Dan and I took a trip down to Austin for an overnight stay downtown, food, bikes and seeing Molly and Scott. Now that I'm back at work on Monday, I keep thinking back to Saturday. It's that time of year where you wish weekends lasted five days and you only had to work two.
I had been smitten with the idea of going to New York City for a kind of spring break; I'd never been to the city, and Dan has an uncle who could have housed us. After a few weeks of imagining strolls through Central Park with spring leaves and buds overhead, I nixxed the idea due to financial concerns. (Sure, air tickets were cheap, but my credit card is still the bane of my existence and then I found out I owe major money for taxes. Gross.)
Instead, I figured taking a trip down to Austin and making it a swank affair would be better for the wallet. The last time I was in Austin was almost three years ago, when Dan was serving an internship at the Lance Armstrong Foundation and I went down almost every weekend. For this trip, I convinced Dan that we should get a nice hotel room in the Embassey Suites downtown, right off Barton Springs, which is a street that has tons of great restaurants and cool shops. We booked a hotel room (no need for a suite, we figured; it's just the two of us for one night, and we'll save $50), Dan registered for the circuit race and I made sure Molly was available for lunch.
The drive to Austin was quick and uneventful, and the hotel check-in was the same; the person working didn't even charge us for parking. We lugged our backpacks and the bike upstairs to our floor, and then found that our hotel room was miniscule. Tiny. A glorified broom closet. It was all very nice, but it was small. The bathroom took up about half the room. I was incredibly ticked off about it, and while it wasn't going to make or break the trip, it did annoy me. I guess when you try to splurge, you have to go all the way and just book the whole decadent suite, even though you'll probably only use one room.
There was a free happy hour Friday night, and I decided to at least get our money's worth in alcohol. We arrived in time to catch the last 15 minutes of it, and I downed two drinks quickly enough to become rather giggly. Dinner was Romeo's, a great Italian food place that's very tasty (although their rolls are kinda weird) and still relatively affordable (about $15 a dish), and then dessert was ice cream from McDonald's. After driving out to the bike course to take a look around, we headed back to the hotel. We were to bed pretty early in preparation for the next day.
The bike race was a circuit race, meaning classes of riders started off and had to do laps around the course over a certain amount of time. There were tons of colorful bikes and jerseys, kids and families coming to cheer on brothers and fathers and mothers, and thankfully it didn't rain. Dan didn't get wiped out by the massive crash in his class, and was happy with his finish.
There's a hill in Austin called Jester, and it's this half mile (I think) road that has a ridiculous incline. It's out in the hill country to the West of town, and Dan had always wanted to try it, so we drove there after the race and Dan got up it. Twice! In a row! I was very proud. It looked ridiculously hard. He was creeping up, and he's a really good climber. I would have crapped out after about 10 feet and three pedal pushes.
Molly and Scott let us come to their house so Dan could shower and stow his bike during lunch. I got to meet Tillie, who has some of the biggest eyes ever and these long eyelashes. She seems to consider everything. I haven't seen a baby like that before. She was also pretty cheerful, and although she got a bit fussy, she never started squalling or anything. (Chalk part of this up to good parenting and knowing how not to aggravate a tried child. I love that Molly knew when to walk away and let Tillie settle herself down quickly.)
The four adults and Tillie in her stroller took a walk down to a nearby Mexican food restaurant. The weather was pleasant, and Tillie quickly fell asleep in the stroller, and it was nice to see all the houses and gardens. Spring treats Texas well. The food was delectable--I can't stop thinking about the cerviche, this concoction of diced tomatoes and onions and cilantro, salt, lime juice and fresh tilapia. I can't believe I've been missing out on this all my life. Also, I can't stop thinking of it. I've decided I'm going to have to try making my own later this week.
It was so good to see Molly again. She makes me feel good about myself. She's level headed (babies are supposed to play in the grass and explore twigs and dirt) and friendly and smart and also is a real connection to grad school in Boston. I suffer from this thing where I feel like entire sections of my life are just an elaborate dream, and they never really happened. I blame it on the fact we moved around so often. Whenever we moved, it was like that whole previous period wasn't real. Seeing Molly and Scott made me feel more grounded, an affirmation that Boston did happen, I did buy a lot of pizza and see a lot of movies and ride the T to school. Seeing people from previous times is so much better than just an e-mail or phone call.
Dan and I told Molly and Scott that Austin is the only other place in Texas we'd be willing to move. The people, hills, trees, restaurants, architecture, and everything else makes me contemplate very seriously how to get down there. I want to go back for seconds, and I'm glad that we'll be visiting again in early June.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Expectations
Okay, so I know it's been like 9 months since the last time I posted. Babies are conceived and birthed in that time. I don't have anything near that cool; I just got ticked off listening to an ESPN interview and wanted to raise some questions about it.
I was driving back to work from picking up a sandwich for lunch when I tuned in to 103.3 ESPN. The Michael Irvin show was on; he and his co-host, Kevin Kiley, are sometimes amusing so I half-listened for a few minutes before I heard Kiley talk about some "quadriplegic" athlete that was going to be on.
Then Kiley proceeds to explain that this "quadriplegic" is a high school wrestler named Dustin Carter. I saw something on ESPN (on TV) about Carter a few years ago, and the New York Times recently ran an article about him. He's a high school senior in Ohio right now and has a 41-2 record in the lightweight division. He's only 103 lbs., and he also had a bacterial infection (meningitis, then gangrene) as a kid and his legs had to be amputated above the knee. One arm had to be amputated above the elbow; the other, just below.
So I start grumbling at the radio station because this kid is NOT a quadriplegic. Quadriplegia refers to paralyzation in four limbs or of the body from the neck down, and it can be full paralyzation or partial. This kid is a quadruple amputee, but finally they introduce Carter correctly, saying he's a quadruple amputee and drop the quadriplegia thing.
It's good that they finally said the right phrase because I was trying to find a phone number to call in and correct them. I am that anal retentive.
Carter is participating in the show from his home in Ohio; he was on the phone doing the interview. He's introduced as an inspiration, and Kline's first question is something along the lines of, "Dustin, tell us what makes you so special."
Carter replies to the effect of, "Well, I work really hard, I put a lot of effort into everything, and even if the season just ended I'm always training. I put in more effort than a lot of guys."
Points to Carter.
Kline then proceeds to tell Carter that yeah, this is true, and it's the most important thing, but tell us about the bacterial infection you had as a kid. Kline and Irvin prod Carter for another 10 minutes or so about his illness, how he plays sports, how he brushes his teeth, how he gets around, and so on and so forth, and Carter seems reluctant to get into specifics (it's ridiculous when they ask him how he's talking on the phone). The word "inspiration" is used every 30 seconds.
This interview made me angry. I'm a journalist, and I'm a nerd, so yeah, I wanted to know the details of this kid's life. But on the other hand, it made me squirm on behalf of Carter when these radio guys just keep hounding him about stuff he's clearly not wanting to focus on. He would give vague answers, and he didn't really get into the interview until he started talking about his "smoking hot" girlfriend, who goes to wrestling tournaments with him.
Taking a look at the situation makes it difficult to imagine what I would have done if I were the radio host. Let's face it: Carter was booked because he's wrestling with and unusual condition. If he were a normal high school wrestler, he wouldn't have been on the show. The hosts wanted to point out just how different he was and still taking down dozens of other kids. He's facing life differently than most people.
If he agrees to come on the show, surely he knows this. Did he expect them not to ask at all about his past illness? Should he expect them not to ask this? If a host asks, can they reasonably expect him to answer? This is not the first time Carter has been in the news. He played football for several years (the focus of the first ESPN TV spot I saw) and is now a top wrestler. When you're constantly called an inspiration and getting press, should you be up front about the whole reason you're in the news? Can you avoid it?
I have only been the journalist. I have never been the subject of a personal story or presentation. But it makes me wonder--what are our expectations?
One thing you can expect: that I will update this more frequently. I let it fall by the wayside, but spring is coming and it's a time for new things. Or, at least, time for a revisiting.
I was driving back to work from picking up a sandwich for lunch when I tuned in to 103.3 ESPN. The Michael Irvin show was on; he and his co-host, Kevin Kiley, are sometimes amusing so I half-listened for a few minutes before I heard Kiley talk about some "quadriplegic" athlete that was going to be on.
Then Kiley proceeds to explain that this "quadriplegic" is a high school wrestler named Dustin Carter. I saw something on ESPN (on TV) about Carter a few years ago, and the New York Times recently ran an article about him. He's a high school senior in Ohio right now and has a 41-2 record in the lightweight division. He's only 103 lbs., and he also had a bacterial infection (meningitis, then gangrene) as a kid and his legs had to be amputated above the knee. One arm had to be amputated above the elbow; the other, just below.
So I start grumbling at the radio station because this kid is NOT a quadriplegic. Quadriplegia refers to paralyzation in four limbs or of the body from the neck down, and it can be full paralyzation or partial. This kid is a quadruple amputee, but finally they introduce Carter correctly, saying he's a quadruple amputee and drop the quadriplegia thing.
It's good that they finally said the right phrase because I was trying to find a phone number to call in and correct them. I am that anal retentive.
Carter is participating in the show from his home in Ohio; he was on the phone doing the interview. He's introduced as an inspiration, and Kline's first question is something along the lines of, "Dustin, tell us what makes you so special."
Carter replies to the effect of, "Well, I work really hard, I put a lot of effort into everything, and even if the season just ended I'm always training. I put in more effort than a lot of guys."
Points to Carter.
Kline then proceeds to tell Carter that yeah, this is true, and it's the most important thing, but tell us about the bacterial infection you had as a kid. Kline and Irvin prod Carter for another 10 minutes or so about his illness, how he plays sports, how he brushes his teeth, how he gets around, and so on and so forth, and Carter seems reluctant to get into specifics (it's ridiculous when they ask him how he's talking on the phone). The word "inspiration" is used every 30 seconds.
This interview made me angry. I'm a journalist, and I'm a nerd, so yeah, I wanted to know the details of this kid's life. But on the other hand, it made me squirm on behalf of Carter when these radio guys just keep hounding him about stuff he's clearly not wanting to focus on. He would give vague answers, and he didn't really get into the interview until he started talking about his "smoking hot" girlfriend, who goes to wrestling tournaments with him.
Taking a look at the situation makes it difficult to imagine what I would have done if I were the radio host. Let's face it: Carter was booked because he's wrestling with and unusual condition. If he were a normal high school wrestler, he wouldn't have been on the show. The hosts wanted to point out just how different he was and still taking down dozens of other kids. He's facing life differently than most people.
If he agrees to come on the show, surely he knows this. Did he expect them not to ask at all about his past illness? Should he expect them not to ask this? If a host asks, can they reasonably expect him to answer? This is not the first time Carter has been in the news. He played football for several years (the focus of the first ESPN TV spot I saw) and is now a top wrestler. When you're constantly called an inspiration and getting press, should you be up front about the whole reason you're in the news? Can you avoid it?
I have only been the journalist. I have never been the subject of a personal story or presentation. But it makes me wonder--what are our expectations?
One thing you can expect: that I will update this more frequently. I let it fall by the wayside, but spring is coming and it's a time for new things. Or, at least, time for a revisiting.
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