The Village in Richmond Virginia

Virginia Commonwealth University or VCU is located in downtown Richmond Virginia. Its not an unattractive campus for a city bound school but there is a little area just a block or two away called The Village. VCU has an expansive theater department. My buddies daughter was there for an audition and we tagged along to keep her company. She is competing with 250 other students for 36 slots, obviously its very difficult to get into the program. So during her actual audition which I and her father were not allowed to sit in on, we walked over to the village and had lunch at the main attraction, The Village Cafe.

Photo by me, Cafe with doors open

Understand that this is a very artsy little part of a fairly large city. The aptly named village is a small college oasis filled with small private theaters that produce plays populated by the hopeful actors and actresses from the school. The Village Cafe is on the corner and seems to be the center or hub of the village itself. The place is not a club but a cozy and quaint cafe style restaurant with decent food and very friendly service. I had a very good Italian sandwich. The place was pretty packed for a Saturday afternoon but the whole village was buzzing with activity. There were many colorful characters both in the restaurant and out on the street. Everything one would expect in a college theater district. The highlight of my visit to The Village Cafe was the Choklat Stout by Southern Tier Brewery (Yes that is how they spell it) of Lakewood New York. It was a smooth and very flavorful 12% chocolate stout with distinctions of coffee and smoke. I highly recommend a glass.

The Choklat Stout and the helpful bartender and an elf like patron

I say glass as it does not come in pints due to some nonsense about Virginia booze laws and it being too high an alcohol content to be served in anything other than a rocks glass. When the bartender poured it for me I said that I liked it but I would like a whole glass of it, not the kiddie cup. He laughed good naturedly and explained in practiced tones why it was served like that. It would seem that I wasn't the first to comment on it and I'm sure I won't be the last. Anyway, excellent beer and a fun little part of the city.

Washington DC: Twenty years later

Last time I was in DC was twenty years ago just before I had graduated EOD school at Indian Head NAS in Maryland. I decided that since I was in the area, I would stop in for a visit to out nations capital and see if it was a excellent as I remember...it was. I started with The Mall which is the area between the capital building all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. On either side of this is the Smithsonian Institute and its many museums, this is sometimes referred to as the Nations Attic. I started with the natural history museum first which really hasn't changed much in twenty years. That makes it no less impressive, I particularly enjoyed the human origins section, being a student and teacher of anthropology, it was like walking through an entire semester of an intro to physical anth 101 semester. I really got jazzed by the gems, minerals and mining section. This is the home of some of the most wondrous gems in the world including, but not limited to, the Hope Diamond.

For more info on The Hope Diamond click here

From the web site "The new Hope Diamond setting, called “Embracing Hope”, incorporates 350 baguette cut diamonds set in platinum for a total carat weight of 105.52 carats. It took a total of 8 months for Harry Winston Inc craftsmen to create the new design which was chosen by over 100,000 people in an online vote sponsored by the Smithsonian Channel. "  It truly is an impressive spectacle as were many of the other gems and jewels on display.

I moved on to the American history Museum which has been closed since 2006 for renovation. It reopened in November of 2008 to rave reviews. The pop culture stuff is what I was looking forward to. I did see Archie Bunkers chair and Fonzie's jacket and the original Kermit the Frog puppet, but the whole music section was not open, thats where the Kiss stuff is, "You want the best, you got the best, the hottest band in the world...sorry no admittance" Oh well, better luck next time. 

The Star Spangled banner display is most impressive. The room was completely dark and the banner, which is enormous, was lit from above, very cool.

Giving a speech in front of Reagan's cabinet in the American History museum.

Then I took a lap around the Washington Monument which of course is always impressive. All the phallic jokes aside, it is one big monument, and I was off to the Air and Space Museum. Twenty years ago they had one of the Enterprise models from the original Star Trek series. It was gone this time but there were several new displays that were frankly mind blowing. One hall in particular had composite space probe photographs of the planets and other celestial bodies that were unbelievably awesome. But what made the whole excursion worth while was the Hubble experience in 3D on the IMAX, narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio.

See the Trailer at http://www.imax.com/hubble/

 The movie spends a good amount of time on the astronauts that go to repair the Hubble telescope and the missions problems and solutions. After that it takes you on a mind blowing journey using the 3D to explore some of our galaxys structures as the Hubble sees them. Then its a very Hawking/Sagan type journey beyond our own galaxy into the Deep Field stuff that I have always found extremely fascinating anyway. This movie made the whole journey worth while. It ran about 45 minutes but I could have sat there all day watching it.

Back up mirror for the Hubble in the museum, very cool.

Off to have a little dinner and try the local brews, which given the popularity of my Germany post, will become a regular feature here in my blog. i walked just a few blocks from The Mall to the Chophouse and Brewery. Their handcrafted beers were much better than I would have expected. Being from Colorado, land of the micro brews, I generally don't expect much. I used to work at a restaurant in Colorado Springs called the Warehouse that had a Dopple Bock that was so good I will never forget it and I have been searching for its like ever since. Well...I found it.

http://www.chophouse.com/

It had a sublime rich flavor that makes it a dark beer for any occasion. They also had an incredible 14% Russian Imperial Stout that is not for the faint at heart. The first sip made me cough but once I was aware of what I was drinking I found the taste enormously satisfying. So in one stop, I found a beer Ive been chasing for years, the Dopple Bock, and found another, The Imperial Stout, that I will be chasing for years to come. Turns out they have locations in Boulder and Denver so it comes from Colorado after all...I should have known.

Rich colored Dopple Bock on the left and the dark as night Russian Imperial Stout on the right.

Adventures with Cancer

Getting cancer is like getting kicked in the face, shocking, painful, and never welcome. When I got my diagnosis I was 37 and had just started a family. I had an Infant son and another one on the way and two older boys that called me daddy. My wife and I had only been together for a couple of years and WAMMO, out of the blue like a freight train, doc told me I had cancer. I didn’t feel sick at all, in fact my wife had to trick me into going to the doctor. I had this lump in my throat that was pushing on my voice box and making my voice sound different. I thought, hey people are lumpy, it doesn’t hurt and I’m not sick or anything, I’m sure it will just go away. My wife thought differently so she got my mother to baby sit our kids and told me we were going out to dinner. Instead she drove me to the emergency room for x-rays. I tried to reassure her that it was nothing and we should just go to dinner, she persisted so I relented as it seemed important to her and I have never been able to refuse her anything.

After the x-rays the doctor came and said " Yeah, it looks like you got cancer. There is an eleven inch mass in your throat and chest." I couldn’t believe it. I said,"you are joking right?" but he wasn’t. My wife was visibly shaken and I was still in denial when he started rattling off specialists that I needed to see. It was like a kick in the nuts.
This article isn’t about the nuts and bolts of having Cancer. It’s about the effects that getting the news can have on you and what to watch out for should you get through it. I was reeling, after all I had been through in my life and the fact that I just started a family, it seemed so unfair, and ridiculous, like I was the butt of some terrible joke by God. I lay in bed that night yelling at the heavens to spare me this and to spare my family this, but there was no getting around it, this would have to be handled. I began building a swing set so my children would have something other than a stack of bills to remember me by.

I am trying to go into business making these. Check out the web site at

http://www.compassroseswingsets.webs.com/

After we settled on a group of specialists, which was no easy task, but I eventually got funneled to the right people, the lump in my throat was so big that one of the doctors told me that what had been diagnosed as cancer was really just a goiter, then he started showing me pictures of people in Africa with goiter. I had been to Africa and seen some people with goiter for myself so we were relieved. He said he would do surgery to remove it but there were some risks. Like I might loose my voice because he had to open my throat to get at it.
I awoke in the intensive care unit after surgery, still very groggy and the doctor said to me, "congratulations you do have cancer." He went on to explain that they had indeed opened me up and realized right away that it was not a goiter but that it was in fact a very large and substantial bit of cancer. I asked if he had gone ahead and removed it but he hadn’t. Turns out that the cancer was so involved with my carotid arteries and my aorta that surgery was just not an option. I was looking at intensive chemotherapy and a lot of it. The good news being the congrats was that it was a readily treated type of cancer. Non-Hodgkin’s large B cell lymphoma. I think that is when it really sank in and the depression took hold. The first thing to watch out for is depression.
I had never thought of myself as a person who would be susceptible to something as moody as depression. I had lived more in my years than most do in a life time. I was right where I wanted to be, a lovely and loving wife, beautiful healthy children, everything a man could want. But this cancer thing had come from nowhere and without realizing it I became sullen and unpredictable. my moods would flash from way up to way down or very angry. I essence I became a different person, no more joy in my life, no more happiness. It was hardest on my wife, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees and she had to bear the brunt of it. If I had to do it over again I would have sought help from multiple sources right away but I did nothing. By the time I did begin to realize that I wasn’t the same person I had done irreparable damage to our relationship.
After six months of chemotherapy I was in remission with a new outlook on life, so I thought, but my depression stayed with me. It was only then that I sought out some help from my oncologist with my mood. He prescribed some Prozac which I thought would be enough, but it wasn’t. My ability to maintain my relationship with my wife continued to suffer even though she was begging me to get more help. Eventually I pushed her so far away that there was no going back. She remains to this day a positive influence in my life and the person responsible for saving it but the damage I caused was just to great to be forgotten. Only now years later am I just beginning to get a handle on my emotional well being but I am a changed man, less of a man.
I write this article as warning to anyone else who may be going through a similar ordeal. If you find out that you have cancer you must take care of your mental health while you battle your physical ailment. You can not ignore the warnings signs of depression. Pay attention to things like mood swings and lack of joy or satisfaction in the things you used to love. You must be proactive in treating your mental well being as well as your physical well being. Ask your doctors to recommend a therapist and have a pharmacological plan of attack. These are as important as your cancer treatments. After all, why work so hard to stay alive if the things you hold so dear slip away because you become intolerable. I owe my wife everything but all I can give her now is relief from my presence. That is a much more bitter pill to swallow than the depression medication that I refused to accept that I needed.
I am now working hard to get my life back together and I can tell you first hand that putting my mental state of mind back together has been a much longer and more difficult road than beating the cancer. The doctor was right, six months of chemo and it was gone, but my mental state has persisted for years. I can only hope now that I am able to come to a peaceful state of existence so that I can be happy again but, after all this time, I am only now beginning to feel that this may be possible. Do not make the mistakes I have made I implore you, talk to your oncologist right away about depression and chemical changes to your body, whether you think you are affected or not. It is better to be safe than sorry, you do not want to suffer from depression if you don’t have to.
Creighton Smith

Dallas: A city holding its breath

I spent last week in Dallas and I was surprised by what I saw. The city will be hosting the 45th Super Bowl and it is the talk of the town. I was at the Cowboy's Stadium and the place it packed with moving trailers and construction equipment. They were in the process of building a three story tent structure and stage in the parking lot that costs millions of dollars for the a three hour tailgate party. Here is a pic of the stadium.

Cowboys Stadium on a rainy day.

One of the conditions of hosting the Super Bowl is that any reference to the Dallas cowboys had to be covered or removed. The stadium itself is quite an impressive structure that houses the largest plasma screen in the world at nearly 60 yards in length. Parking and security are going to be major issues for the game. When i took that pic I was standing in the Wal-Mart parking lot across the street which i found out later has been rented for the day strictly for press vehicles. That is a lot of press. Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys, is selling standing room only spots in the parking lot to watch the game on outdoor big screens for 200 dollars a pop and you must buy at least eight of them. 

The general consensus with the security and firefighting forces was that they can't wait for it all to just be over. many of the businesses and people of Arlington felt the same way. 

I have to admit to being surprised by the greater Dallas area as a whole. One expects cowboys and ranches to be everywhere but the city centers of Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington were attractive happening places. Downtown Dallas in particular was filled with high end shops and restaurants as well as attractive and varied architecture. 

A picture of the Dallas Skyline from Trekearth.com

I stayed on the top floor of the Market center Crowne Plaza hotel about 15 minutes from the downtown area and had a nice view of the entire region. Unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy that much as the weather was crappy almost the whole time. There was a weight room and pool with hot tub at the hotel that i took full advantage of. The hotel restaurant was just to expensive to eat at so we got out a little bit for dinner, that being said we didn't go to any premier steak houses, just a Texas Roadhouse franchise spot that was good if you like that sorta thing. 

One thing that was very off putting about the place was the twisting and twirling and very confusing highway system of the greater Dallas area, even with our TomTom we got off on the wrong roads a couple of times. The interchanges and crossovers are sometimes three and four levels up and there are so many of them that often times you are just hoping you picked the right one. 

Typical highway merge

When looking at it from above one can make out the sense of it by my god try it in the dark and the rain. Not to mention that many of these interchanges are complicated by ongoing construction and detours. Even my cousin who has lived there for nearly twenty years got turned around trying to take me to the hotel after our visit. 

All in all, it was a good visit to Dallas and i wouldn't be opposed to having to go back someday but I don't think of the place as a tourist or vacation destination. There are plenty of things to do and the sports arenas in particular are big and impressive. last year they hosted the World Series and This year the Super Bowl which adds to the prestige but the locals are a little put off by all the extra people. One local business owner told me that he likes the extra revenue but the hassles are almost not worth it. Yep, Dallas was a surprise to me and the city itself is a very nice place to visit but visit is all I would ever want to do.