back in the USSA

Hey! I know it’s been awhile and I’ve had my share of flack for not posting, but mikeFEST!™ totally blew me out this year (and yes, I’ll get to that blog in a bit for the sake of my posterior and posterity) AND I’m in the States right now dealing with all that entrails.

I got into New York last Saturday and went to the consulate on Monday to pick up my visa. Instead of the familiar black dude working the reception, there was an even more familiar cookie-cut, ageless Czech bureaucratess manning the helm. I gave her the old dobrý den and hit the button ‘picking up visa’ to get my number. Just before my finger hit the button, she started yelling in Czech, “No! No! No! You have to sign in FIRST! AND you hit the wrong button!” She got on the phone and put the whole consulate on alert that I had made a mistake. “That was a MISTAKE! He made a mistake! Forget it! Ignore it! Mistake!” she barked and bawled. “Sorry,” I said and signed the register. She hit the button ‘picking up passport’ and gave me a new number.

But I wasn’t picking up a passport, I thought. She then had to deal with a delivery that she was making unnecessarily complicated for everyone involved and the consulate was about to close, but it was quite a few prosíms before I could get her attention and explain that although there was nothing I’d like better than to skip the whole visa thing and go straight for the citizenship, I should probably just get my visa and be on my way – which I did!

I flew up to Burlington on Thursday and took the ferry to Plattsburgh whence I’m writing now. We made a quick trip to Montréal on Friday and now mother and I are off in a couple of hours to visit the rest of the family in the Leatherstocking Region of the Mohawk River Valley, before I return to Middletown briefly, not to spawn, but to bowl with Sherman. I’m back in NYC on Wednesday and leave for Prague the following Monday, arriving Tuesday morning.

I’m exhibiting a series of abstract photos along with nine other photographers on Wednesday, June 3 at the Czech Inn on Francouzská from 18 – 20h. Hope to see you all there! Free glass of wine and snacks! Here’s the flyer:

The exhibit will hang for a month and everything will be priced to sell! I’ll have yet another PET/CT on Monday June 8 - the day after Tommy, Jon and Annette arrive in Prague for more mischief, mayhem and general disarray. Until then! Then.

clean scan

I got a wild hair up my ass to see the Butthole Surfers last week [pun absolutely intended] and got a ticket at the door. Great show! I don’t know why I wasn’t into these guys when I was younger. I had that brain MRI at the ungodly hospital hour of 5PM. They start very early and it was a Monday, so I expected a ghost town of a pair of living dead - which is what I got. So I certainly didn’t think the radiologist would want to stick around to burn me a CD, but when she offered, I couldn’t say no.

How does it look? I asked

Pretty much the same as last time. Do you want a CD?

Sure. It looks like last time? Really?

Yup. Give me five minutes.

She took her five minutes and gave me the CD. I got it home and sure enough, it looked like something I’d seen before. I had a huge hole in my head!! It took me about five minutes to realize that the exam was from February 2008, just after the operation. I went all the way back the next day (2hr rt) to get the correct exam:

Which was a lot more reassuring. The right side of my brain (left side of image) has taken over much of the left side (right side of image) where the tumor was. Damien says that should make me more creative. Or better at math. Dunno. And Jane’s in town with Johnny from Kiev for mikeFEST™. Here they are making the stencils for the official mikeFEST™ t-shirts, which Johnny thought was hilarious:

Kat got here from Paris yesterday and we exchanged our pesto salad for some chicken on the hill - the official kickoff for mikeFEST™ in Prague. Speaking of which, news of the more mundane variety will be reported at http://mikefest.blogspot.com/ for the next two weeks. Please make a note of it. Off to karaoke.