Spo-Reflections

Patience above! There is nothing as busy as the days prior to a holiday. There’s work to be done, not just at work but at home. I dislike leaving a mess at home and dislike even more coming home to one, so along with tonight’s packing is cleaning. Someone is working only until noon today, so I am sending him telepathic messages put everything away and in its place so I only have to pack the suitcase.*

My mode of packing always starts with the medicines viz. filling the pillboxes for the right amount of days we are away, and an extra day’s worth is added, in case there is this crisis and we have to stay an extra day for some reason.** The second step is packing the Dopp Kit with toiletries and bathroom sundries. Someone brings as little as possible and if something is needed he goes out to buy it. I was in the Boy Scouts and go for the ‘be prepared’ route. I pack ‘CVS-lite’ viz. a little of everything that may come in handy.

After the dog died we didn’t disassemble her cage in the bedroom, somewhat out of laziness and somewhat out of grief, but the main reason is the top makes a great place to put things such as stuff to put in the suitcase. I gather up the clothes and items from the ‘to pack’ list and place it there so I can see how much I am bringing. If this pile gets as high as Fafner’s hoard, then I know I am packing too much and start putting things back, ala “Survivor” or whatever it was called where thems on an island vote and eject others as not worthy. Someone is an excellent packer; he looks in to an empty suitcase and deduces how much he can fit in and does so without deficit. Normally he packs everything (car, the Christmas tree in its box) but I do my own luggage.

I don’t remember when is our flight time tomorrow. I hope it isn’t some ghastly early thing that requires us getting up at 4AM. I like flights that leave 9-11AM, what my late father called ‘civilized flying’. There is no direct flight to Puerto Rico (worse luck) so there is some layover somewhere. I am neurotic about layovers and want ample time between flights – hours if possible. Not to be worrying! Someone takes care of our travels and I am sure he’s arranged ample time. Maybe enough for lunch.

Our luggage from Lands End is Jungle Red, which makes it stand out readily among all the black suitcases on the conveyor belt at luggage pick-up. Alas, Babylon! There’s been no time to clean them; they are quite smudged with black from use. We are showing up with dirty luggage and there will be talk.

Someone needs to remind me how to turn on the the alarm system. We haven’t used it for years given the dog would wander the house and set it off. The code to turn it on/off and the camera needs to be angled to see down the hall. I need the app back on the phone.

Although there is much to do I trust by tomorrow when on the plane with Someone at my side with a bloody Mary in hand today’s turmoil will make it all worthwhile. Let us hope so.

*Fat chance of that.

**I carry the meds in the carry-on Ghost Bag, lest the luggage is lost and I am bereft of meds until it is located. Oh the horror.

There is a smart collection of short stories written by a Mr. O’brien about a group of soldiers and they carry into battle. These things aren’t ‘essential’ but items that are meaningful to them, such as photos of loved ones and knick-knacks of nostalgia. When I go on holiday I pack some items that I find ‘necessary’ or at least wanted for the trip. The trip would be fine without them but better for having them.

Let’s look a few of these starting with the useful carries:

A backscratcher. Urs Truly never travels without one. My back often gets itchy and must be scratched. When it comes to a good scratch the wooden stick with the curved end resembling a hand beats Someone by a country mile. As I address my acnestis, I say ‘Joy to itch in a minute!” which I think is from Shakespeare, but I am not certain. Lovely.

A night light. In the dopp kit with the toiletries is a plastic night light, which is plugged into the outlet in the hotel loo. This way when I get up in the night I don’t have to turn on the bathroom light which sometimes resembles a spotlight in a circus. I think I learned this trick in The Boy Scouts.

A sewing kit. Not a big one, but a portable small one, the size of a small deck of cards, containing needle, thread, a few buttons, and a small set of scissors. This has often saved the day for a dangling thread or tear or a loose button. I often meet up with chums wearing Spo-shirts that have seen better days and are in need of mending (the shirts, not the chums).

A key ring. Most resorts have their keys upon a nondescript key ring that all look alike especially from afar. Many times I have put down mine only to accidently pick up another fellow’s room key.* If attach to my key to another ring with colorful bright shiny things attached, I can tell which key is mine from across the room.

What about the useless things?

Baby bottles of booze. Over the months we accumulate somehow tiny bottles the type they used to give you on airplane trips until they got mean about it. These come in handy to add to the breakfast juice or the afternoon’s cola to give them some umami, and if you are hankering for a highball you don’t have to run out to the local store to buy a large bottle of bourbon which often at enormous expense.

Tins of Sardines. I don’t remember when I started associating eating sardines with being on vacation, but there it is. I get me some crackers and open up the tins I packed in my luggage and consume these delicacies downwind and away from the others. They are enough for lunch. Afterwards it is ‘don’t kiss no toads” as Spos like to say.

Assorted pencils and a pencil sharpener. I write using pencil when writing in my journals and they are a must for GAMES magazine puzzles. I am picky about my pencils; I only want top quality types, like my tea – or my men. I have to bring along a pencil sharpener as no one these days is likely to have one. A good pencil sharpened to a point is a joy; do not dare to question this.

and finally . . . .

Proper teabags (no rubbish). Perhaps this one ought to be above in the ‘useful’ category or even ‘essential’ like plane tickets, money, and Spo-shirts. I have yet to stay at any USA resort or hotel that brews tea made properly, so I bring my own. English breakfast or Irish Breakfast travels well, and they are good for the morning while others in the group are drinking coffee or diet cola. I warm up what is being passed off as a teapot, throw out that water, add the bags and then more hot water to let things steep for some minutes. A touch of milk is added if the tannins cause headache. This happens often, but isn’t it worth it?

What are the must-have items you carry when traveling?

*No, this is not being devious, it is being a dimwit.

As you are reading this, Someone and I are easing down the road (highway 93) home to Phoenix. After all there is no place like it. It was a good conference; it had the right combination of ~ 80% “I know this” that give me a sense of satisfaction I am keeping up on things and 20% ‘I didn’t know that!” of new information to be a better doctor. There were a few moments of ‘everything you know is wrong’ about things I learned years ago I thought still valid. The constant growth of my speciality is one of the things I like about it.

The long drive home always makes me thoughtful, even pensive, particularly the future. As Diana Ross sang in her concert:

Do you know where you’re going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you?

I don’t know where I’m going now in life and sometimes I am ok with not knowing, enjoying The Journey like in the poem “Ithaka”. Some times I would like a destination with a road map, such as a retirement plan. Someone and I had a talk over dinner the other day. We both have the tendency not to think of retirement but for different rationales. He always thought he would have to keep working lest he run out of money and be destitute in his old age. I never thought of planning for the future on the grounds I wouldn’t be having one. But here we are. We are rich as Roosevelt and he doesn’t have to work anymore and I have to look at living a regular lifespan. I hope this leads to a new way of living.

I’ve been so focused on this weekend it hasn’t dawned on me next weekend we go to Puerto Rico for our first proper holiday in ages. In the past recent years I would go places and Someone would stay home for the dog. He will be getting out of the house for the first time in many years and I hope he enjoys himself. Unlike most trips this one is a blank, I have no pre-expectations or notions what we are going to do for a full week. The flight details, the hotel arrangements, and provisional pasttimes are all done by others in our party. Fine by me. I would be quite content to sit poolside, read books, play cards, and drink iced drinks, hopefully with rum in them. It will be my first vacation in twenty years I won’t be checking in with work. Believe it or not, this is going to be difficult. I brought the work laptop with me to Lost Vegas and everyday I checked in as is my wont. This allowes a good night’s sleep on Sunday night: there won’t be any surprises or pile up come Monday morning. Imagine what a week off could do? Can the world spin without me? I guess I will soon find out.

But let’s not count chickens. I have a week of work to do and there is packing to prepare. I find it fun to make a ‘pack’ list so when I think of something to bring like sunglasses, card games, a proper tea* I write it down so come Friday night I am not wondering what to pack. Jolly good fun!

*It is prudent to pack proper tea as what’s offered is often rubbish, even at the best of resorts. DougT drinks tea too, but he’s content with Lipton with lots of sugar added. Oh the horror.

Urs Truly loves Tiki bars. He likes to show up in one of his shirts and take in the ersatz Polynesian decor and have a couple of cocktails made with freshly-squeezed fruits – three if Someone is driving. Jolly good fun! Alas, Babylon! I I am done now and on my don’t go often, worse luck. Apart from the indecorous effects of alcohol, tiki drinks have a lot of sugar in them, so I see them as a sometime treat, like chocolate ice cream. You do you: go have your two scoops with sprinkles; I will take a Mai Tai:

Tiki bars tend to trend in two types: The first is the upscale version, looking more like a posh cocktail lounge with a some bamboo and a waterfall added. The other is the kitschy camp-ground with plastic gods and inflatable pineapples and swizzle sticks with hula dancers on them.

Whether swanky or silly, the tiki drinks must be made well, no rubbish types! There are the traditional drinks like the Mai Tai, the Scorpion, and the Zombie.* Then there are the nouveau ‘fusion’ Tiki-inspired cocktails. These aren’t as ‘fun’ but they can be tasty in the hands of a good bartender. I always ask the waitress or bartender what is the house’s best, and often go with that.

Once upon a time I got a book on the history of tiki cocktails and I wrote down the names of the cocktails I would try next time we were in Palm Springs. This happened February 2020 and needless to say it didn’t happen. I’ve been trying to catch up ever since. I carry a list in my phone and I get itout whenever I am in a tiki bar. The list has a lot of drinks from the 40s and the 50s that are no longer made as they are not ‘hip’ or the ingredients are no longer available. I end up playing the tiki version of ‘the cheese shop’ sketch from Monty Python, with as much success. No harm asking.

On Friday night we went to a local tiki bar that we found when we were last here in Lost Vegas. It is located in a strip mall and it is definitely in the kitsch style. This one looks like it is from the 50s and hasn’t been updated since. The drinks are served with various fried nibbles and there is no attempt to appease the elite with fancy food. I had pork sliders and bowl of fries as deep as Lake Michigan.

Here is Someone, engrossed in a gambling game and light years away. It gives me the opportunity to check out the room. There is a rawther large man dressed as Freddy Kruger and another one looking like Jack Sparrow minus his charms.

When you go to the loo a rude recording comes on while you are standing there doing your business. It makes shade how disappointing my wife must be. I shout out the joke’s on you mister so much for your judgment. Do not do this while another fellow is standing next to you.

The drinks were OK, there weren’t any particular fancy or traditional ones on the menu. If I want some of those, I need to make them at home.This requires squeezing a lot of fruit and getting exotic ingredient some of them expensive and hard to find. Woe is me if I make something and don’t like it; I will have a nearly full bottle of a mixer no longer needed.

*When the zombie was invented, it sell well with the butch types, who thought tiki drinks too girly. The bar put a warning on the menu: only two per customer, given the so-called knock-out they give. The drink then sold like hotcakes.

Greeting from Lost Vegas

Urs Truly is sitting in an auditorium at the Paris Hotel, waiting for the lecturer (or someone like him) to commence educating me with the latest. This morning’s topics include:

Ketamine and the potential role for rapid-acting antidepressant medication

The role of inflammation in psychosis

Taming the unquiet mind: next frontiers in the treatment of OCD.

Jolly good fun!

I like learning this way; it’s good to sit among colleagues and listen to lecturers. Young doctors poo-poo this approach, arguing they can get CME online and for a fraction of the price. True, but there is no schmoozing and social interactions that way; they should know better. I don’t know if this is consciously done but the lecturers are good looking dudes in suits; they are pleasant to see as well as melodious in voice. If the lecture series is good, I will get about ratio of 80% ‘I already know this (a satisfaction of being on top of things) and 20% Hot puppies! I didn’t know that, making the trip worthwhile.

The Nevada Psychiatric Society has good content. It is also the biggest conference I’ve attended; there are over a thousand shrinks here it looks like. This is my first time here, so the lady at the registration desk attached to my ID badge a bright tag in bold letter ‘FIRST TIME ATTENDEE”. In theory this attracts members of the committee (or someone like them) to come up to me and greet me and offer me services or perhaps some after-lecture activities oh dear there goes my mind down sordid pathways. Being away at a convention does that to me. After all this is Lost Vegas.

While I am sitting in lecture hall learning things and drooling at the presenters Someone is upstairs asleep, orbiting the moons of Jupiter. This is his first real time off from work in years and I hope he will not check in with work out of guilt but enjoy himself Brother #3 told him there is a good gangster museum in town, so he may check that out. Someone states he may not gamble any. He is an excellent gambler that he allots himself so much money to spend per day, seeing this as the money he will spend for the entertainment of gambling, and when it goes, that’s the end. Good for him! He likes table games for the camaraderie. Apparently tables are scarce these days, having been replaced by video games, and what tables there are have sky-high minimums no fun in that.

Tonight we hear Diana Ross sing. I was dubious as she has to be eighty if she’s a minute and I cannot imagine she will sign well. I witness this in opera: old divas past their prime doing concerts where her aging fans adore her despite she can’t sing anymore. Perhaps it will be camp. I may have snort; some of us will need a little fortitude to sit through ‘I’m coming out’ sung off key.

I should stop scribbling and focus on the current lecture, which is about how to treat new-onset schizophrenia in adolescence, They are the most challenging types of patients, right up there with eating disorder types and thems with personality disorders. So far I haven’t heard anything I don’t already know, but I wouldn’t mind meeting up with the lecturer afterwards to discuss details. oh dear there I go again. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas – unless you are dimwit and blog about it. Oh the embarrassment.