Greetings from the ER!

Every once in a while you have to clean out your mailbox.  I found this one and wanted to share it with you.  What follows is an email I sent to some friends and family on July 8, 2001.  It's titled "Greetings from the ER!"
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You're probably thinking, "I know thet ER is the
abbreviation for Emergency Room, but Darren must mean
something else."  Let's see.....

So, compared to my last email, this one has a
different taste to it.  The theme of this weekend was
I really have fun with my family, and being with some
of my friends literally pains me.

I woke up in a coffin.  I could see a light near my
feet and a blue line on the top going the full length
of this thing.  "Darren, are you alright?  We're going
to run a few more tests now." a voice said all around
me.  Where am I?

The weekend began with the arrival of my parents and
grandmothers.  Dinner was nice, the whole family was
sitting around the table and I told my Nantucket Saga
(if you haven't heard about it...where've you been?)
and my aunt several times said to my 9 year old
cousin, "don't you ever do this."  

The kids and I played together until midnight when it
was time to go.  I stopped by the boys at 35 Fanueil
as a few were about to go out.  I joined them for a
few beers at midnight, but sadly we couldn't get into
a club due to a 20year old with us, so we ended up in
a smoke filled bar.  It reeked and I left early. 
Should have just gone home.

Saturday, the family and I have a great time.  Whether
you live in Boston or just visit for a weekend, you
really should take a Duck Tour.  We did this with a
wonderful tour guide named Penny Wise.  Hilarious
guide.  If you are unfamilar with Duck Tours, they are
1940s amphibious trucks that ride around Boston and
then drive into the Charles River.  Be sure to tell
your friends this before boarding, as I learned one
Italian women thought Penny had gone mad when she
drove into the river!

After the touristy Duck Tour, spend the $6.00 and go
to the top of the Prudential.  50 floors up is a great
few.

From there, the family and I walked around a while and
went back to my uncle's where we had a marvelous
dinner of Salmon, babaganoish, veggies, and dessert of
fresh home made flan with freshly cut fruit.  My aunt
is a wonderful chef.

Midnight comes around again and I leave.  Like
Cinderella at midnight running away, I run back to 35
Faneil.  Why don't I ever just go home!

"Hey."

"Hey."  "What's up?"  "Hey" are the responses.

" I want to go for a bike ride." says Dave. "Anyone
game?"

"Let's go."  I borrowed Dan's bike and since Dave was
putting on a helmet, I borrow Matt's helmet.  We ride,
and ride.  Bumps come and go.  Dave suggests riding
near the water the veers to the right as I go to the
left.  
Little do I know, I'm off the bike path now and on the
walking path.  Dave and Brian follow and a short
distance.  I speed up, glancing at the beautiful calm
Charles river to my left.

My bike comes to a sudden and hard stop!  I fly
through the air as the bike flips over.  I'm Superman!
I fall, land on my head (good call with the helmet),
land on my face, shoulder, and arms.  OWWWW!  I'm
Christopher Reeve!  The pain in my face and neck is
like a 1,000 bee stings. The guys rush over.  Brian is
calm. " Just a scratch, Darren."  he says as he reachs
in his pocket, pulls out a cell phone, and dials 911.

Dave's white shirt is off and is folded on my face. 
He's on Storrow Drive trying to flag down a police car. 
Soon an ambulence arrives and my view of ceilings
begins.  I have a view of many ceilings for the next 8
hours.  The people at Beth Israel say, "please don't
let him be drunk." "Bike Accident."  "Oh, good."  (What!?)

I'm on a board and doctors come and go.  Catherine, a cute resident, remains throughout the night.  I
wonder if she's single.  hmmm..  My curiousity stays
there.  X-rays reveal not much, but to be safe Cat scans. 
Dave and Brian come and go.  5 am Brian has to
go home, Dave comes back with my car.  Sees a friend
with a famous alcoholic singer's name and drives this
alcholic home.  Dave's still with me as mom, dad, and
(oh great) grandma comes in at 5am. The Cat scan
doesn't reveal much. I fall asleep for a few minutes
and I wake up.  I'm in a coffin.

"Darren, this is an MRI, we'll be done in 20 minutes."
I really have to pee, but the rhythm of the machine
is quite soothing, until that is the banging of the
radiation and magnetic fields going through  my body
begins.  An hour and a half later they pull me out and
bring me downstairs.  If you look at the ceilings
long enough constellations form.  I saw a man sitting
on a toilet, horses, a cloudy looking
man, and a 50.  Man, this morphine is making my legs
heavy.

5 minutes after I fill a pitcher, a doctor comes in. 
Darren, you're a free man.  Sprains and ugly cuts. 
It's 11am, I bid farewell to the rents and go to bed.

Great weekend.


Comments from friends back then:
DARREN-  Sorry to hear about your accident...I do hope your feeling
better...shall I bring you food or something.   Are you resting...are you
sore...did you get any stitches...????  One thing is for sure, you should be
writing novels...I was at the edge of my seat the whole time.  Please let me
know how you are and if there's anything I can do...

Peace Isabel


Darren,

Thanks for the great email. As if we needed
more reason to think you were the man. Never
bike ride with Brian and Dave--that's like
combining bleach and amonia.

Sean


That was the scariest e-mail I've read in a while.  It was
also one of the most well written.  Very impressive!  If I
had been up there, is there any chance that the sequence of
events that led to your accident would have been different?

Let's talk.  I hope you're ok.
Adam

Going verses Want to.

Over the summer I watched no television, movies and DVDs yes, but no television.  Now that I am in transition between my old life and my new one, I have been vegging out like mad.  Castle, Grey's, Community, 30 Rock, Entourage (on Demand), and more have been consuming my post work time.  It's mostly because I am SOOO TIRED when I get home from work.  I am not settled into this routine yet.  I can't go to bed at 8pm even though I have an alarm on my phone that tells me to each night.  I do go to bed at 10 or so, but getting up at 2:20am to be at work by 3am stinks!!  I was late everyday this week, but I stilled pulled in some OT by taking short lunches.

Saturday afternoon football.

I watched some tv this afternoon, but opted to erase the vast majority of my preplanned future recordings, and I am not going to get into any new shows.  Lone Star looked interesting but was cancelled after two episodes.  The Event looks pretty conspiracy like , but I missed two already and my life i just fine.  No new television for me.

What I do have is some books that I want to read.  My journal that needs to be written in and some programs that I want to learn to use more.  I've installed Rosetta Stone - Italian on my computer as well as a photo program called Pixelmator.  If I can get Photoshop that would be really cool, but I am not spending $500 on software. Rosetta Stone was a gift.

The main point of this to get busy living and make sure you are going to to what you say you are going to to.  

I stopped saying, "I'm going to..." do something unless a plan is in process.  I used to say I'm going to travel the world teaching English.  I'm going to open a chicken wings franchise.  I'm going to move to Colorado.  Only one of those is happening.  The others are things that I would like to do.  I would like to travel the world.  I would like to open a chicken wing franchise, but I am not going to use the verb going until I do it.

Dad and me at Vail in March

I am going to play football tomorrow.  I am going to do the Improv Everywhere MP3 experiment tomorrow evening.  I'm going to learn a little Italian.  I am going to start experimenting with the photo software. (Update: See below.) These are going to happen.

What's something you would like to do?  What's something you are going to do?

MP3 Experiment: http://www.improveverywhere.com

Football: http://www.meetup.com/flagfootball-84/

Possible chicken wing franchise: www.wingsover.com

Check it out, my first attempt at the photo editing software.  I removed the background!