Work(s) in Progress

A Little Lasik

I had Lasik done this morning at Spivack Lasik. The doctor and clinic were recommended to me by many including my assistant at work. Of course, once my assistant saw the appointment on my calendar, she asked only "what time and where am I picking you up?" Thank you BP.

I had two complete complementary pre-op visits to ensure that I'd be an OK candidate. Even this morning they retested my ability to make sufficient tears as dry eyes are not compatible with great Lasik outcomes. My eyes are still dry even though I take Flax Oil daily - I never had this issue before I started using contact lenses - and the doctor inserted collagen plugs into my tear ducts earlier this week. I'm not sure why doctors (especially my gynecologist) always want to give the play by play..."I am about to touch you now..." but really, stop already, and just do whatever, especially if a foreign object is going where it was not meant to go. Just do it; I really don't want the second by second description.

So for about 15 minutes at the clinic today I'd worried that I'd paid for the surgery and stressed over it  but would not in fact be getting the Lasik done today or ever. Ultimately I was led back to the surgery waiting area - imagine dimmed lights and a ring of lazy boy chairs with people with hair nets, sterile booties and closed eyes. Oh, and hot blankets. There is nothing like a hot blanket while waiting for an unpleasant experience. About 20 minutes prior you have the option to take an Ativan (say yes) before surgery. I had valium in a IV push when my wisdom teeth were taken out.  Ativan was not as potent as valium in dissociating the experience or memory but did help to diminish my anxiety in the moment and had the advantage that I fundamentally still felt like myself.

So Lasik takes maybe 10 minutes, tops.  I was laid flat and still had my warm blanket. I was then offered a stuffed animal. My side of the conversation conveyed that um, I didn't even like dolls as a kid. The nurse conveyed that some folks find it helps, "here" she said as she shoved a stuffed puppy under the blanket with me.  While there is an eyes held open aspect that reminded me too much of A Clockwork Orange (warning image is disturbing), it was over quickly. And the doctor used his hands to hold my head/chin as much as possible. There are two laser zapping sessions per eye: flap creation & correction. And two sessions of the doctor moving the flap - away & back. Zap zap zap OK; forceps near eye.....yiiiieeee! And yes, the dumb stuffed dog under the covers with me was held very tightly. Feel free to send stuffed animals for Christmas, apparently I have a fondness...

Slept for 4 hours post surgery as recommended. Lots of eye drops required over the next 2 weeks, steroids, antibiotics, artificial tears, and even cyclosporin (and why cyclosporin helps tear formation I have NO idea...for organ transplantation I get it, daily on my eyes because they are dry, huh? but OK I will do, for months apparently). And I can now see leaves on trees again. Less than 12 hours post-op and my vision is better, much better. I am hopeful!

And while the surgeon won't be at my 24 hour post-op appointment in the AM, he called me earlier this evening to see if I was OK, or had questions or concerns. Nice touch Dr. Spivack. And apparently, so long as I get a complete annual eye exam, my surgery has a lifetime warranty. Cool.

Short Takes

I think twitter and text messaging are training me to think and communicate in short bursts of thought.

I recently heard a DC journalist say that if you couldn't capture the audience with your story or message in 25 words they would just tune out. I'm not sure what that says about our nation's ability to maintain a meaningful dialog on complex topics.

I'm looking forward to Clay Lowe's book - A thousand bullets gone astray when I can get it in the USA.

I'm wondering when we begin to associate connotations with the images with see. My life was fairly uncensored as a child. And while I now view many images or situations as having a moral (good/bad) connotation, I know that early on that all images were neutral in my brain. Sunny day = Pithed Frog = Crucified Man = Sleeping Puppies. I don't know whether this is because I saw A Clockwork Orange when I was six or whether I was just a late bloomer in terms of developing empathy.

I was supposed to attend the annual GCEC (global consortium of entrepreneurship centers) meeting at Rice. The meeting program looked amazing. I had everything lined up. I'd even pre-printed my boarding pass for my flight. And then I drove myself to the Emergency Room at 2:30AM when I got slammed by the flu. Since I had an annual flu shot, it was perhaps H1N1. My local ER was no longer testing as the test results had no bearing on treatment - (just not cost effective). I'm not sure how this impacts the H1N1 maps you can find online. In my case 4 days of fever, mostly GI symptoms, 2 bags of IV saline and various medications. During the worst of it, I think I slept 36 hours during a 48 hour period. Not fun.

Today is the one year anniversary of the judge signing my divorce decree. It is also the one year anniversary of getting my tubes tied. Two major life changes in one day. No regrets.

Next week, I'm having Lasik  done. My heart is racing just thinking about it. It took me years to even work up the courage to switch from glasses to contact lenses. I did my evaluation visit yesterday (at Spivack) to see if I was a good candidate. Aside from dry eyes (it is Colorado), everything looks good. They have patient "counselors" who help with scheduling, financing and also hand-holding as I heard the doctor tell my counselor in a hushed voice "she is very frightened" as in "hold her hand but close the deal." There are two doctors at this office who do the Lasik surgeries. One is substantially cheaper. I understand wanting generic or discount on prescription drugs or routine doctor visits but on EYE SURGERY?! Give me the rockstar please.

I went to Get Motivated! again this year as I did in 2006. Unlike 2006, I did not attend the entire event. My assistant and I heard Robert Schuller, Laura Bush, Colin Powell (why I bought tickets), Phil Town (I love Rule #1), and Tamara Lowe (one of the founders of Get Motivated). While I remembered that the 2006 event had a "God Bless America" theme and "seemed to use some cult-like techniques to capture the audience" I did not remember all of the "take Jesus as your savior" rhetoric that occurred this year and caused me to leave.

Tamara Lowe has now written a book, Get Motivated!: Overcome Any Obstacle, Achieve Any Goal, and Accelerate Your Success with Motivational DNA, the focus of which she presented. It seemed like a useful tool for determining how to best motivate yourself and others. However, her presentation then veered into the surreal starting with a religious rap. To best share the experience, I will quote a review from Amazon.com " I was then teletransported to another dimension and I'm suddenly at a Christian Convention. A big old Jesus-fest. To the point that she asks us (if we want to to be anything in this world and not go to hell thereafter) to each silently affirm that we each need Jesus in our hearts and need to reconnect with our love for Him. Huh? I check my ticket and it is still proclaiming to be a business seminar. I look at my employee, who is Jewish, and she is staring painstakingly at the floor. I mouth, "I'm SO Sorry" and she gives me an uncomfortable nod. It made me pretty angry that at a business seminar with nationally acclaimed speakers, she would be so presumptive as to assume that the 10,000 people in the room not only agree with her beliefs, but cares what she thinks on the topic. It was a total insult to the professionals who follow other faiths or belief systems and mind their own business about it. No wonder half the world thinks we're arrogant and disrespectful of their religious beliefs." Yeah. What S/he said.

In spite of this, Laura Bush was charming, someone with whom you'd want to have tea or a glass of wine; Colin Powell was as inspiring as I'd remembered; and, I will most likely buy Phil Town's new book which is coming out in March 2010: Payback Time: Eight Steps to Outsmarting the System That Failed You and Getting Your Investments Back on Track.

I'm finally planning my trip to Hawaii. Smiling just thinking about it.

 

My First Trip to Napa Valley

A few months ago I mentioned that I needed a traveling companion for an excursion to Napa Valley that I "won" in a silent auction at an event for  Dani's Foundation.

Wow! I returned early Tuesday morning and I am still thinking about what a wonderful time I had.

I flew into Los Angeles on Thursday evening. My flight was delayed and just about every flight mishap that could happen did. In spite of the ominous start, the rest of the trip was simply outstanding. The weather was terrific - mid 70's or mid 80's and sunny the entire time. Everything else transpired without mishap.

My traveling companion and I drove up route 1 stopping in Big Sur at Nepenthe for lunch. What a magnificently pretty drive. We arrived in Sonoma in time for a delicious dinner at the Eldorado Kitchen before settling into the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa. I learned later that Boyes Spring is a bit past its prime, but the Fairmont was a beautiful place to stay and had a terrific fitness center.

Friday we drove around the Sonoma & Napa Valleys stopping in at Hess (to see the museum), Stag's Leap, Clos du Val, and Twomey. Of these, Twomey was by far our favorite for the quality of wine and the tasting experience. Just about all of the vineyards charge for a tasting; however, we learned that if you just wanted to taste a single varietal (e.g. "just the cabernet please") or ended up buying some wine that these fees might be waived. In general, portions are large enough to share so I highly recommend doing that as some vineyards had more that one tasting package and many are willing to pull together a package that suits your tastes (e.g. "just the reds please").

Friday afternoon we checked into the Meritage, the resort & spa I "won" in silent auction. The Meritage was tucked into an office park and so one view faced office building and the other a vineyard. In spite of the location it was new, immaculate and had all of the amenities one might hope for as a business traveler (bare bones gym, free wireless internet, 24 hr everything, etc.). That evening we enjoyed our Wine Train experience. I'd recommend doing this at lunch or mid-summer so you can enjoy the views out of the windows. It was fun if kitschy. And while great wine can be purchased on board, you might be better off bringing your own and paying the corkage fee.

The next day we explored Napa Valley in the back of a comfortable sedan hosted by Beau Wine Tours again as part of the silent auction package. I suspect that this may have led to the first and I hope last time I start drinking at 10AM. We started at Duckhorn, which makes several wines that I knew I loved. In terms of easy to access vineyards, Duckhorn was the highlight of the trip for me. Great wine, wonderful experience, terrific service, etc. From there we moved on to Prager Port Works, Cakebread & Salvestrin. The people at Salvestrin were terrific, giving us a tour of their wine making areas and process. The tawny port at Prager was excellent but not a part of their normal tasting package. Cakebread was somewhat disappointing. I've enjoyed their wines at several restaurants but the experience (and wine) was not on par with some of the others we had on this trip. Service matters and while I was a customer in the past, I suspect that I will not be in the future. Their loss really as I went in expecting to buy and to have a wonderful experience.

If the trip stopped here it would have been excellent, outstanding even. However, from this point forward, the trip veered into the surreal. So utterly outstanding that I barely have the words to describe it.

Sunday evening was filled with wine and a tour at the Napa Valley Reserve - beautiful grounds, an inspiring cellar & caves in process and incredibly delicious wine. We followed this treat with dinner at the Press in St. Helena. I never thought I'd say this but have the chicken! Really. Amazing.

We woke up early Monday morning to head to the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma where I enjoyed the Audi Sportscar Experience and got to drive the Audi R8 5.2 FSI quattro with its "soul stirring" 525 hp V10 engine on the track.

My traveling companion and I shared a private lesson. We each had our own car. I really did not want to get out of mine.  

This was a very high tech experience. We inserted flash drives into the cars' computer for our final laps on the track. In theory they'll send an email when we can view our laps on-line. I suspect they'll look something like this:  You Tube. The goal is to keep 1 to 1.5 car lengths between your car and the instructor's car. I know that my gap was too large for most of my laps (much like the linked video). The cones on the track mark the turns and apex. Helpful. As you can hear, the instructor coaches you (or in my case, makes fun of you!) through the track, commenting or giving guidance or encouragement as needed. I had no clue I'd enjoy this sort of thing, but I'd put the experience among the top ten days in my life.

Joy. Bliss. Fun.

I want to do it all again!