Will’s Blog

Monaca is feeling better today. After her CT scan didn’t show anything on Tuesday, we waited a day for the doctors to review her blood tests. Yesterday morning, she woke up feeling pretty awful, so we got the clinic to get us an appointment that led to more head scratching and a referral to general surgeon yesterday afternoon. He examined Monaca and determined that there wasn’t anything surgical to be done, and that she could eat normally and resume activity as the pain allowed. He theorized that some connective tissue may have become inflamed, which we basically have to wait for it to untwist itself. She also needs to see a Gastroenterologist next week to rule out other things.

The big thing was being OKed to take Advil. That was one thing she was instructed not to take all week, but the surgeon said it should be fine, and after taking it… she started to feel better. The real unfortunate result of this week this is that we have to cancel our vacation plans for Florida next week. We are hoping to go in the Fall now.

Monaca and I are in the waiting room at MSU radiology. As you can
see, she is enjoying her Berry Barium Smoothie. She started having
bad abdominal pains on Sunday evening. Urgent Care didn’t help
yesterday, and her regular doctor is scratching her head. Monaca felt
better last night, but was worse this morning. There is a possibility
that she has diverticulitis, but her blood work didn’t confirm that
yesterday. We hope to know something definitive by this evening.
Thanks for all your prayers!

I started and finished this amazing book over the weekend. Gang Leader for a Day is a memoir of a sociologist, Sudhir Venkatesh, set during his graduate school experience. He spent nearly a decade in the Robert Taylor Housing Projects of Chicago, before they were ultimately demolished in the mid 90’s. He spent that time getting to know the people in the community, and the street gang that controlled the crack cocaine trade in the neighborhood. Venkatesh’s stories were part of the book, Freakonomics, and he has published another book that takes a fresh look at the economics of the poor, based on his research in the Robert Taylor Projects.

I liked this book because I think it challenges what people think that it means to be African American, poor, and living in an urban environment. Because Venkatesh is so honest about his ignorance and naivete, we get to learn from his experience. I came away from this book thinking about how people try to survive inside of broken or dysfunctional systems, like our social services.

I guess that with my world view, I am not surprised by these broken institutions, or that people’s solutions are imperfect and don’t really meet the needs of everyone, but it breaks my heart to see how it has such a lasting impact on families.

I’d like to encourage everyone to call and wish my best friend, Dave, a very happy 40th birthday! Hard to believe that he is over the hill! I have to say that he is mighty well preserved.

Well, besides my penchant for posting laziness, there has been something going on with my site that has prevented me from using my blog editor in the past month or so. I reinstalled my blog software and everything seems to be working again. That doesn’t translate into a promise to blog more often!

Its funny, the question changed from, “How are the wedding plans going?” to “So, how is married life treating you?” It is treating me very well. I have a wonderful wife who treats me far better than I deserve. I keep thinking that I probably don’t do enough to serve her. We love living together, and are settling into our nest.

While returning from an appointment today, I had the pleasure of being stopped by one of our county sheriff’s  finest.

Now, let me preface my thoughts with the fact that I was exceeding the speed limit.  The posted speed limit was 35 MPH and I was probably going about 43-45 MPH.  As I was driving down the road, a county sheriff’s car was approaching coming the other way.  As I passed them, they flipped on their lights and did a U-turn.

The officer asked for the paperwork, and then asked me what my speedometer read when I looked down at it when he flipped on his lights.  I said I thought it was 43.  He then said, “that must have been after you tapped on the brakes.”  I stammered that I didn’t know, but that the bottom line was that I was exceeding the speed limit.  He asked if I knew what the posted speed limit was, and I told him.  He and his partner returned to his car and I waited an interminable 5 minutes.  The end result was that I received a ticket for doing 40 in a 35.

After I drove on, I began to ruminate on the whole event.  One glaring fact came up.  The officer never told me what speed he had clock me doing.  Call me cynical, but I’m pretty sure that the officer didn’t actually know what speed I was driving.  He merely suspected and allowed me to implicate myself.

As annoying as that thought is, I cannot escape one irrefutable fact… I am guilty.  Whether or not the officer had proof, I knew that I was speeding.  Its interesting because part of me wants to learn from this event to be more cagey during traffic stops. For years, my practice has been to be polite and to be extremely honest.  I think this satisfies my conscience, and there is a part of me that hopes that police officers will respond to my honest approach by giving me a break.

I guess I still believe that honesty is the best policy.

Our wedding photos are available! Our wonderful, beautiful, and talented sister-in-law, Brandi, burned the midnight oil to get them processed for us. She did such a sensational and artisitic job.

The slideshow does not contain all the available pictures, because there are 808 images available! You will be able to view all the available images after the slideshow completes. If you want to order a print, you can do so right on their website!

You can view our pictures here.

Thanks Brandi!!!

Stupid Massachusetts! Spent a few seconds on New Hampshire, Vermont, and finally Nevada.

In 3m 36s

Click here to Play

We had a wonderful time on our honeymoon. Monaca and I went back to our suite at the Kellogg Center around Midnight. The next morning we met a few of our friends at Beggar’s Banquet for breakfast. After bidding them farewell, we realized that we had left a few things with both of my parents, so we stopped at Dad and Pam’s for a little while, and then hit my mother’s house where we saw my brother’s family as well.

Next, it was off to Grand Rapids, where we stayed at the J.W. Marriott. It is a beautiful hotel with a first class restaurant called 616. We ate there our first night, and they gave us a lovely dessert on the house!

The next day, we ate breakfast in bed, where I had the BEST Eggs Benedict I’ve ever had. Instead of Canadian Bacon, they put cuts of beef filet on it, cooked to order. They also use some kind of gourmet bread instead of english muffin. I was in heaven! Later, we hit Founder’s Taproom, one of our favorite breweries. From there, we went to San Chez for dinner. Its a Spanish restaurant where you can order lots of tapas, or small hors d’oeuvres. We had Sangria with dinner and you can see that it was a romantic atmosphere.

We left for Saugatuck the next day and stayed in Hidden Garden Cottages, a great Bed & Breakfast right in downtown.

That night, we had what was probably the best dinner of the trip, at a little cafe in Douglas called the Everyday People Cafe. Monaca had what I think is one of the best cuts of beef I’ve had anywhere, including Morton’s Steakhouse and Ruth’s Chris. They also had Chimay Grand Reserve, one of my favorite beers!

On Tuesday, we walked around Saugatuck after a continental breakfast in our room. When we made our reservations, the B&B owners failed to mention that 90% of the stores would be closed on the days we were staying. We did find some lovely sculptures in a park though.

We found a few nice stores open as well, and decided that Saugatuck would be a wonderful place in a more temperate off-season and when all the shops were open. I would not want to be there during the height of summer.

During the afternoon, we headed back to Grand Rapids to the GRAM where we thought the Andy Warhol exhibit was open… only to realize that it arrives in two weeks. Oh well, an excuse to go back! We managed to find the worst sushi restaurant in Grand Rapids for dinner, and then hurried over to Founder’s for another beer before heading back to Saugatuck.

On Wednesday we drove to Grand Rapids for lunch at the One Trick Pony. They have awesome Jerk chicken pasta. From there, we drove to Kalamazoo to visit Bell’s Eccentric Cafe.

They have all their beers on tap, some I’ve never seen in the store. After a beer, we went into their General Store and I built my own six pack to take home, and bought a shirt with the logo for my favorite Bell’s beer:

Afterwards, the happy couple drove home!

A few more pictures can be found here.

With a little more than a week to go until the wedding, I had my hair cut and beard trimmed. Now, if you know me, for the past few years, that usually meant going into the bathroom with hair clippers and a razor. With the recent hair growth, I have made a couple trips to my old barber. I wasn’t exactly happy with how it looked, and didn’t want to have the same cut again. Monaca suggested that I try a salon. I don’t know as I have ever had my hair “styled.”

I made an appointment with Douglas J Salon. I have to say that the whole experience blows barbershops out of the water. I’m not sure that I can justify $50 a month with how little hair I have, but it is tempting! It started with them taking my coat, and then leading me to a waiting area with comfortable chairs and a big flat screen TV on the wall. The stylist gave me scalp massage, then shampooed my hair while I had a hot towel on my face. They shined my shoes and gave me a hand massage all while I was getting my hair cut!

The best part of the whole experience is that Monaca likes my hair. So, maybe I will go back from time to time!