ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!

What an amazing night! As a true fan, I never once gave up!…

….oh, that thing I said about Paul Pierce being useless and Ray Allen being washed up? Or saying that the Celtics were a bunch of frauds?  People say things they don’t really mean when they are angry.

Garnett played excellent, Pierce and Allen were great, and Rondo was spectacular. It’s fitting that Game 6 was a 40-point blowout, just like they played all of their regular season games.  The playoffs were tough and tough to watch at times, but the way they finished made it all worth it.

I cannot think of another player in the NBA to compare Rajon Rondo to.  He flies around the court and makes defensive plays like Iverson or Payton, rebounds like smaller, sneakier Jason Kidd, and has the icey demeanor of…well, I don’t know who.  He isn’t (and probably never will be) as good as any of those guys I just mentioned because I don’t think he’s a great passer or decision maker at this point, and he bugs the hell out of me at times because he carries himself like an And1 Mixtape All-Star (I half-expect him to bounce an alley oop off the 24-second clock). He’s never going to be on the level of a Chris Paul or a Steve Nash, but man was he great. He has brass balls, keeps his composure, and makes almost every play. Maybe Rajon Rondo is so unique that he’s just going to be Rajon Rondo and the Celtics are going to stay great because of that.

Here’s Garnett’s interview with Bill Russell…

…aaand here’s his interview with Michelle Tafoya following the big win…

Kevin Garnett’s interviews can be off the charts funny. The guy is so intense it’s uncomfortable to watch, it’s like he’s in an action movie at all times. But who the hell cares? WE’RE NBA CHAMPIONS!! IT’S GINO TIME!!!

Hit the gym for lower body before the game and cut it short to be home in time for last night’s greatness.  Deadlifts up to 245 x 5, squat machine, hamstring curls, stiff-legged deadlifts, and one set of bodyweight split squats and calf raises each. Went up in deadlifts and squats, but could have done 1-2 more sets of the split squats and calf raises. No matter, still pretty good. I’m skipping the gym tonight and moving one my two remaining workouts to Saturday to get my four in.

Worst Fan Ever

For someone who thinks they love sports as much as anybody, I might be the worst sports fan ever.  I went to bed last night during the 3rd quarter of the Finals game before the Celtics’ incredible comeback, which has been about the fourth or fifth incredible comeback that I’ve missed because of tiredness/lack of faith. Granted, it was 10:45 and I had to be up for work the NBA is horrible at scheduling important games, but a true diehard wouldn’t have given up.  This is just like 2004 ALCS when I missed The Steal and the initial comeback that started the Greatest Comeback of All-Time.  Every game I think “this team is a bunch of frauds!” and I angrily fall asleep. I got pissed off when I thought the Patriots would lose to both the Eagles and Ravens this year only to see that they won in the morning (Ironically, at this point with the Red Sox, I have complete faith that they will rise up and overcome the odds). The story is almost always the same, when the going gets tough, I go to bed. I hope that’s not a metaphor for my life.

Of course I absolutely cannot miss a deciding game in the NBA Finals for the first Celtic title in years, so this won’t happen again (this season).

Two great workouts Wednesday and Thursday nights. Chest/back Wednesday (dumbbell flat bench, decline bar, decline pushups on the ball, crossovers, barbell rows, machine rows, close grip pulldowns), shoulders/arms last night (side delts, reverse pec deck, machine military press, arnold press, shrugs, bicep curls, skull crushers, reverse forearm curls).  Feeling very good.  No workouts this weekend but maybe a couple of walks if the weather is nice.

More reanimated corpses than you can shake a stick at!

Based on this picture, the undead appear to have infected a young Paul McCartney.

I’m sitting at the computer on Friday morning at 7:20 drinking coffee in an effort to cure my zombified state.  I was supposed to be up at 5:30 to get ready for work but I just ignored my alarm and didn’t get up till 7. Since I watched the entire game last night (how unbelievable was Paul Pierce? Two weeks ago I said he was useless), I’m paying for it now.  I’m part of the rare breed of 25-year-olds that can’t go to bed past 9:30 PM without destroying the entire next day. I’ll have to go in later today, which is actually fine since I have very few patients to see and I have nothing to do tonight anyway besides go to the gym, collect rations and munitions, and get back to work on fortifying my home.  An outbreak of walking plague could happen at any time so you can never be too careful.

Worked out last night for shoulders and arms and could barely lift my arms high enough to put the keys in the car door when I got out. That’s the sign of a good workout. The usual stuff so no need posting the stats.

I’m actually reading the book version of World War Z after I borrowed it from a guy at work, and there is at least 3 times more information in this than in the audio version. It’s so brutal. I’m telling everyone to go out and buy this book! I cannot stress that enough.

Straight Cash, Homey

It’s Wednesday at 7:00 AM, and I’m getting ready to potentially call in sick. The flu is going around again at work, as a couple more therapists have called out the past couple of days. And what do you know, yesterday afternoon my throat starts swelling and I wake up with a bad headache and a bad sore throat. I haven’t completely decided on calling in sick, because if I feel better later on, I’ll go in at lunch time, see a couple of Medicare A patients (apparently those are more important than Medicare B patients), and come back home. At least that way I won’t have to take a sick day and I’ll be able to get some patients seen. I’ve said it before but one of the disadvantages to being the only SLP at my facility means that if I don’t go in, the patients don’t get seen. If a PT or OT calls out, there are others to see their patients. I feel pressure to go in no matter what.

Work has by-and-large been pretty good. My caseload is back up to where it needs to be, I’m getting over 6 hours of treatment in a day (I’m in the 80%-85% productivity range), and my time management keeps getting better. However, I didn’t particularly care for yesterday. I did a 10:30-7:00 shift and got off to a great start by seeing patients non-stop through lunch, but once I took my break I had absolutely no desire to go back out on the floor and finish the job. Every day I do one of those later shifts my body just hits the wall around 1 or 2 PM and I want to get the hell out of there. I feel like I’ve been there all day even though it’s only been a couple of hours. I’ll look at my watch at think “Shit, I’m here for another 5 hours?!” The positives are I’m getting my important Me Time in the morning, going to the gym, reading several books, eating better, then at work I’m meeting my productivity, seeing all my patients, and getting all my paperwork done more efficiently while at the same time being far more thorough. Those are big areas to be developing, seeing as how those areas plus my future marriage and family are basically going to be my life from now on. The big negative is I’m more miserable towards the end of the day and once I take a break, I don’t want to do anything. I’ve always been a person who puts things off, and it still causes me pain to confront and change that. I’m into my third month of professional work and it’s only gotten a little easier, though I continue to force myself to do it.

My stuttering has been pretty good lately, both at work and with friends. I can’t remember anything specific with friends, either positive or negative, so I don’t know how to feel about that. At work it’s been a lot better with patients, families, and co-workers. After a bad stretch a couple weeks ago, I practiced in the car for a couple of days on the way to work with the fluency tapes I have on my iPod, and that practicing got me out of some bad habits. My secondary characteristics (particularly the puffs of air from my nose) have reduced, and I can’t remember any significant head-shaking recently, at least not anything that scored high on the Richter scale. Usually if I have any big moments like that, I remember them. Some difficulty ordering at a restaurants, but otherwise nothing devastating (though I don’t remember the last time I felt devastated by my stuttering).

My new favorite meal is a turkey-and-blue-cheese omelet. I wanted to put some feta in my omelet last week only to discover that we only had crumbled blue cheese. I tossed some in on a whim and it was one of the greatest things I’ve ever eaten. I am so happy I discovered this. I’m also down to two eggs per omelet instead of 3-4, which is good. The two-egg omelets were an Abs Diet staple, though I’ve been good about TNT. I’m in the 196-197 range.

The Celtics game last Friday was awesome. Our seats were so good, 6th row behind the basket, great for seeing just how big Kevin Garnett is. Nobody looked particularly huge except him. He completely fired up the crowd. One thing I was disappointed about was the lack of “GINO” footage during the fourth quarter. Anyone who has been to a C’s game this year knows the GINO phenomenon and I was bummed that it didn’t play. Fortunately, I was able to find it on YouTube. Look how excited the crowd gets for this guy (watch for the “GINO for MVP” sign).

There’s a great website I just discovered called StraightCashHomey.net that is dedicated to people spotted wearing ridiculous, dated, or just plain bad sports jerseys. The Sports Guy linked to it in his weekly links page, and as a person who once owned Bryant “Big Country” Reeves, Damon Stoudamire, and Marcus Camby jerseys, I’m as big of an offender as any. Here’s a pretty sweet Tyrone Wheatley sighting.

Ice Age Coming, Ice Age Coming

Feeling better today than I was yesterday. Still avoiding any talk of the game, but reading about some of the Belichick stuff (e.g., walking off the field before the game was over) is still pretty stomach-turning. I’m off the ledge, though. More life to live, Celtics to watch, Spring Training next week, I keep getting skinnier, money in the bank, Jaylynn and I have fun dates now…lots of things are going well.

I had some errands and phone calls that needed my attention this morning, so I worked a later shift today, 10:30-7:00, and it sucked pretty bad. Not a bad day of work in terms of patients or anything bad specifically happening, but it dragged on. I treated 3.50 hours worth of patients in 3 hours time, then had to wait until dinner to get the rest of the patients done. I could have done dysphagia treatments with snacks in between meals and then just gotten the hell out of there early, but I hate doing that. It’s easier to see patients at meals. I basically sat around for 3 hours today during the middle part of my day doing some paperwork and watching The Office on my iPod when I had nothing else to do. Definitely an early day tomorrow, they go by infinitely faster.

Two gym sessions to document, last night and this morning. Lifting and intervals last night (nothing specific, but it was difficult) and abs and incline treadmill walking this morning. Feeling good. I’ll go in the morning if I wake up on time.

About 10 pages left in The Broker, and I’ve decided I don’t like it. The middle 75% of the book is creating the setting, while nothing really happens. The guy is in hiding in Italy under an assumed name while dangerous people are apparently looking for him. He gets used to his new name and image while studying the Italian language and drinking coffee in cafes all day. Now, I would love to be this character: get some Armani glasses, drink Italian coffee in Italy all day, use futuristic smartphones, run from the C.I.A. But, something should happen at some point in this book to make it a real novel. This is the first Grisham book I’ve read and I guess I expected more. Only 10 pages left and I’ll dig through the basement to find my next book.
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Now playing: Fleetwood Mac – Landslide
via FoxyTunes

UPDATE: I finished The Broker and I’ve chosen 1776 by David McCullough.  I think this book got better reviews than John Adams, plus it’s like half the length.  I definitely get more sense of accomplishment by finishing books, so this won’t be too long of a read and I can put another notch in my 2008 book belt.  I need a good novel to read after this one.

Humiliated, Crushed, Devastated, Crippled, Heartsick, Depressed, Destroyed…

This was not supposed to happen. How the hell did that happen?

I woke up in a fog this morning, and luckily put that debacle of a football game on the back burner 8 hours of work. This is the worst sports-related moment (and definitely in the top 5 worst moments overall) of my life. The entire football season, from spying scandal, to the 50-point blowouts, to the touchdown records, it’s all for nothing now. The deeper the team went into the season with a perfect record, the more this was going to hurt. This is bad. Up in a puff of smoke. Tom Brady is not suppose to lose Super Bowls. They said this team had an ungodly sense of confidence this week, like they knew what they were there to do. This team was supposed to score points. Randy Moss was supposed to be unstoppable. Eli was supposed to be rattled. This was supposed to be history. The year was supposed to be validated. What the hell happened? I’m just rambling now, not making any sense.

When Aaron Boone hit the home run in Game 7 of 2003, I shook it off by the morning. When Peyton and the Colts came back to beat the Patriots in the AFC Championship last year, I was over it in a matter of hours. This, however, is something that is going to take time. I’ve never felt so bad as a sports fan before. I was three years old when Bill Buckner happened, but I imagine this is comparable, if not worse. I can’t watch ESPN, I can’t listen to sports radio, I can’t read the newspaper. I’m guessing this black cloud will hang over the state for about a week.

When I receive my ill-fated “19-0″ coffee mug, I don’t know what I’ll do with it. It will probably sit in the back of a cupboard for years to come.

What the hell do they do next year? Who do they sign, re-sign, or draft? How can this team be made any better?

Sports can be a hideous bitch goddess. I’m going to the gym to try and think about something else.

Pottery Jinx & Gisele

In our new quest for active, different dates, Jaylynn and I painted pottery at a place in Worcester called “Clay Time”. Needless to say, I was the only 25-year-old male in the building, but it wasn’t too bad. She painted a football-shaped chip/dip tray with “Patriots 2008″ in blue and red letters, while I painted a coffee mug silver with a Pats logo, so I salvaged some football-related manliness out of it. Artistically, I think I did pretty well. It required a level of focus and skill that I believe only Rembrandt, Michaelangelo, and now I possess (we were there for about three hours). Even with the stencil, the Pats logo was a pain in the ass to paint. I used white puffy paint along the edges and…..um, I better stop explaining this now before I start to arouse suspicion. Between this and posting Tom Brady pictures yesterday, I should post a Gisele picture just to save face….

There, that’s better. Anyway…

So, in deciding what to add to the other side of this coffee mug, I decided on “19-0.” It’s a bold decision and potentially jinxing (well, not really, they are going to win), but still nerve-racking if they don’t. Our stuff won’t be ready until next week anyway because they have to put it in the kiln.

Here’s my feeling on the Tom/Gisele thing, because a lot of people don’t like her and don’t like the fact that Tom Brady is dating her. I think the Greatest Quarterback of All-Time deserves to be with someone who can be in the argument for sexiest woman in the world.  While I don’t think Gisele is the sexiest woman in the world (in fact, I had a hard time finding photos where she looked that good, plus I’ve already pissed Jaylynn off enough with this topic, I won’t fan the flames by writing about who I think is), her fame, her financial worth ($33 million last year), her status as the flagship Victoria’s Secret model until recently, and the fact that she goes by one name raises her a few levels above how hot she actually is. The concept of Gisele is more important than who she really is or what she looks like (I will direct you to the chapter “10 Seconds to Love” in Chuck Klosterman’s book Sex, Drugs, & Cocoa Puffs where he compares the Marilyn Monroe/Joe Dimaggio pairing to Pam Anderson/Tommy Lee and gets into the whole athlete/celebrity thing). Tom and Gisele are probably the closest we are going to get to another Dimaggio/Monroe. It would make more sense if she was American, but in terms of celebrity she’s American enough.

Here’s another Gisele photo for the road.

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Now playing: Taking Back Sunday – Set Phasers To Stun
via FoxyTunes

Learning to Not Be Liked

Wrapped up Week 5 at Bourne yesterday, and it was definitely the best week I’ve had yet. I made it a point to see all my patients back-to-back-to-back in the mornings so I could have the afternoons to do paperwork and leave (close to) on time. I’m learning to hate Fridays because of all the new admissions but we only had a couple yesterday. I expect next week to be even smoother if I stay disciplined. I still have a lot to work on with procrastination.

One of the biggest challenges I have right now is working with the first patient who really hates my guts. For most patients it’s far easier to get motivated for something like physical therapy where they go down to the gym and do standing and walking exercises than it is for me to walk into their room with thickened apple juice, tell them to tuck their chin when they swallow, and have them name pictures in a book (I’d rather go to the gym, too). Speech-language pathology is definitely the least sexy of all the rehab disciplines. Sometimes listening to Jaylynn talk about physical therapy (she’s a genius, by the way), I wish I was a PT. Muscles and ligaments and all that anatomy shit is pretty cool. I can’t imagine how frustrating that can be for this patient to work hard in the gym, make progress and then have me saunter into his room to do completely un-fun things and make no progress with them (my stuttering isn’t really comparable to expressive aphasia so I really can’t pretend to know what he’s going through) but in a way it’s a good thing he’s so obstinate because I have to learn to be hated every once and a while and still work the hardest I can to improve this patient’s quality of life.

For the most part, my patients like me. I’m very laid back and try to have relaxed conversation mixed in with all of my therapy. I also think one of the advantages of being a guy is that with all the female nurses and PT/OTs poking and prodding them all day, they can use a guy to talk to for a few minutes a day. I can talk to the men about the Patriots and Red Sox and can tell the 95-year-old women that they look half their age. In terms of building rapport with patients, I’m very good. However, once and a while (or maybe more often than that) I’m going to have somebody who does not want to work with me for one reason or another. In this case, the previously-independent man who now cannot speak or swallow is very frustrated and is being faced with that every time I come into the room. I think I’m handling it pretty well as far as not taking it personally, though it’s making it somewhat less exciting to go work with this guy. It’s a lesson that’s good to learn so early in my career.

The diet has been great. The only semblance of a cheat meal was Thursday night when I had a couple servings of that chicken-stuffing-sour-cream thing my mom throws together, but that was it. Friday night, usually a night reserved for a pizza and wine, was a couple of meatballs and a low-carb bread (really, that’s all we had in the house). My mom never has any idea of what to do for me because I send so many mixed messages about what I want to eat. I tell her I don’t want anything bad, so when Friday is typically Pizza Night and I tell her not to bring me anything, then end up being disappointed when she doesn’t, I’m sure that’s frustrating (especially on my birthday when I said I didn’t want a cake, then came home after a bad day and was pissed that I didn’t have a cake). Today at work I was secretly upset when I found out they threw out the rest of my cake that was in the fridge for the past week. In the end I know I’m better off for not having it because Super Bowl Sunday is going to be one hell of an eating day. Jaylynn is making boneless buffalo wings, stuffed shells, and meatballs.

Speaking of the Super Bowl, I cannot relax with these Patriots. My father and I never have any confidence in this team or any other Boston team, despite the fact that they always win. We’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Never the less, the team is too good to lose this game. This is what they’ve been waiting for all year. I find it hard to believe that Eli has really taken it to the next level and there is no way the Patriots will wait as long to blitz poor Elijah as they did last time. I’m really happy for Eli, he has done a great job of getting his team to this game after taking so much shit in New York for so long, but I’m not sold on him (if he keeps this up until Week 8 of next season, I’ll bump him up a category). For the Giants to win this game he is going to have to play flawlessly and Brady is going to have to have another San Diego game. Neither of those is likely to happen, and if Brady is off, Maroney has been running like a bull and they always have the dump passes to Faulk and Welker. I’m still nervous because the Patriots always have close games during this part of of the season but in the end, they are just too great of a team. Patriots 35, Giants 27. 19-0. Greatest Team in NFL History. Greatest Quarterback in NFL History. Greatest Coach in NFL History.

Only the two workouts this week on Monday and Wednesday. I should/could have gone last night but wanted to relax on a Friday. My weight is down to 198 pounds. I think 185 will put me in “good” shape, so that’s the next major goal. 13 pounds to go!
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Now playing: Billy Bragg & Wilco – California Stars
via FoxyTunes

Birthday Weekend

A few days in Berlin, yesterday in Waltham, a lot of food, some football, and a good time.

I went in early on Friday and worked till 4:45 (while still leaving a lot of paperwork for today, but it was Friday so I didn’t care. I’ll stay late today and do it), then drove to Jaylynn’s and stayed till Sunday morning.  We went to The 99 for Gold Fever Wings for my birthday (all I really wanted) and watched the Celtics, then spent Saturday tasting wedding cakes and went to a friend’s for a gathering (where I finally got a birthday cake!), and then went to Dan’s on Sunday for the game and a calzone.  A lot of driving but it was fun.

Since the last Patriots jersey I owned was Curtis Martin’s #28 back in middle school, I figured I finally needed a new one.  I picked up a road white Wes Welker #83 on the way to Dan’s, though the way the game went, I should have bought one of the 1,600 Maroney #39 jerseys in any of the stores.  I guess the jersey companies thought he would be a bigger star when he was drafted, though he definitely showed why.  The man is a bull.  Brady didn’t look right from the start of the game.  He almost looked sick.  Whatever it was, he can’t do that in two weeks.  One more win and we’ve got the undisputed greatest football team of all-time.  Bow in the presence of greatness.

I ate quite a bit these past few days, but I don’t think I was that bad.  I didn’t have a lot of meals so the calories probably weren’t out of control.  Whatever, I’m going to celebrate my damn birthday the way I want.  Didn’t get up this morning but I’ll do my best to go to the gym tomorrow.

One of my other goals I wrote before the new year was to start writing down the wines I drink so I can have a better idea of what I like and to remember what to buy.  I would love to be a wine enthusiast and I’ve gotten much more into it lately.  I’ve started to write down the name, year, and type of wines I have and what I think about their tastes, textures,  colors, etc.  I type everything into the memo application of my Blackberry and then transfer it to an Excel spreadsheet on my computer.  The one thing I can’t write about is the wine’s aroma, everything still smells like wine to me.

Off to work.  It’s gonna be a long one.  I like my job, I really do, but I guess I’ve joined the rest of the world in the view that, while I enjoy my job, I’d rather be doing something else.

Everyday I’m Hustling

I was a dynamo today. 10 patients, 3 additional evaluations, and a shit ton of paperwork. For my 8 clock hours, I was doing live therapy for 7.5, and stayed for almost 2 hours afterwards to do all my paperwork from today and some of yesterday. Today was my most productive and efficient yet. My boss told me that I’ve been doing great and I think I showed that I do what it takes to get things done, even after she told me to go home when I had put in my 8 hours. This isn’t really the type of job where I could get promoted, but I think those by-any-means-necessary traits are still good to showcase every now and again.

More importantly for me personally, I scheduled my patients right away, went to their rooms and told them when I’d be coming. This was really effective in cutting down on my down time in between sessions as well as getting around some of that fear of approaching patients without them expecting me. I still need to shape up and be a little smoother with some of my cognitive interventions (I felt a little lost at times), but I’ve been doing dysphagia so long that I’m rusty with cognition. I’ve got a couple people on caseload now with memory and awareness impairments so I’m brushing up on that kind of stuff. Aside from dysphagia, cognition is my favorite disorder to work with. Lord knows there’s enough people with dementia at this place who need it.

Overall, an exhausting but great day for productivity and continuing to form my way of doing things.

On the diet front, I was very good today. Nothing to post that wouldn’t just be cutting and pasting from earlier in the week. No major changes.

The Belichick book is very good, I’m about halfway through. I’m at the part where he gets his first job as a coach in the NFL working with the Colts right after he got out of college, and he’s no different than he is now, it’s pretty fascinating. It’s a great read. Halberstam was such a good writer.

I’m really tired, the Celtics are 22.4 seconds from snapping their 2-game losing streak, and Ray Allen is at the line. Wow, 35 points tonight for Ray. My dad just compared him to J.D. Drew, which is an amazingly exaggerated comparison based on how Ray has played this season. Sure he has a had a lot of bad shooting nights but he’s hit like 5 game-winners and he’s the C’s third option on offense. Great win.

Getting some sleep.