When I talk to people about Multiple Sclerosis, I tell them they need to assemble a good team. My team has three key players, and they’re all incredibly important.
First is my primary care doctor. That’s the person who takes care of my general health. For the past four years, I’ve been seeing a great guy at Fenway Community Health, and he’s been fantastic. Fenway is a community health center that caters to the gay and lesbian community in Boston. What’s incredibly important to me is seeing someone who is another gay man. I have some specific needs that only a gay doctor will understand. I’ve had a gay primary care doctor for the past ten years, and I can’t imagine that changing any time soon. If I can’t be comfortable talking about anything with my primary care doctor, what’s the point of even having one?
Second is my neurologist. This is the person who deals with my MS issues specifically. She knows my brain better than I do. She also looks out for a few general health issues, and she watches my vitamin B12 like a hawk. My neurologist is as Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. What’s great is that Fenway and Beth Israel have a partnership, so my primary care doctor can see my neurologist’s notes. I don’t have to play translator here. My neurologist is not only one of the top MS specialists in the nation, she’s a professor of neurology at this little college you might have heard of. It’s called the Harvard Medical School. I like to think she knows what she’s doing.
Third, and this may surprise some people, is my psychiatrist. Lets face it, I have a disease that’s tearing apart my brain. I see a psychiatrist about four times a year. He’s also the doctor who prescribes the meds for my ADD. That’s just another factor. My psychiatrist is also at Fenway.
I got a letter from Fenway a few weeks ago stating that Dr. Caro, my primary care doctor, was leaving them. This was really difficult for me because I really liked this guy. Tomorrow, I have my first appointment with my new primary care doctor. He’s at Fenway, but he’s at their South End Associates office. Scott and I have a few mutual friends, and I really hope he’s as good as my friends tell me and as good as my last doctor. That bar is pretty high.
For the past few years, I’ve had a great team. Seeing it change is hard. But this change could also be good. Lets hope so.
I think I’m at the point in my life where I can figure out what I can do myself and where I need to turn to a professional. When it came time to install stainless steel tile in my kitchen, I turned to my friend Tom, who is a licensed contractor. And when it comes to my upcoming vacation, I totally turned to my friend Rick, who is a professional travel agent.
Sure, we’re in the days of Travelocity and Kayak, who can help you find the best published fares. But there is something those sites can’t give you, and that’s experience. If I’m going to San Francisco or DC or even London for a weekend, I can do that myself. But I’m planning a nine-day trip that spans multiple countries. Yeah, this needs a professional.
Could I figure all of this out myself? Absolutely. Could I find a better deal online? Maybe. But can I get those little nuggets of experience about connecting at Heathrow or Milan without intensive Google searches? Absolutely not. My friend Rick has been an absolute wealth of information, and that’s why I trust him. The thought of flying across the Atlantic in coach seemed a little repugnant to me, so I was wondering if it was worth a little more money to fly Virgin Atlantic’s Premium Economy class from Boston to London. Sure, there are tons of reviews online saying how great it is and how much it sucks. But those are just virtual people. I called on someone who has actually flown it and gave me feedback that I trust. That’s where this whole trip started.
In all my travels, both personal and professional, I’ve learned to trust my travel agents.
Several years ago, I was in Germany on vacation. This was before we had cell phones that worked in other countries. I got to Frankfurt without a hotel reservation, only to find there were no hotel rooms available in the city. None. I called Rick, from Germany, in tears. He asked for my credit card number and told me to call him back in 20 minutes. When I called him back, he had me booked in a train to Mains with hotel reservations for that night. That solidified my belief in the value of a travel agent.
So just what is this vacation all about? Well, at this point, I’m flying into Milan and then spending a few days in London at my friend Steve’s house. Those are definite. Everything else is subject to change. At the moment, I’m planning on spending a few days in Conegliano, Italy. That’s where they make Prosecco, which is my favorite wine. After that, a night in Salzburg and then a few days in the Champagne region of France before heading to London.
Am I excited about this? You have no idea.
Somewhere in the back of my head, I got this crazy idea that I wanted to buy a new car.
Keep in mind that I’ve owned my condo for about three months. And I just put a nice chunk of money into putting a tile backsplash in my kitchen. (And it looks awesome!)
My current car is a 2007 Honda Civic, and she’s been really good to me. At three years old and just under 55,000 miles, there is a lot of life left in that car. That means a new car is a want and not a need. I know that.
Today, I walked into Colonial Volkswagen of Medford with the intention of test driving a new Golf TDI. If I’m buying a new car, I have two absolute “must have” items. First, leather (or faux leather) seats are essential. I have two Pugs who shed like crazy. Leather is much easier to clean. Second, I spend about an hour in my car each day, so satellite radio is absolutely necessary. These two items aren’t available in the Golf. Sure, I can get both items as after-marked installation, but I’d rather have them as factory or dealer-installed options. I also like that the Golf is manufactured and assembled in Germany. We Germans make good stuff.
I like the TDI because their turbo diesel gets really great mileage. This is not the diesel engine of 20 years ago. That’s for sure. Because the Golf doesn’t have exactly what I want, we took a Jetta TDI for a test drive. I think I’m in love. It has everything I want, including the bluetooth connectivity for my iPhone. This one even came with an iPod connector.
My challenge now is whether I should buy one now or wait for the 2011 models to come out. The 2011 Jetta is a whole new platform. The 2010 models have been dubbed (pardon the pun) Jettarollas because the back end looks like a Toyota Corolla. At the same time, as soon as the 2011 models come out, the 2010s will seriously drop in price.
For now, I’m going to sit tight. For now.
Two weeks ago today, I became a home owner. I also took on a ton of debt. But now I’m sleeping in a place that is truly my own. This is a great little condo. Sure, it needs a little TLC. The up side to that is that everything it needs is cosmetic.
The day I closed, I packed up a few things in my little Honda Civic and invited some of my friends to the new place for a drink, to help me celebrate my new home. It was a great time.
For the first time in ages, I’m sleeping incredibly well. Reggie still bounces on my face first thing in the morning, but I’m actually not getting up in the middle of the night. That tells me I’m doing something right.
Shortly after moving in, my friend Tom painted a little bit for me. He did the brown in the living room and the red in the kitchen. The place has a lot of beige, so two big splashes of color really liven it up. The next room to be painted is probably the bathroom. I’m leaning toward a light sage green or a Tiffany blue. The Tiffany blue has the potential to be gorgeous. It also has the potential to be over-the-top gay.
If you want to see how things are shaping up, check out the photo set on flickr.
Reggie and I are doing a lot of walking right now. We’re doing three walks a day, averaging a little bit under 2 miles a day. If you use Runkeeper, add me, mikehillwig.
This weekend, I have one “must do” projects that I need to get out of the way, and that’s blinds on the window. Since I live at street level, I’m not a fan of people looking into my windows all the time. I did put up curtains in the front windows, but I don’t want them to be closed all the time. I just need to buy nice wood blinds that don’t look like cheap mini blinds.
Today, I did the walkthrough and handed in the keys to my place in Salem. It was bittersweet. I liked that place, but Salem was just inconvenient for me. Traffic was hell getting to and from work, and since I do so much in the city with the chorus and doctors, I was spending a lot of time commuting. Now, I’m closer to everything. Anyway, that chapter of my life has been completed and it’s time to write the next one.
When I travel, I prefer to use my passport as ID instead of my driver’s license. I’d hate to lose my driver’s license.
When I got my passport almost ten years ago, I didn’t have the actual copy of my birth certificate. Because of this, the State Department only gave me a passport valid for one year. After I was able to order my official birth certificate, they added an endorsement page that made my passport valid for the full ten years. If you just look at my photo page, it would look like I have an expired passport.
Every time I fly through Baltimore, TSA fails to check my passport’s expiration date. Granted, my passport is valid, but they never question it or look for the page that extends the validity date. Today, for the third time, TSA failed to notice this. I finally spoke to a supervisor and pointed this out. He treated it as if there was nothing he could do.
This is a little frightening that they fall to do this with such alarming regularity. I think I might have to make some more noise.
Several months ago, I told my landlord that I wouldn’t be renewing my lease when it was up in mid-March. I love living in Salem, but it’s incredibly inconvenient. With chorus rehearsal once a week and the doctors I see in the city, Salem becomes more inconvenient. That said, I started looking for a place in East Boston.
Some of my friends suggested that I move to other parts of Boston, but Eastie works for me. It’s close to so many things, it’s an up-and-coming neighborhood, and it’s really convenient to get to I-93. That was my big driver. If I get on I-93 heading northbound in the morning, it’s usually wide open until you hit the I-95 interchange. I’m thinking this will shave about 15 minutes off my commute each way.
On Saturday, my friend Ulli went with me to look at several apartments. One had a lot of character and was in an awesome neighborhood but had an electric stove. Ultimately, the lack of laundry facilities took that one out of the running. Another one was a nice condo with a dedicated parking spot and a HUGE bedroom. The cave-like living room, oddly laid out kitchen and less than desirable neighborhood took that one out of the running. That left us with three brand new apartments all in the same building. The third floor (including the fourth floor) was amazing but out of my price range and was more apartment than I needed. The first and second floors are identical except for the little office off the living room on the second floor. I’m going with the second floor. It’s nice, new, and has an nice kitchen with a ton of storage. The bedroom is small but has a really nice sized closet. It has laundry and a storage space in the basement. Best of all, it’s in the next block from Ulli and around the corner from the 303 Cafe.
Today, I filled out all the paperwork and did some negotiating with the agent. I will know tomorrow if everything will work out. Lets keep our fingers crossed.
They say that how you end the year is an indication of how you’ll spend the rest of the following year. If that’s the case, I’m in pretty good shape for 2010.
On Thursday, I took the Acela from Boston to Washington, DC. The Acela is a great ride, even if the whole length makes for a long trip. Still, with recent events in Detroit, I really didn’t want to deal with airport security at Logan’s International Terminal E.
Once I arrived at Washington’s Union Station, I took the Metro to Will’s place on the southwest waterfront. Thursday night, we went to see some of his friends for a New Year’s Eve party. It was a lot of fun, and the food was fantastic. Anderson Cooper must have been paid a lot of money in order to put up with Kathy Griffin. Sure, she’s funny, but she is incredibly annoying at times.
Friday, we did a whole lot of nothing. At one point, we did make our way to Pentagon City Mall where I picked up my new iPhone 3GS. This is a 16 GB model in White. My current 3G is having some pixel problems and I just came up for renewal. So I’m replacing the 3G and will send it back to be fixed. This is why I bought Apple Care on the phone.
Friday night, we met some more of his friends for drinks and then we headed up to Laurel, MD for game night with our friends Marc and Jason. They have this game called Killer Bunnies that is a lot of fun. We ended up being there way too late and just crashed for the night.
Come Saturday, the only thing we did was go out for dinner. We had plans to attend an event at my friend’s bar, but we both decided that we were too tired. On top of that, I had an early flight Sunday morning back to Boston.
When Will dropped me off at BWI this morning, I was met with a bit of a surprise–the lines. Southwest had thousands of people waiting to check in for their flights. In typical Southwest fashion, they moved that line incredibly well. I waited no more than 20 minutes to check in and check my bag. After that, airport security was a breeze.
I really only have one complaint, and that’s my own fault. I didn’t get Southwest’s Early Bird Check-in like I normally do. This left me with a B boarding pass. I’m used to getting a boarding pass in the low Still, I was fortunate to get a pretty good seat without having to play the MS card. I only do that when I’m having dizzy spells and don’t want to stumble while throwing my bag in the overhead. In this case, I only had my messenger bag that goes under the seat, so I was fine.
Yesterday, we said farewell to one of my oldest friends. Phil Murphy was killed in an accident last week.
Last week, I was starting my Christmas card list and came across Phil and Randy’s address on last year’s list. I made a note to call and check in. It had been too long. I never got the chance. The next day, a mutual friend sent me a message on facebook saying that he’d been killed in an accident.
I have this jumble of thoughts and memories of Phil that I want to share, but honestly, I just can’t summon the words right now. He was a good guy who would give you the shirt off his back.
Phil’s funeral reminded me about something in his life, that he was able to bring together a diverse group of people and make them come together and laugh. That was the Phil we knew, and that was the Phil we loved. One of the speakers at his funeral said that heaven is a much richer place now and Earth is much poorer. I couldn’t agree more.
I’ve been on the Weight Watchers program for the past six weeks. This week, I hit both my 5% and 10 pound goals!
This is pretty exciting for me. My short-term goal is to hit 165. Ultimately, I’d love to get back down to 150, but that’s a longer-term goal.
Being on Weight Watchers, I’m trying to eat some of my favorite foods, only in a more healthy way. I’m teaching myself to cook all over again.
Today, I tackled my chicken “base” that I use for chicken pot pie, chicken and biscuits, etc. After about two hours in the kitchen this morning, I think we can call this recipe a success.
