Our travel blog, Nate & Sara Are Going Places, is up and running for our fast-approaching trip to Spain. We fly out on Saturday and hope to have our first post up sometime Sunday. For now, you can check out the older posts from our 2007 trip to Norway and our Christmas roadtrip from 2008.
Hasta!
YouTube – Fred Rogers Acceptance Speech – 1997.
Up and down the television dial, almost to a person, we have bloviating, self-important, loud-mouthed “personalities” who we allow to invade our homes without a second thought. They tell us how to think, how to act, what to be angry and outraged about, what to buy and who we should be. Very little of it is positive and very little of it is worthwhile, yet we don’t think twice.
As a young kid, Mr. Rogers scared me. I can’t really remember why, but I’m very sad now that I felt that way. We need more decent, caring people like this on television. People who aren’t trying to sell something, aren’t trying to push a product that they made or own, but people who see the good in everyone and simply want to make sure that we do, too.
We leave for Spain in a scant four days. While I can’t say that Spain has been a huge designation of mine historically, I’m definitely excited. I mean, why wouldn’t I be? I’m headed to a new country. I will land on the shores of Spain and plant my flag into it’s soil, declaring it for my own.
Or something like that.
We fly into Madrid and then plan on splitting our time between Sergovia and Barcelona, with a quick day trip to Toledo mixed in at some point, I’m a bit fuzzy on the details.
My own knowledge of Spain itself sadly is limited to bullfighting, the running of the bulls in Pamplona and that one town where they have a huge tomato fight every year. Oh yeah, and they pronouce their “c’s” as “th’s.” Therveca. Barthelona. A variety of books on Spain are at my disposal, some of which may even get perused during our flight over (although I’ll probably be watching some crappy in-flight movie). I’ll at least check out the Spain Wikipedia page.
The last time Sara and I went overseas, it was to a country that I had studied inside and out, Norway. By the time we left, I felt very much at home. While that was nice, I’m looking forward to being off my guard, to reacting on the fly to the flood of new experiences. The things that are much closer to home than I assumed that they would be and those that are so different that I end up ruminating on them for hours afterward. All of it.
I briefly considered refreshing my Spanish before we left. Maybe getting a phrasebook or subscribing to a podcast on Spanish to re-learn to conjugate my verbs and perfect my tenses. Partially out of laziness and partially out of curiosity, I decided against it. For one, no matter how hard I studied, I’d never get fluent before we left, which would leave me in that weird limbo where I’m not confident enough to carry on entire conversations, yet not inept enough to pretend like I can’t. As it stands, I remember snippets- key phrases that will allow me to purchase things, find a bathroom and tell people I meet that my Spanish is awful. I can figure out more printed word than anything else at this point, which should be fine. I mean, were we planning on being there for more than nine days, I would have taken a class or something. But such a short amount of time, it’s not really worth it. Muddling through will work just fine.
For those of you actually interested in following along on our trip, I’ll be setting up a blog where we will post photos and short journal-type posts about our experiences on our Spanish adventure. I’ll post the link here before we leave. I know you’re on the edge of your seats. Please calm down. We’ll see each other again all too soon.
Every week, after the games have all finished on Saturday’s college football slate, I sit down and think about what I’ve learned from the week’s action. All of this goes down on my sports blog, Fourthandblog.com. Here’s a taste:
- Jimmy Clausen is my #1 Heisman candidate. Period. End of discussion. The fact that Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy, who are great players who have had middling seasons so far, are ahead of him, is asinine. The kid is playing on one foot, leading his team without his #1 target (Michael Floyd) and has led four straight 4th quarter comebacks. That has to be enough.
- Alabama is very damned good.
- LSU knows how to win, bad offense or not. Les Miles is one hell of a coach.
- Cal is done. So is Jahvid Best. It was fun while it lasted.
- Just looking at the Box Score for UTEP/Houston is making me dizzy.
- The Big Ten…yawn.
- Tate Forcier is one gutsy kid. He didn’t win, but I respect his effort. Hell of a player.
- Oregon does not need LaGarrette Blount to return.
Three months ago, I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis and torn meniscus in my right knee. Nine years ago, I tore my ACL and meniscus playing intramural flag football in college. The doc warned me that I would have early-onset osteoarthritis because of the amount of damage and pre-existing scar tissue that populated my knee. Because of this, I hit my rehab especially hard and within a few years, I was running five + miles at a time and lifting just as much weight as I ever had, not to mention playing on city league basketball and football teams. Sure, I had to ice my knee more often than most people and it would occasionally get stiff and swollen when I over-did it, but it was worth it. I have always loved playing sports and was happy that I was nearing 30 and still able to perform at a relatively high level all-around.
Then, six months ago, after a pickup basketball game, my knee swelled up and did not get better for four days. Before, the swelling would last for a few hours, maybe the rest of the day, but by the time I woke up the next day, it was back to normal. I made an appointment to meet an orthopedic surgeon. Despite how good I felt otherwise, in the back of my mind, the words “early-onset osteoarthritis” kept echoing. After an x-ray and an MRI, the word came down; I had a 70 year old’s knee. There were two new tears in the meniscus, most likely from gradual wear and tear and not any single injury.
I was devastated. It’s not like I expected to continue on the way that I was forever. I was in the best shape I had been in since high school. The previous week, I’d tested myself and was at or near the same kind of numbers I had put up my senior year. 315 on the bench press, 425 on the squat, 455 on the deadlift, 275 power clean and a 5:45 mile. Keep in mind that I’m 29, 6′ tall and weigh in the area of 205lbs. So, these numbers aren’t great, but for a guy with a bum knee, it wasn’t too shabby.
Now, that was all gone. No more heavy weights (which was fine), no more running (okay), but the biggest blow was no more basketball or football.
Three months in, it’s a work in progress. I haven’t had the pangs from not playing basketball that I thought I would. At least not that much. But football I miss. I haven’t played competitively in a few years, which was fine with me. Until I realized that I couldn’t anymore. The possibility used to be there, and now it isn’t. That sucks. It also affects my motivation to lift.
I’ve tailored my workouts to more of a sustainable goal. Lighter lifts, more cardio, less knee-straining. It’s been very good. But there’s still that itch. Still that desire to get out on that field/court and run around like a kid. It sucks, but it’s not like it’s life-ending. Many people have things so much worse. I’m thankful every day that I can still do 50% of what I enjoy.
Maybe I can take up table tennis…
