Bryan interviewed on NPR

After being interviewed and quoted in The Wall Street Journal about his texting/broken foot/walking dog incident last year, Bryan was interviewed on a new NPR show called The Takeway this past week: More people turning up in ER with injuries after texting while walking.

Pretty funny piece, and only Bryan can tell a skeptical emergency room doctor and expert that he looks at it a different way as multitasking and how people have to move forward.

First sentence at Paragraph

So I've started at Paragraph, a writer's workspace in Manhattan with a part-time membership. It's amazing, started by two MFA grads who saw a need and started a business around it. There's room filled with cubicles and desks that any member can use. It's super-quiet and orderly with couches in the middle if you need a break or the kitchen/lounge to visit where you can keep stuff in the fridge or make coffee or hang out.

Today is my first day, so I blocked out a few hours to work here on a story I want to finish for submission to some mags. In just the first two hours, I put a really good dent in the editing which shows how much you can get done without any distractions. There's also the tone of feeling like a writer, which must do something on some level. I've just met one other writer briefly and brewed one cup of coffee in the kitchen. Found a bunch of flyers and resources like editors, new books out and members-only events like agents who come by.

iLike the iPint

Marc Schaad showed me this app on the new iPhone software upgrade, Carlsburg beer's iPint. You play a game to get the beer across the bar to your hands (it can be hard, since your phone responds to gravity) and then you fill the glass and then the kicker is you hold it up to your mouth and can drink it.  Then you can send a friend an ipint.

It's silly and fun, infectious and terrific. Skeptics can pick it a part as a non-differentiating etc but screw you, they did it first. We're all jealous. Now I'm showing it to anyone who will listen. 

And I'm not even a big beer fan. Imagine what the American think.

A week siesta on the outer cape

I love this picture Bryan took of man and dog, crashed out in the second bedroom of the apt we rented in Provincetown, right on the water. 

Great week of great weather and perfect rental. Mornings with coffee paper and sometimes dog on one of several different beaches. Brought lunch back to the apartment and then hung out on the bay beach outside our door or stayed in and worked on some short stories I am revising. 

Off the grid - Pilgrims rule

So we're off on vacation, thank goodness.

First to James Taylor at Tanglewood, which we've never done before despite Bryan's folks having a house nearby

Then to Boston to see friends before our rental starts in Provincetown. We've rented in Provincetown twice before and it's terrific - fairly inexpensive and close to the beach and the beaches are terrific. Usually, we go early in the morning, bring lunch and then come home in the heat of the sun and I write all afternoon and then start drinking. we don't do the party scene as much as we do the sunset/sunrise scene. We vary beaches along the Cape, visiting others. We love WASPY stuff and the Cape is full of it and them. It's also refreshing to be away from New Yorkers (no offense) and with the New Englanders who are of a different ilk.

This time, we expect to play tennis (bought BJF his first racquet and we need to break it in) plus he'll probably make me bike again. We're bringing Ezra of course and we can bring him to the beach in the morning which is great. We had terrific pictures from last time (2 yrs ago) and I hope to do a few more good shots of him. It's so nice to go on vacation with the pup, and it's like we get to know each other all over again. Of course, sometimes I think every day is the same day for him over again.

Bryan grew up being denied lobster (I, a product of foreclosure banking in the 80s, was shoveled it like Shredded Wheat), so I hope we have lots of it for lunch and dinner. 

Otherwise, I have plenty of books to read and DVDs to re-watch.

Today, a sleep check-in

While I usually look forward to going to the doctor (catching up on magazines, time alone in the waiting room, free water), today I am not enthusiastic at all about today's visit. It's a check-up for my sleep regimen, to the dental specialist who gave me over five thousand dollars in oral retainers. I've been pretty good about the night one but wonder if I'll be scolded or worse if I haven't made any discernable progress. I can't imagine how many more weeks of wearing this thing at night I can tolerate.

I usually know where to go
After years of having doctors all over Manhattan, I decided to consolidate with one street on the Upper East Side. There, along one 2-avenue stretch is my internist, allergist, gastro-interologist, ear-nose-and-throat and of course the Sleep Center. The exception really is this dentist, which is much closer to work on Madison Avenue. I like him, but I hate both my retainers.

Their combined effect, one from day wear and one from night, is to pull my jaw forward which will have things line up more nicely and better air flow at night. This also relieves pressure on my left side of my head, which will relieve the occasional pain I get in my shoulder and also result in my ability to lift dozens or hundreds (I forget what he said) of extra pounds at the gym. This is a correction from how my mouth shifted after my wisdom teeth were removed and from the untold damage from my orthodontics. The braces bit really bugs me since it's more proof of the damage my parents did to me through how they chose medical care; the orthodontist was a client of my dads and they bartered law work and braces.

It's working
Bryan says that he hasn't noticed I'm snoring at all anymore. This means the correction is totally working, or I wasn't really snoring in the first place and Bryan feels really bad.