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I officially have come down with my first cold of the fall season. It seems like right about this time is when it occurred last year too.

The cold, however, is the least of my problems. The problem that is taking most of the focus right now is my gimpy right shoulder. Ready for a story? Here goes...

Back in January, 2003, I was playing hockey at the University of Richmond as a forward, due to the small number of players we had (normally I'm a goalie). During the third period of the first game I was about 4 feet off the boards with the puck when I got checked. I fell, shoulder first, into the edge of the boards. It immediately hurt and I knew something was wrong, as I couldn't grip my stick. I could move my arm, although it was with a LOT of pain.

So, after the game we go back to the hotel. I am unable to sleep, as the shoulder hurts too bad. I recruit Zoo, another player, to take me to the nearest hospital. This was at about 2am. We got there, and we are the only people in the waiting room. Of course, I sit there for two hours before finally seeing a doctor. When I get in, the doctor takes x-rays of the shoulder. After the x-ray, the doctor tells me that nothing is broken, and to maybe, if it keeps hurting, to go see a doctor back home in Richmond, VA.

Fast forward to summer, 2006. I'm playing softball and my shoulder is killing me. It has been getting worse since about late 2004. I decided it was time to go get it checked out again, seeing as how I couldn't do a bench press or pushup because of how week (and painful) the shoulder is. The orthopaedist took some x-rays as soon as I got there, and guess what he found? I have a broken collarbone!

Essentially, what the doctor thinks happened is that when I hit the boards, my shoulder separated, striking the edge of my collarbone on the way out. Because of this striking, a significant chunk of the edge of my clavical broke off. I now have a piece of bone floating around in my shoulder. Not only that, the doctor thinks that I may have torn my Labrum and/or rotator cuff. I have to go in to get an MRI on Thursday. So, the hospital in Atlanta didn't catch the broken collar bone, which pisses me off. It's not med mal, but annoying nevertheless. As soon as the doctor gets the MRI results he is going to make the determination as to whether I need surgery, or if PT will suffice.

The moral of the story? Don't trust hospitals in Atlanta.

Posted by Jeremy Sarnovsky at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After the hockey game Friday night, we actually had a pretty good weekend. Normally we both have to work (Martha at the bookstore, me at hockey), but we actually had some free time this weekend to have some fun.

I have been saying for a while now that I didn't feel like I was taking full advantage of the fact that I'm living in the DC area, because up until now we haven't had much time to go out on the weekends. So, on Saturday the Tigers were playing in the first game of the World Series, so Martha and I decided to head out to Old Town Alexandria ("The Fun Side of the Potomac"). My main requirement was that we had to go somewhere to watch the game, so we headed to one of our favorite locations in Old Town - Bugsy's Pizza. It's owned by a former NHL player name Bryan Watson, but other than that it has some fantastic pizza. We went to the second floor sports bar - The Penalty Box, and ordered a couple of personal deep dish pizzas and some beer. Good times were had by all.

After finishing our pizza and beer, it was on to Alexandria's Original Ghost & Graveyard Tour. It was about an hour long tour through the streets of Old Town, with occassional stops for stories about ghosts and history. While I did have a lot of fun, and am glad I did it, I think our tour was a little heavy on the history, and a little light on the ghost stories. It was interesting, however, to find out that when they took apart the Carlyle House to clean it and rebuild it in the early 1900s, that they found a box in the corner of the foundation. That box contained the mumified remains of a cat. Gross, but apparently this was a scottish tradition to ward off evil spirits.

Sunday it was out to the Stribling Orchard for apple picking. After an hour and a half drive, thanks to horrible traffic on I-66, we made it there. Unfortunately, our apple picking desires were almost immediately frustrated, as we found most of the trees were picked entirely clean, or the apples remaining were not in good condition. We ended up just buying a few apples out of the bins near the front of the orchard.

Despite the fact that apple-picking excursion was a bust, we happened upon a few wineries in the area of the orchard. The first one we checked on was closed, but the second one was open - and busy! So, we stopped at Naked Mountain Winery to sample some of their wines. Despite a very large amount of fruit flies in their lodge, the wine turned out to be very good. We tried all of their flavors during the testing, and I was particularily impressed with their 2002 Chardonnay. Martha liked the Chardonnay/Riesling. The only one we weren't particularily fond of was their "Raptor Red," which didn't seem as smooth as the others. So, we purchased a sampler box, as well as a bottle of the Riesling. We should be set on wine for a while.

When we got home, there was some time to relax, and time to watch the Tigers defeat the Cardinals 3-1. The game was marred by controversey when the Fox television cameras picked up what Rogers would call "dirt" on his hand. I'm not going to call Rogers a liar (as I'm a Tigers fan), but that sure is some of the stickiest-looking dirt I've ever seen. Of course, after the cameras picked it up (in the first inning), the next time Rogers was on the mound, it had been washed off. Very interesting.

Posted by Jeremy Sarnovsky at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My senior year in high school if you had asked me where I'd be in 10 years the answer would not have been, "Washington, D.C." Nor would I have imagined that even if I did end up in DC, that I would be working three jobs just to make ends meet.

I guess it is funny where life takes you when you aren't really paying attention. Unfortunately, to use a stupid cliché, hindsight is always 20/20. In retrospect, I probably should have went to one of the colleges that offered me a substantial scholarship (hello, full ride to Ferris State). I definitely should not have went to Oakland, as that kept me to near to home, and I don't think it really allowed me the opportunity to grow. That is where law school came in. While moving to Richmond definitely had some good aspects (hockey, being on my own), the fact that I came out of there with over $100k in debt tells you that I probably should have thought more about what I was getting myself into.

So now I find myself in a place I never thought I'd be living, trying to eke out a living and plan for the future - a future that I'm not particularily sure I want. It's funny, because my godmother warned me before I made the decision to go to law school that I'd probably regret it in the long run, and my two closestbest friends basically said the same thing to me. It turns out, they were right. Maybe I should just have people other than myself make my decisions for me. It couldn't turn out any worse, right?

Anyhow, we are on our way out to an orchard out in Loudon County today - Stribling Orchard. I'm a big fan of apple picking, so it should result in a pretty good time, with the exception of the one hour drive out there.

Oh yeah, and the Tigers got spanked in the first game of the World Series. Bummer.

Posted by Jeremy Sarnovsky at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)