cannot,
When we cannot see.

~ Lyrics from a pretty (but sad) song named It Can’t Rain All The Time, by Jane Siberry, which I first heard in the movie, The Crow.

I think I’ve discovered the secret of life: you just hang around until you get used to it.

~ Charles M. Schulz

New book/story idea: Life is a bit of a game, and as a result you’re put in the vicinity of your soulmate. Not right next door per se, but somewhere within your range of life such that you will encounter this person, such as the friend of a friend, someone you work with, a person you run into at a store, etc. So the game is, out of all the people you meet as your life unfolds, can you identify your soulmate? And maybe as a secondary plot, how do you handle it if you get get close but make a mistake ... say you marry a person which creates circumstances that put you in the vicinity of your soulmate, and you later realize your mistake?

“The way you look at things is the most powerful force in shaping your life. In a vital sense, perception is reality.”

~ John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

(Or, as I wrote many years ago, all you are is attitude.)

I don’t know who created this image, but I’m all for it. Make America kinda again. Make America compassionate again. Make America smart again. Any sort of intelligent, enlightened leadership in this country would be wonderful.

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I’ve been a fan of Joe Walsh for a while, especially since meeting a friend back in 2013 that had a drug and alcohol problem. Here are a few quotes from him from an article titled, Creating While Clean (Sober musicians on how to thrive creatively without drugs or booze):

Most of my buddies are dead. And for some reason, I am not.

I would say I’m a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous. I have 25 years of sobriety. But the important thing is, I haven’t had a drink today.

How do you say it? “A huge ego with no self-esteem.”

I was that scared little kid again. And I managed to get some consecutive days of sobriety, and I went to some AA meetings, and I realized, “I can’t say my life got better, but it stopped getting worse.” And that was huge. So I stuck around. And I realized that I’m not one of a kind and unique and different from everybody else. I’m an alcoholic. And a big light went off, and I didn’t feel alone anymore.

I can’t say this to you in ink. I can pencil it in: I know I’m good today.

My life has got better beyond my wildest imagination.

(And if you’ve never heard it before, here’s his song, One Day At A Time.)

Tina Turner talks about the power of love in this LionsRoar.com article.

Worked on pickup lines with my nieces in Illinois last night. I usually go with, “Excuse me, do you know how to bake cookies?”;  “Oreos: Regular, or Double Stuf?”; or the classic, “What did you do when Hostess went bankrupt?” But thanks to them I’m working on my repertoire:

You’re so hot you must’ve started global warming.

Did it hurt? When you fell from heaven?

If you were a booger I’d pick you first. (might be best used in grade school)

Is it hot in here, or is it just you? (may be good if the woman appears to be having hot flashes)

Do you have a map? I just got lost in your eyes.

Stop, drop, and roll, baby. You are on fire.

Woo baby, you’re hotter than donut grease. (works best at Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts)

~ a Facebook memory from January 24, 2014