happy birthday baby bro!

Once upon a time in the '80s

I can't believe my little brother turned 28 today. Even though I don't think of him as the little devil in the picture above, I moved out when he was in high school, so his "adultness" is hard to grasp. But he's turned into a great person, with awesome friends, super talents, and a wonderful girlfriend. I'm really proud of the dude he's grown into. Here's to a great year, Kevin M. Arnold!

UPDATED: ZOMG...realized that we're in a vehicle in the above photo. We don't appear to be wearing seatbelts, car seats, or helmets. We probably were eating peanut butter and I think I may have been able to choke on that Barbie. Amazing that we made it. {extreme sarcasm}

May 2010

practice an attitude of gratitude

This was my fortune cookie last night from Lucky Liu's and I really took it to heart today.

The last month has been incredibly rough. My mom lost her job of 15 years, my godfather passed away after a short battle with melanoma, and I got in a car accident at work and now have to deal with both a back injury and fighting an unjust ticket (since when is driving in the shoulder of a two-lane highway legal?).

Thanks to the car accident I also had to put my fitness and weight goals on hold until I start physical therapy and find out how to adjust my exercise plan. Nothing's more frustrating to me at the moment.

BUT the cookie put it all in perspective.

So here's some of the many things I'm grateful for today:

• Getting up early enough this morning to hit Alterra Coffee before work.
• I hurt less today than yesterday and that I wasn't hurt worse in the accident.
• I have the resources, intelligence and gumption to fight my ticket.
• My best friend in the world, Kat, happened to be visiting the day after my wreck and took care of me mentally, physically and spiritually. AND she cleaned my bath tub so I could soak my muscles. She's pretty much amazing.
• Swimming really helped my back out and the WAC and Milwaukee Athletic Club have partnered so I now have access to a pool downtown.
• I was able to donate blood today and that I can be motivated enough by the importance of it to overcome my terrible phobia of needles.
• My #fitmke and dailymile networks rock and have been so encouraging throughout my hiatus from my exercise routine.
• The stars aligning and the Pabst Theater booked the Pavement reunion. Now I can sell my Pitchfork tickets and have an extra weekend in Milwaukee, go to a friend's wedding shower, and support the WMSE Radio Summer Camp.
• Spending quality time with my family this past month.
• My awesome co-workers who bring in treats, entertain me throughout the day, and give me rides home when it rains.
• Reconnecting with childhood, high school and college friends recently. And continuing to make new friends, even with three decades behind me!

Thank you fortune cookie!

PDX Perspective

Arnold Family Photo - June 1, 2010

This weekend I was going to do a lot of things. Explore my hometown more, catch up on blog entries…be productive.

Then on Saturday my family was hit with very sad news at 8:30 in the morning. My godfather, and my dad’s best friend of 40 years, passed away after a short battle with melanoma.

I ran it out while my parents began to grieve. I met up with my little brother, went to LCD Soundsystem with Kat, waited to find out if I’d be making it back to Milwaukee or detouring to DC first. 

Grandma & Me

It was really hard to watch Mom and Dad try and hold it together. I was glad I had pre-existing plans to hang out with Grandma all day on Sunday, three hours north. I tried to take my time in the car to process my own thoughts, memories of growing up with the Fisher family, reflecting on the one-year anniversary of my own father’s heart attack scare…

I tried to hug my parents as much as possible all weekend. I didn’t fight with my mom, which is a miracle in itself. I processed. I made my arrangements to DC (with a couple hiccups). Then on Monday night, before dinner, I checked Facebook. I learned that a good friend’s brother who had been in a coma the past month, passed away.

Argh.

Auntie Meghan & Joey

The weekend wasn’t without joy. I met my friend Lisa’s baby, Joey, and got to hold him until my arm cramped. I spent countless hours with my best friend, Kathleen. I am so grateful for her, I can’t even begin to describe. She amazes me with everything she has done, and all the obstacles and tragedies in her own life that she’s handled. She inspires me to be strong.

Kat, Nathan and me at Coffeetime. Circa 1998. Or on Monday night.

There were the other usual suspects, old and new, woven into the fabric of my trip home: Nathan, Jasmine, Leland, and my brother’s girlfriend, the lovely Nathalie.

I saw the Oregon Coast for the first time in years. It was rainy and blustery, but the ocean still makes me happy. The Pacific really does bring me peace.

Sibling bonding.

And then there was my family. Kevin, my brother, and I had a great sibling-bonding day. Mom and Dad and I existed peacefully in the house. Grandma and I had a blast driving all over the southern Puget Sound looking for farmer’s markets.

I was not “productive” in the sense of creating materials, but I was productive in getting perspective.

I’ve already been reaching a breaking point with my commitments, but this weekend revealed much to me. I need to spend more time with the people that I love and taking care of myself so that I’m here and healthy for the people who love me. We’re all here for just a short time.

I want to spend the summer living life to its fullest. Carpe diem, indeed.

sunday catch up: because my mom told me too

I'm completely exhausted but I got an email from my mom giving me crap about not blogging lately. Excuse me for having a life.

There are actually a TON of issues I want to write about, but I haven't had a freaking ounce of time.

This weekend was packed from start to finish. Began it at 5:15 p.m. on Friday meeting Becky and Maribeth at Lakefront Brewery for the tour and FINALLY a proper fish fry. Had to cut out to bike over to Turner Hall Ballroom to catch the Los Campesinos! show. SO worth the two years I've been waiting to see this band. I was a bit disappointed there weren't more folks there, but the band seemed to still brink the energy to their infectious, joyous indie rock. The encore involved the lead singer and two guitarists jumping into the crowd. Total awesomeness. Flying solo at the show, I indulged in a couple Fatty Boombalatty bottles. I somehow thought it was a good idea to stop at Buckley's for one more afterward. Gotta love the neighborhood bar.

On Saturday I somehow managed to wake up, head spinning, and head out to State Fair Park by 9 a.m. for the Wheel & Sprocket Bike Expo. Luckily I was "car-sitting" for Larissa this weekend, and cheated a bit and drove--instead of biking or busing out there with the oncoming hangover. Why so early? I'd signed up to volunteer with the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. I was really impressed that as a member I got this cool opportunity to volunteer, get a free t-shirt, and a coupon for the expo (which I totally just realized I forgot to use -- d'oh!). But the volunteer opportunity did make me more familiar with the organization I just joined and even more excited about the bike community in this state. [Shameless plug: Don't forget about my upcoming 50 mile ride...please sponsor me here!]

After 3 hours of greeting people at the entrance and handing out Bike Fed flyers, it was time to shop. I've been contemplating getting a road bike for awhile, and well, just looking, okay well testing, wouldn't hurt....
Meet the new member of my family!! Isn't she a beaut?

We took an 11-mile spin yesterday, despite my desperate need for a nap. Rode to Whitefish Bay on the Oak Leaf Trail and back. All in about 50 minutes, with commercial interruptions (phone calls, passing up running friends). My sexy new bike is FREAKING FAST!

Following the bike ride, I had to head out to Waukesha to celebrate my friend Maggie's birthday retro-style at Skateland. Skateland may be as retro looking as can be (grainy cell phone pics may or may not be posted soon), but unfortunately they play modern pop music (I guess in the '80s they were playing modern pop music too, weird realization). One of my friends brought some "liquid enhancement" with her, so we invented the "Slushibu," which consists of Blue Slushie and, well, guess. The highlight of the adventure was requesting a shoutout to Maggie, complete with Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now." A full recap will hopefully come this week. Trust me, after initial apprehension, it was an amazing experience.

I got back downtown in time to meet the March Madness gang at Hooligan's to not watch the rest of UNC's annihilation of Villanova.

Was in bed before midnight and it was nice to wake up refreshed and unhungover, although terribly sore from my ride and skating. Copped out on the stalled Milwaukee Challenge: Church Edition and just hopped over to the Cathedral for Palm Sunday Mass. I mean, what's the point of having a church across the street if you can't roll out of bed and into your Holy Day of Obligation?

After Mass, I packed up my laundry and headed to the 'mat. Sheets, towels and comforters succesfully cleaned. Grabbed cheese for the evening at Beans & Barley and a bagel and Minty Green tea for sustenance at Alterra on Prospect (didn't realize they didn't have a full menu).

Laundry complete I jotted down to Brooke & Craig's to join Becky for a music geeking/dinner party/rock band awesomeness get-together. I have a cold/allergy thing going on, so I rocked R.E.M., Oasis and Nirvana fairly well.

Hope mom and any other fans of The Accidental Wisconsinite are now satiated. Good night!

my little slice of the twilight zone

A couple of weeks ago I was at a dinner party and everyone was telling ghost stories. Although I know I have a bunch from childhood (I was a weird kid and super into the occult--yeah, I know, whatever), I could not think of any.

Well, I got served a double-whammy last night.

Thought I had insomnia last night, but it was super weird. I was tossing and turning and I had a super strong Kat sense. Like I needed to talk to her. But she doesn't really have a phone. I finally crawled out of bed and was going to email her to see if all was right.

And then her blog popped up on my reader and said that yesterday would've been Andy's (her late boyfriend who died in a freak accident a few years back) 30th birthday. So then I was like DANG! and got major goosebumps. I went on Gmail to email her, but she was online!!! So we had a good chat, but until like 1 AM. She is okay, but it was helpful to talk to me. She'd been thinking of me too at that time. We both agreed that it was pretty weird, but when you've been best friends for almost 15 years maybe you just tune into one another.

This morning I was going to let myself sleep in because of the late night, and hit the gym tomorrow. But I started having extremely troubling dreams about my great-uncle who has never gotten over his wife's death (he is in his late 80s, they never had kids, etc). I finally woke up because the dreams were so upsetting (don't really remember them, but they were awful). When I awoke I realized that Aunt Mary either died or her funeral was EXACTLY 5 years ago this week

The thought of my dead friends and relatives visiting me at night is a bit disturbing. If my brother's dead roommate, Sean, stops by anytime soon I'm gonna be pissed or my Grampy whose five year death anniversary is in about 3 weeks.

I emailed my mom to call and check on her uncle. Hopefully the spirits will stop bugging me now. Even psychics need to sleep!