tomorrow morning my dad will be undergoing another surgical procedure
this time to remove blockage from his carotid (neck) arteries
it's natural to worry a little, but I'm much more calm this time around (and so is he).

349 electoral votes, 63,086,314 actual votes, and still counting...

now THAT'S a fucking mandate

and as an added bonus proposals 1 and 2 both passed

stem cell research, medical marijuana, and a black president

fuckin' sweet

MATH
no questions, hands down, most useful.

I fucking hated math as a kid and still do to this day, but I cannot deny the utter necessity of teaching it.
the whole world runs on numbers and mathematics...


and basic grammar runs a close second
read a few blogs at random and I think you'll agree

I finally got a new job
now instead of making donuts I will be making cupcakes at the cupcake station in Birmingham (near the palladium). Better pay and a shorter drive, plus I won't be working for a crazy Indian family, and maybe I won't have to worry about my damn paychecks bouncing due to sheer fucking stupidity.

anyways, "cupcake" is a fucking hilarious word...

so my dad had his quadruple bypass operation on the morning of 8-8-08 and he pulled through just fine. he's in the hospital in dayton recuperating at an almost record speed and he may be released as early as tomorrow. they didn't deal with his heart valves this time around (they're only really worried about one of them anyways and it may be alright without an even more invasive surgery) they also found some swelling in the lymph nodes and did a biopsy just to be safe (results should be back in a week or so) but the important thing is that his heart muscles are already getting stronger, which is a very good sign. he's going to have to get his carotid arteries scraped out at some point but that's a much simpler procedure. so he's fine, he shaved a few years off of his life to be sure, but I get the feeling that he's gonna be around for quite awhile longer (as long as he starts going to the fucking doctor on a regular basis)

I think I shaved a few years off of my life from all the stress, and honestly the steady stream of odd coincidences and fortunate occurences is enough to make my brain fizzle just a little bit, but all things being equal the events of the last week unfolded in exactly the right way.

so my dad has elected to stay at the Dayton Heart and Vascular Hospital and have the bypass there early tomorrow morning instead of coming back to Detroit and having it in a few days at Beaumont. I'm almost kind of relieved because I have certain misgivings about Beaumont. It's a smaller hospital in Dayton and he feels a lot more comfortable there (which is a big deal because my Dad absolutley hates hospitals), also the doctor who has been treating him is obviously first rate. Not to mention the fact that it's his heart and therefore his decision ultimately.

I'm worried, obviously, but not too worried. I mean the man had a heart attack and just kept on working for another three years before it caught up to him so he's definently strong enough.

it's my birthday
and my dad is coming home today
and despite the events of the past few days I am determined to enjoy today
he wouldn't want us stopping every aspect of our lives just for him
in fact it would probably make him feel even worse

and anyways, we are going to have to do that to some extent while he's recovering from open heart surgery

so today I'm living it up

just got back from Dayton and the hospital where my dad was taken. he had his catheterization today and we found out definitively what is wrong with him. he has severe heart disease. six of the major arteries feeding his heart have severe blockage, the best of them is 70% blocked. in addition to this he has two leaky or bad valves which is what caused all of that fluid buildup pressing against his lungs. the muscles in his heart are very weakened and are pumping at less than half of normal strength. what the doctor also told us is that he did not have a heart attack on Sunday but he sees evidence that he had a minor one at some point in the past. the man is so stubborn and ornery that he had a heart attack and didn't even realize it. after some careful thinking he's pretty sure that it happened when he was moving out of his studio downtown around 3 years ago, what makes it even stranger is that his identical twin brother Tom died of a stroke at about the same time. but aside from the heart disease and some blood pressure issues he's in relatively good shape so they're releasing him tomorrow and them my mom and sister will bring him home so that he can have the bypass operation at Beaumont and recover from it at home with his family. things will never be the same again though, he'll be on meds for the rest of his life and for a few weeks after the surgery he'll be completely unable to take care of himself on even the most basic level. so tomorrow, my 23rd birthday, will be the last day that I can ever think of myself through the lens of youth.

all thing being equal though...
it could have been a whole hell of a lot worse
at least there's a treatment
and he's obviously a fighter

so I'm trying to be optimistic

for his sake as much as my own

I just talked to my cousin Zane (an RN who worked for several years in a cardiac ward) and he explained to me in clinical terms what's wrong with my dad. He has congestive heart failure and may have had a very mild heart attack (the tests aren't all back yet on that one). Zane is pretty sure that he has a bad valve in his heart which apparently causes fluid retention over time which can damage other organs or in my dad's case slowly fill his lungs with fluid. They are draining the fluid by giving him meds that make him pee a lot and they will be doing a cardiac catheterization on Wednesday which will tell them whether or not he's going to need a bypass (open heart surgery). Apparently he is pretty well off in terms of how bad these things can get and if it does come down to surgery (which Zane seems to think is the case) his chances are very good but I'm still terrified. Look up exactly what the procedure is for bypass surgery and you'll know why.

so my dad is in the hospital
and I'm not 100% sure as to why
he was in Ohio at my aunt's house and didn't feel/look very healthy on Saturday but he was his stubborn self and told them that he was gonna get it checked out when he got back to Detroit. On Sunday he was outside doubled over in pain when my cousin Kelly noticed so they told him to cut the crap and called 911. I guess it has something to do with his heart (he may have actually had a heart attack but it's kinda unclear at this stage). What I do know is that the doctors drained something like 2 gallons of fluid out of him which doesn't really explain to me where his heart gets involved in the problem but at the moment it's looking like he may need surgery. I talked to him on the phone earlier today (I guess it's good that he can talk at least) and he sounded more worn out than I've ever heard him sound. so of course my mom is calling this a blessing in disguise because he's finally being looked at by a doctor (which he's needed for some time now) and she's right, but it still pisses me off that she would say something like that. tomorrow morning I'm driving to Dayton with my mom and sister to go see him and then I'm coming back the next night for my birthday plus the garage sale the day after that and everythingissohecticrightnowthatImightjustimplode...

I just got home from seeing the new X-Files movie and let me just say... what a let down. To be completely fair it wasn't actually a bad movie per se. The writing was good and the cinematography was superb. But it was basically just an extended stand-alone episode, and something of a filler episode at that. If you are going to this movie in the hopes of seeing a continuation of the alien mythos on which the bulk of the series is based, as I was, then prepare yourself for some serious disappointment. If you want to see what happens in the relationship between Mulder and Scully then you will get you wish. If for some random-ass reason your favorite episode of the show was third season's "Oubliette" then you'll positively fucking love it. Personally I felt rather betrayed, but I tend to overreact to things like this. Seriously though, how do you do another X-Files movie after that long and not even fucking mention the extraterrestrial conspiracy or some of the other crazy shit that happened over that last four seasons of that show? I repeat: what a fucking let down...


Dear Chris Carter,
I want my $7.50 back
Sincerely,
a die hard fan


...oh well, at least The Dark Knight was sweet

as of late in the Detroit area there has been a massive upswing in the practice of stealing anything made of metal that's even remotely valuable. what does this mean for me you ask? well what it means is that some asswipe got under my car and started sawing through my exhaust pipe with a hacksaw in an attempt to steal either my muffler or, far more likely, my catalytic converter. now whenever I start up my car it sounds like my muffler is about to explode. so now I have to have my pipe welded shut and since I know jack shit about cars someone, probably Aaron, is going to have to check and see if I still even have a catalytic converter.

this is what happens when I get bored and google myself:
fugate firearms

so my birthday is in a little over 3 weeks and I am at a loss for what to do so what I'm looking for are ideas that don't involve a lame ass party at some apartment where no one shows up and there's nothing to do anyways. I'd also like to avoid hanging out in a bar all night but it may come to that and if it does I already know a couple good bars within drunk walking distance of my apartment. so yeah if anyone comes up with anything good or interesting I would be grateful.

the MSI show on saturday at Harpo's was, pardon the cliche, off the motherfuckin' hook! even the opening bands were all right (which is about the best I can ever expect with bands opening for Mindless) the new album is awesome too. I think I fucked up my back and neck dancing but it was so worth it.

and apparently Gwar is playing at Harpo's later this summer... any takers?

The legendary Governor Clinton Tyree (aka Skink, Captain, etc.) of Carl Hiaasen's many many novels. The man is completley unhinged in the most perfect way. He shoots at tourists, eats roadkill, smokes hallucinogenic toad skins and is the embodiment of mother nature's steaming clawing cosmic vengeance against all who seek to spoil her splendor.

R.I.P.
Laura J. Campbell
1953 - 2007

...you will be missed...

eventually I will have the internet in my domocile, and it will be peachy
because public wifi can only go so far you know, but money is a bitch
at least I finally got into the class I have needed for the last 3 fucking semesters
wayne state is great and all but sometimes I think I should have just gone to specs howard

now I go back up the road to wake my lover before I head off to class

yay, I am heading back to detroit tomorrow morning
we're making one planned stop along the way at frank lloyd wright's fallingwater house which is something I've always wanted to see

today the king of prussia gifted me with new sandals and a reproduction allman brothers t-shirt, among other things. so that was pretty sweet

hello from the city of brotherly love (which lance from n*sync apparently enjoys)
yes, I am at my grandparent's house just outside of philadelphia
I flew out here with my mom on tuesday and I'm driving a car which is now mine back to the D on friday

no more eight-track mobile for me!

but...
I miss Alison
and I miss detroit
I even miss getting hit up on the sidewalk for spare change (I kept expecting it today and it never happened)

on the train ride into the city today I saw a boarded up factory covered in graffiti and I got so homesick I could hardly breathe

oh yeah... one other thing...