A true blue spectacle!

Why no updates? Why no updates??

Picture me - at this very moment - at my piano. With apologies to Barry Manilow:

"You wouldn’t believe where I’ve been,"
"The cities and towns I been in,"
"From Ormond to Rosemont"
"And every town in between."

Yes, it's a miracle.

This particular chapter of insanity covers 2,900 miles, three hotels, two households and one plucky hillbilly wrestler. It all began on March 20 when a prospective employer asked if I could show up the following week for an interview. In Florida? In March? Could I!

(Insert jet engine sound here.)

The interview allowed me to bunk with my parents for a few days - after I woke them up at 3 a.m. March 22. Florida, of course, was struck with a mysterious cool snap that began as I arrived and ended as I left at 3 a.m. five days later on March 27.

Spring breakers arriving in Daytona Beach were met with a serial killer hunting down prostitutes and a very chilly ocean. The beach was a little deserted:




The interview went great and I flew back, got caught up on my sleep for a couple of nights and repacked my bags. First, I had to head to downtown Chicago for a dinner/meeting with my cohorts from the Illinois Press Association's First Amendment Center. On the train trip in, my brother Eric called to say that his heart valve replacement surgery had been set: For April 5 in a hospital literally blocks from his Normal, Ill., home.

Eric first had this surgery in October 2004 but a leak had been detected. He was determined to get it fixed ASAP hence the week's notice. My schedule was clogged until then.

After the meeting on Friday, March 30, I hopped a cab and headed to Rosemont to hook up with my friend Brad and two of his friends (Joel and Joel) for our long-planned Wrestlemania weekend! Three nights of deluxe accommodations punctuated by poker and X-Box...

The first night, we were seated at a table at Harry Carey's next to WWE superstar Kurt Angle and his family. Later, I met legendary wrestler Hillbilly Jim in the Allstate Arena parking lot:




I chose not to power slam either Angle or Jim through a table, but I became quite good at X-Box ladder matches. Brad killed everyone in Texas Hold 'Em Poker (which I almost got the hang of ... almost). Brad is probably the most fun person I have ever met. Brad doesn't just DO Wrestlemania: He comes prepared with snacks and games and an infectious sense of good - and bad - humor. His driving leaves a lot to be desired, however. Here he is surveying the Allstate Arena crowds prior to Wrestlemania:




So, I got back (safely) from Wrestlemania slept most of Monday and on Tuesday I kept an appointment that I can't describe to you but even if I did you wouldn't believe me. On Thursday, Mary and I were on the road again toward the Bloomington-Normal area to hang out with the family after Eric's surgery.

Then things got weird.

The further south we traveled, the worse I began to feel. By the time we arrived, I had a full-bore case of bronchitis. Luckily, we had arrived at a hospital with a doctor who could prescribe antibiotics and a pharmacy stocked with those very same antibiotics. However, in my state, I could not attempt to see my brother. The last thing he needed was bronchitis.

So, I waved at him from the glass-walled waiting room while others visited. The hotel room was pre-paid on Hotwire.com so we hung out and made it to dinner with the folks before heading back Saturday.

My brother, a kind of a miracle baby born with a congenital heart defect in 1963 that was literally a death sentence in those days, continued to amaze all with a rapid recovery. He endured a nine-hour, open-heart, valve replacement ordeal on Wednesday and he was released Saturday at about noon. Back to Barry:

"It’s a miracle"
"A true blue spectacle, a miracle come true."

I was still coughing up my lungs but he was wowing 'em at home. And, frankly, I couldn't be happier. Attaboy, Eric!

Florida. Job search. Chicago. Wrestlemania. Brother's surgery. Bloomington. Bronchitis.

Why didn't I update my blog? Seriously, where would I begin?

More later,


Mark