Last Friday I woke up shortly before ten o'clock, had a little breakfast, watched some news, and made my way back to my bedroom by eleven, felled by a headache. I pretty much spent the rest of the day sleeping and trying to sleep. The headache would not go away. It was not on the level of a migraine (something I have experienced only twice in my life and have no desire to revisit) but it was dominant. I even dreamt about it while I was asleep.
Whenever a day is wasted like that, I can't help but wonder what I missed. If nothing else, the weather was beautiful, and at the very least I could have sat outside somewhere and read. But no; while most of the world was going on about their day, I was in bed. And of course, a few days later, it has me thinking. I don't remember the last time I literally spent twenty-three hours of one day in bed.
But then I recall what Friday's date was: June 29.
I had major surgery on June 29, 1976 to fix a kidney problem that I had been born with (I was nine). I went into the hospital the night before, so when June 29 arrived, I was asleep. I was woken up at six and in the operating room by 7. I remember waking up around 5 that evening back in my hospital room, getting sick, and trying to watch a baseball game (the Cubs gave up eight runs in the first inning to the Pirates) before sleeping the rest of the day.
Thirty-one years later I had the same type of day, except without the anesthesia, scalpels and such...spending most of it in bed.
It's purely coincidental, I realize, but it makes me wonder about what has happened to me on days that now mean something to me, before the event that occurred. My wedding anniversary is April 22, 2005. I wonder if anything of significance ever happened to me on the 36 April 22 I lived through before 2005? Or June 29 from 1967 thru 1975? June 8 (my father's death) before 2002?
I have no way of knowing. I wish I had taken better notes of this life as it was happening to me.
(In the three-plus years that I have been writing here, this is the first time I have gone back and immediately thought that this would have been something Neil Patrick Harris would have written at the end of "Doogie Howser, MD.")
Independent Random 11:
1. "Little Bird"-Annie Lennox. Like the song, but I think more of the video with all of the men running around dressed like her.
2. "Oliver's Army"-Elvis Costello. London is full of Arabs. Now more than ever.
3. "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town"-Pearl Jam. Definitely the longest title I have. Every time I hear this song, I am left dumbfounded why Eddie Vedder avoided some rhymes that would have made more sense to the story that this song tries to tell.
4. "Split Decision"-Steve Winwood. That's Joe Walsh on the guitar. This song reminds me of "Miami Vice"; no particular episode, just the show in general. I have no idea why.
5. "Show Me"-The Pretenders. Not sure why this is here. I usually skip over it. Preachy Chrissy Hynde is not good Chrissy Hynde.
6. "Porcelain"-Moby. I was able to get over the fact that I heard this in the trailer for every movie released in 2000. And that it was in 75 commercials. I could listen to the intro 80 times. I just did.
7. "Heartbeat"-Psychedelic Furs. First memory that pops up in my head when I hear this is listening to this album (I believe this was the last song on side 1) as I was trying to fall asleep the night before I had knee surgery in February of 1985. I am pretty sure that this is the only song on here that would remind me of surgery; freaky that it shows up tonight.
8. "Gone"-U2. Nails on a chalkboard at the beginning, but Bono saves it with some of the coolest lyrics he's ever written.
9. "Just a Job to Do"-Genesis. Phil Collins singing about being a hit-man. It seemed plausible at the time.
10. "Slow Emotion Replay"-The The. Makes me want to learn the harmonica. Perhaps my all-time favorite refrain: "Everybody knows what's going wrong with the world/but I don't even know what's going on in myself."
11. "Human"-The Pretenders. Ms. Hynde gets the chance to redeem herself. I love the guitar riff that ends this song. And the damage is done...
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