Anniversaries
Today is October 27th, the 5th anniversary of the Red Sox World Series win. A pretty big deal, though I think I could say that I experienced it in unique circumstances. See, yesterday was the 5-year anniversary of Nick breaking his back. So I spent the time of the game (a) watching it in the hospital with Nick (b) on a portable radio waiting for the train from the hospital (c) on a very empty train, with the portable radio and (d) walking around downtown Boston, finally watching the last outs with others, through a window of the Beantown Pub.
I spent a lot of time after the accident trying to wish it away. There were a lot of "if onlys" that could have been created - especially if you deal in logistics the way I do. I am lucky in some ways that I don't seem to retain bad memories that strongly. In fact, I am almost surprised at remembering the actual details. This is the case also with hospital stay II in 2006, which was much worse and triggered some horrible followup anxiety in me a few months later. For whatever reason, I can remember the lighter moments - putting stickers on Nick's brace, travelling first-class Amtrak home for Thanksgiving because Nick could lie down in the fancy lounge - and the random moments: buying lots of apples for hospital visits so that Nick could have fresh food; the library giving me grace periods on the books I took out in a bit of a daze on the afternoon after the accident.
It actually ended up that we took a random vacation day yesterday to enjoy the perfect weather. We went up to Massebesic for four hours of killer mountain biking. And don't think I'm not unbelievably grateful that Nick is able to ride on the mtn bike (road bike is too static for him; mtn bike keeps him from "locking up") - we didn't plan it for the anniversary, but it's nice to see how far we've come.
I wish he didn't have to feel pain every day, but what can you do?
The one learning that everyone should know: never go to a sports event/practice without a change of clothing. Skinsuits are no fun to sleep in!
As for the world series win, frankly I have so many other memories and stories from the insane postseason of 2004. And the best one was of simple anticipation, on the afternoon leading up to Game 7. We need more Game 7s in baseball, really.
I spent a lot of time after the accident trying to wish it away. There were a lot of "if onlys" that could have been created - especially if you deal in logistics the way I do. I am lucky in some ways that I don't seem to retain bad memories that strongly. In fact, I am almost surprised at remembering the actual details. This is the case also with hospital stay II in 2006, which was much worse and triggered some horrible followup anxiety in me a few months later. For whatever reason, I can remember the lighter moments - putting stickers on Nick's brace, travelling first-class Amtrak home for Thanksgiving because Nick could lie down in the fancy lounge - and the random moments: buying lots of apples for hospital visits so that Nick could have fresh food; the library giving me grace periods on the books I took out in a bit of a daze on the afternoon after the accident.
It actually ended up that we took a random vacation day yesterday to enjoy the perfect weather. We went up to Massebesic for four hours of killer mountain biking. And don't think I'm not unbelievably grateful that Nick is able to ride on the mtn bike (road bike is too static for him; mtn bike keeps him from "locking up") - we didn't plan it for the anniversary, but it's nice to see how far we've come.
I wish he didn't have to feel pain every day, but what can you do?
The one learning that everyone should know: never go to a sports event/practice without a change of clothing. Skinsuits are no fun to sleep in!
As for the world series win, frankly I have so many other memories and stories from the insane postseason of 2004. And the best one was of simple anticipation, on the afternoon leading up to Game 7. We need more Game 7s in baseball, really.