Kidney Stones

Today was a day of firsts for me. It was the first time I have used a sick day at a job. It was the first time I had been to a walk in clinic in Birmingham. It was the first time I have had a xray done on my bladder. It was the first time I've ever had kidney stones.

Due to contrary belief people my age can get kidney stones. It came on this morning during the staff meeting. One minute I was fine and then the next I felt sick to my stomach. My right side hurt with a pain like I had never experienced before. I knew at that point I had to go to the doctor. I went to the walk in clinic. In the waiting room the pain grew. At one point I thought that I might die. I was trying to get things right with the Lord because this might have been my last five minutes on Earth. What a way to die, in the waiting room of the walk in clinic.

Jen came because she knew I was hurting. We get in to see the doctor and they run a bunch of tests. At first they thought it may be my appendix but the blood work came back negative. However, my urine test pointed strait towards kidney stones.

We have all heard the tales of kidney stones being the male equivelant of giving birth. I was terrified by this diagnosis. I was doing the math, and passing a stone was not adding up. The logistics of it were impossible. The amount of pain this thing was causing must have meant it was the size of a golf ball. They give me some sort of shot for the pain. I was high as a kite for the next three hours.

The doctor ordered a catscan so I had to go see a urologist for some additional testing. I get there and they take more samples and xrays. They discover that between the time I left the clinic and the time they took the xrays I have passed the stone. It was explained to me that kidney stones when passed are usually the size of a few grains of sand. You never know you pass them unless you sift for them.

So the worse part of having the stones is before they are passed. I was literally crippled in pain. I'm still a little soar, but nothing like this morning. My boss was cool about me missing work. I just have to make it through three more days and then I have a long weekend.

Ghetto Games 2020

I was listening to the radio yesterday and heard one of the strangest things since I've moved down here. The mayor of Birmingham wants to petition for the 2020 Olympic games to be held in Birmingham. I assume that if they actually host the Olympics here that Hell will be freezing over sometime in 2021.

I can only imagine how that would even work out. Downtown is the absolute worse place to be. And you want millions of tourist to come and stay in hotels conveniantly located next to the projects. Let's not forget about the dowtown attractions like The Furnace, the local ghetto strip club. Or who could forget about the live sex bar that got shut down last summer. That will really give the French a great impession of Americans.

I'm sure they will be equally impressed at the amount of culture this great city has to offer. The Italians will be at the Olive Garden, the Chinese at PF Chang's, and everyone else can try one of the 700 "steakhouses" in the city.

And then there is the issue of site seeing. You have the zoo, the botanical gardens, a large statue of some trojan warrior downtown and a few golf courses. That is really going to pack them in for the games.

However, for some reason they are trying to have facilities built so we can legitimately host these games. I'll be one of the first to get tickets because I love the Olympics. But I really think Boise Idaho has a better shot of hosting them than Birmingham. Everyone loves a good potato.

"These days I'm up about the time I used to go to bed"

Since I haven't been blogging lately we have a few updates in the Brooks household.

We got some new neighbors last week. We haven't really met them but I'm fairly certain one of the girls is an idiot. I came home from work one day last week and the trunk to the girl's SUV was open. It remained open for the next three hours until someone came and shut it for her. I don't know if she thinks Birmingham is mayberry but leaving the car unlocked is never a good idea.

The other new girl hosted a party on Saturday night. Apparently her guests got rather intoxicated and went out on the balcony around 12am. They proceeded to stay on the balcony yelling and talking obscenely loud until around 3am. We were slightl upset considering we went to bed around midnight. We hope this isn't a frequent thing.

Last, but not least we have a new addition to the family. We adopted a dog from the Greater Birmingham Society on Saturday. Her name is Taylor and she is a small black poodle. She is about the sweetest dog you will ever meet. She wants to be held constantly. She's a little over a year old. The cat is still adjusting to having her in the house. For the most part Emma leaves her alone, but occasionally she will walk up and hit Taylor in the face with her paw. Taylor doesn't get mad, she just looks at Emma with a confused expression.

I will post pictures of her soon.

Just a Groomsman and not a Groom

We're in Knoxville for Scott and Kristin's wedding this weekend. I got lucky and was able to get off Friday so we are having a long weekend. So far things have been fun - here is the rundown.

Friday morning went golfing with all the groomsmen. Lucky for me we played to course I grew up playing at, and despite my lack of recent practice I still shot under a 100. I proceeded to go to the tuxedo store after the golf. I felt somewhat violated and accosted by the 80 year old lady working in there. She had no problem handing the waist of my pants. There was tugging and adjusting and we exchanged some words about the fit of the tux. She says it fits, even though I'm sure me and three of my friends could get inside the shirt. Oh well, It's comfy.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. The food was amazing, and then it turned in to a roast for Scott. It was pretty entertaining at his expense. After that went for some late night video games at one of the groomsmen's house.

Today I got a haircut, and went to the bike store with dad. He is looking for a road bike, and in the process of dad looking for a bike I found one I like. It's a jamis coda hybrid road bike. So if you know anyone in the market for a mountain bike, I may be looking to sell mine. Serious inquiries only please.

I have to be at the church at 4 for pictures, and that's really when my day will start. I'm just glad I'm in the wedding and it's not my wedding. I'm happy for my friends, but it's nice to go and just have to stand on stage.

I'll try and post some pics and updates of the wedding soon.

Someone give that guy a bandaid, cause he's cut...

Jen and I take advantage of the gym at our apartment complex. It's decently nice and it's free which is an added bonus. We've made friends with the trainer, and we work out with him about three nights a week. All in all it's a pretty good setup.

Jen and I have both belonged to different gyms in Knoxville. As with all gyms you have certain types of people that tend to frequent the establishment. I'm going to give a brief overview of gym patrons.

The I think the gym is like a bar guy - This is the guy that has all the workout clothes, but is really just cruising for chicks. He can be found occupying various equipment but never actually breaking a sweat.

The I live at the gym guy - This guy is in shape, drenched in sweat, and logging his workout in to some sort of journal.

The guy that talks to much - These are the people that come to the gym with a friend and instead of actually working out, they just stand around and occupy equipment. They work out in pairs and it takes them about 30 minutes to get in a set.

The creepy guy - This is the guy that doesn't look like he belongs, and is usually found groping semi attractive women.

On Monday night Jen and I were working out and we had the talks too much guys in the gym. Of course they were on every machine I needed to get too, and they were discussing gas prices. They were pretty nerdy looking, but apparently they thought they were it.

On Tuesday night there was creepy gym guy. He was about 4ft 8inches tall, and trying to help to women way out of his league work out. They weren't even good looking women, but they were still out of his league. His face was pretty much glued to one of their chests, when he wasn't touching them, and pretending like he was the apartment complex trainer. I think he may have had short man syndrome.

So, those are my pet peeves regarding gym people.

"I've been drinking orange juice so I've got energy out the wazoo"

We ended up back in Knoxville this weekend. We were originally going to Nashville with my parents, but my dad has tendonitus in his foot and we couldn't make the trip. He was running a race at Vanderbilt and we were all going.

Since my friend Clay was in town from Texas we decided to come in. I played golf with him this morning. I broke 100 so I was pretty happy with my round. I forgot how much I like to play golf. Hopefully this summer I can get back in to it in Birmingham.

Tonight we are heading to dinner with my parents. I'm not sure where we're going, but we always enjoy a free meal. Next weekend is Scott and Kristin's wedding, which will also the be the last weekend we come in to town for a while. Not that we don't like seeing our friends and family, we just prefer not to add to the proffit of the gas industry by using up 2 tanks of gas every weekend.

That's all I got for today

summertime is here

I realize my blocking has slacked off in the past month or so. It seems that since I do not sit by myself in an office watching the clock all day,that I don't always find the time to post my insightful thoughts. I'll try to do better, but anyways here is an update.

It was pretty rough getting back in the work groove after the long weekend. I feel like we are never in Birmingham in the weekends. Not that this is the kind of city you miss when you're not here. We went back to Knoxville last weekend. Jen went to a bachelorette party, and I hung out with some old friends. I got to go to my favorite place in Knoxville - Barleys.

We got back and Jen was supposed to start work at the pharmacy this week. However, the people in charge are incredibly unorganized. Jen has spent the past three days calling her old pharmacy in Knoxville and playing the middle man between them in Birmingham. Apparently her "boss" here is too lazy to call and get all the paperwork straightened out. This has been going on all week, but hopefully tomorrow she will be able to start some computer training. It has been nothing but a pain so far though.

The bank job is still going well. My branch may hit its numbers so that means a bonus for everyone. You do realize how funny people are about money when you work at a bank. Most people have this idea that banks are non-for-profit organizations and we should never charge anyone fees or interest.

I have some pics to post - I will try to work on that soon.