April 21st

It's been a scary week for the family as my dad has been in the hospital since Tuesday. He came over that night with terrible pains around his chest and neck, I never really got a good idea of what he was feeling, but he was in a lot of pain so he asked me to take him to the emergency room. At first no one thought it would be anything serious. My dad frequently goes to the doctor for various ailments and had never faced anything too serious, until now.

We went to Evergreen where they got him in immediately, but had trouble finding out exactly what the problem was. He was having distorted vision, among other bizarre symptoms but it took many hours before anyone could figure out the problem (I'll try my best to describe what exactly was wrong). At about 10 or 11, the doctor came to the conclusion that his aorta (a large artery that sends oxygenated blood to parts of the body) was tearing, calling for an immediate transfer to Overlake Hospital and immediate cardiovascular surgery.

This was a lot to take in all at once. This was a very serious surgery and he could very well die from many different factors. He started calling family members and telling me things if he didn't make it through the night, it was an extremely emotional moment. Initially, the doctor said I should follow the ambulance driver to Overlake, but when the driver came in he responded with "What? No that's insane do you know how fast I drive?" I was a little relieved that I wouldn't have to follow a speeding ambulance, but that didn't take much of a dent out of my worries.

I drove home to meet up with the rest of the family, where we would head out after I filled them in on what I knew. We arrived at Overlake later that night, where we would meet the surgeon that would be performing the surgery Dr. Vu Trong Hoang. The doctor gave us a little more insight on the condition, which apparently in the medical world had become known as "John Ritter Syndrome" after John Ritter died of essentially the same condition in 2003.

After this we went to see my dad one last time before the surgery. He seemed fairly optimistic but I was still freaked out and with good reason. We spent about three or so hours at the hospital and soon enough, my grandma and aunts showed up. We all talked for awhile but later decided that at least Paul and I should go home and try and get some sleep. We did so, but I didn't get much sleep that night. We went back to the hospital the next morning to luckily find that the surgery was a success, but he wasn't in the clear yet. There was about a 48 hour time frame where other things could go wrong. I could tell you of all the other worries that went through everyone's minds in that period, but let's flash forward to today.

It's been almost five days since my dad went into surgery and he's recovering quite nicely. I've missed some school and literally hadn't felt like doing anything for most of the week, this including missing the last Killers concert among other things. Luckily, everything seems to be stable now, it's been comforting seeing everyone in the family come and visit, not to mention some of my dad's friends such as; his best friend Dick, his boss Sam and his old friend Ron, who visited my dad before he could recognize anyone (due to the drugs he'd be given) my dad thought he was a doctor.

That's about as much as I feel comfortable talking about, it's been really hard on everyone, especially my dad. Fortunately this isn't some condition that's going to drastically change his life afterwards, at least to my understanding. Once it is fixed, it's fixed and shouldn't come back in some new form. As a matter of fact my Grandpa went through the same surgery in the 80s and lived another twenty or so years, dying from an unrelated ailment, plus he was older than my dad when he had it done. So I'm optimistic towards the future and as of right now, it appears everything is going to be just fine.

What's Weak this Week?

Well here we are into April and I'm currently on my second week of classes. I've Anthropology this quarter which so far is both fun and fascinating. It seems like most of my favorite classes at BCC have been taught by younger, cooler teachers, I guess they're just more in touch with this go-go gadget modern world. I've also got my typical math class, hopefully this will be one of the last ones I take, it;s taught by your typical Mr. Mabbott-esque old guy educator. I've also got my online class which I like now but really pissed me off at first.


So I signed up for an online class called "American Heroes" just before Spring Break. It didn't really give any specific information regarding the class specifics online, but being that it would give me some of that sweet, sweet credit I signed up. Then I went to go get my books during Spring Break in which I received a National Geographic book called "American Heroes" and a book about Malcolm X. So I figure "Okay this is a class about influential Americans." but that didn't turn out to be the case. The class turned out to be about Western heroes in fiction. Well that's cool, but why the hell did I get these other books? I sent my teacher and email but he never responded. A lot of other people in the class were hella confused but didn't get answer either, so everybody' just went with it. Basically we watch a western every week and than take a quiz and write a brief character analysis along with some reading and essays. The only thing is no one has the actual book yet because everyone got some Malcolm X book. So I just ordered this apparently new book off of Amazon with the dough I got from selling some old books to BCC and here I am now.


Let's see what else is worth discussion? Oh, April Fool's Day was just great last week in our household. My mom usually plays a prank on Paul and myself every year, which I usually don't enjoy, but this year it was pretty good. So I awoke that morning at about 7:00, completely forgetting it was April Fools, got dressed and opened my door only to reveal something that gave me a good scare. For what else was standing behind that door but a life size cut out of Zach Effron. At first I thought it was lPaul standing before me with a large disturbing grin but after I realized it was just a cardboard cut out I had a good laugh. I tried the same prank on Paul leaving it in front of his door for when he woke up, but he wasn't really that surprised. As the day progressed everyone was taking that cutout and hiding all around the house. You'd find it in various rooms, in the shower it was everywhere. That was a good day in my book.


Last weekend the family and I went to the Swedish Cultural Center for it's monthly Swedish breakfast which was good. I'd never felt so accepted with all the old paintings and artwork of tall blonde dudes, I was in good company, though the huge crowds of old people were kind of annoying. It just seemed like every single one of them had a story to tell about the "old country".


I went to Adventureland last weekend with Paul, though we had to go to Crossroads after we noticed Bella Botega was carding people left and right. Luckily we got in safely at Crossroads and enjoyed the movie, though I'm more looking forward to Observe and Report this weekend. In the world of T.V. I'm back watching the fifth season of Oz and the second season of Deadwood which has been pretty boring ever since Ian McShane's character has been somewhat out of commission. Luckily his character is almost back to his dynamic self so I think the show will pick up again. I checked out the season premiere of Rescue Me and was surprised to see I had no problem getting back into it. I'd watched most of the previous season so I felt pretty in check, the show's still entertaining. Animation wise I haven't been too hot on South Park this season and Family Guy has still been more or less hit or miss these days. Hopefully I'll find some more good comedic Television somewhere soon.


Aside from all this I've pretty much been in baseball mode. It's hard for me to take losses early on in a season but I'm real excited about our offense, especially (well aside from Griffey) Franklin Gutierez who I'm all about. Probably just because I love yelling "Gut!" to the T.V. "C'mon Gut, my man Gut!" It's early but I think we have a good chance of dishing out a fairly respectable season. I mean you can only expect so much out of team that's rebuilding.