I’ve been watching a lot of tv. Soon I’ll have movie reviews for the majority of movies that I’ve watched in the past couple weeks. Be prepared to read my thoughts on great movies such as Revenge of the Nerds and Revenge of the Nerds 2. For now, here’s the worst things to watch:

1. Documentaries about surgical mishaps - This mainly comes from MSNBC. Usually this kind of shit just really annoys me because it seems like they are destroying a doctor’s life because some super-risky procedure didn’t work and the victim’s family just happens to have enough money to sue everyone in sight. Now they just make more more paranoid, so I have thoughts like “what if my leg hurts so bad because someone dropped a Junior Mint in it?”
2. Addiction documentaries featuring people who were so addicted to percocet that they have to take methodone to get clean.
3. Soccer - for obvious reasons.
4. Las Vegas (the tv show) - I’m going to have to pass on the blogger event in Vegas next weekend. I think it would be a little wrong of me to miss 2 weeks of work and then go on vacation the week I get back. Plus I probably wouldn’t be much fun because once I sit down somewhere, I’m not moving again.
5. Anything on WGN - What the fuck happened to WGN? It used to be a relatively decent network that showed generic re-runs, like USA and TBS. Now all they have is America’s Funniest Home Videos and America’s Funniest Pets. These are easily the worst two shows on television. I have no idea who is keeping these shows on the air. Who thinks it is a good idea to send in their video? How much longer will it be funny to watch a dad get hit in the crotch by his child? WGN should really just go for the gold and pick up Kids Say the Darndest Things and complete the annoying TV trifecta.

Finally, the pictures are here. Of course they don’t give you raw images. Instead I have a cd with an application that I don’t really understand how to use. Here’s the first couple that appear to show the torn acl.

After six days, I left the apartment for the first time today, only to go to the doctor to make sure I don’t have a blood clot. That is good news by the way, though it still sucks that I haven’t had a decrease in pain over the past week. I am doing a better job of keeping on pill schedule, which is somewhat helping with the pain. Here’s some pictures I took over the past week:

Grotesque (yet blurry) pictures after the jump.
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Well, it fucking hurt. No lie, ACL surgery is no fun. My ACL and meniscus were both torn. There is a chance that something weird on the outside was also torn, but I didn’t get final confirmation after the surgery. When you wake up from the surgery you are supposed to have a nerve block to keep the knee from hurting for the first 24 hours. Mine didn’t work at all, so I have been in excruciating pain for the past 48 hours.

The surgery recovery nurses were total bitches. They were upset that I was complaining about the nerve block not working (which it didn’t). After giving me 50 mg of Demerol, they informed me that I wouldn’t be able to go down to recovery until I said I didn’t have pain anymore and that I couldn’t get any more pain medication until I went downstairs. I attempted to explain the hole in logic here, but it wasn’t going anywhere.

I finally talked my way down to recovery, where they gave me a couple Vicodin. The Vicodin also didn’t help. But I was tired and I wanted to get the hell out of there. But they wouldn’t let me leave because my blood pressure was too high, but my blood pressure was so high because it all hurt so fucking bad.

Everyone that I talked to about the surgery didn’t mention the part where there is a good chance that the people that give you a ride home will see you (at least somewhat) naked. That is really information I wish I would have known beforehand.

Sarah and CC brought me home, which was awesome and I wouldn’t have been able to make it here without them. The first night was definitely the worst pain-wise, and I needed all the help I could get. As an added bonus, they bought me a bunch of food so I wouldn’t have to worry about anything for the next few days. I would not have made it without their help.

So now it has been 48 hours since the surgery. I am about to take the brace off for the first time and see what the stitches look like, hopefully this will ease some of the tension on the knee.

The only real update is that the surgery is definitely happening tomorrow. I stopped eating solid food at 9pm today, and stopped taking in liquids at midnight. The surgery is scheduled for 1pm, I should be out by 4pm. Which means I’m home by 5pm or so. Add it up kids; I’m going to be starving.

I still haven’t gotten back the results from my MRI, but the doctor has them. We’re going to go over them tomorrow at 10am and then I guess I’ll go directly from there to the hospital to get prepped for surgery. I’m oddly anxious about it. Don’t know why, I know a million people who have had this surgery (some of them multiple times) but I still can’t help but be nervous.

I really hope there is an option to get a recorded copy of the surgery. I’d be really excited to see what the inside of my knee looks like. Call me curious. I did pay $30 to get a cd with all of the MRI images and I’ll hopefully be getting that in a couple days. There was no option to get the ultrasound of my heart. That shit looked pretty cool though, believe me.

I’m anxious like it’s the first day of school tomorrow or something. I need to get to sleep.

My evening went something like this:

No final confirmation yet, but the shooting pain in my knee makes me 90% certain that I tore my ACL. More after the percoset wears off.

Last week I made my triumphant return to soccer. I’ve been itching to play for a long time now. For those of you keeping score, I tore my groin on July 17th. So it has been three and a half months since I had even touched a soccer ball.

Aside from being exhausted 10 minutes into the game, it went well. We had an adequate number of subs, which is key for me at this point. And though the team we played against was good, they didn’t have any subs at all.

We won 8-7 (if you would have seen some of the players on our team you would have been surprised that we even won). I scored three goals, including one from just past midfield (these are really small fields) and one around the hook, off the keeper and in. It felt good. I remember why I love this game so much.

In my mad rush to get to the airport for Las Vegas, someone bumped into me pretty hard with their luggage. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I got out of the subway to catch the AirTrain. My phone looked like this:

I immediately recognized it as a cracked LCD, but attempted to turn the phone on and off repeatedly in hopes that it was just some kind of windows mobile crash. It wasn’t, obviously. That’s also when I realized how dependent I am on my cell phone. I only have a handful of phone numbers memorized and they were going to be of no use to me in Vegas. Luckily for me, the call history feature on this phone is laid out pretty well and though I did call some random people a million times, I managed to get a hold of Demanda and crew.

Getting a hold of them wasn’t enough though. I needed a phone and I needed it now. I wasn’t going to suffer all weekend without it. I need my entertainment box any moment I have more than ten seconds of idle time. I need to check bloglines and email and sports scores (Yeah, I can’t explain that one either) and sometimes I even look up directions. So on Friday I was on a mission to get a new phone. $70 in cabs and $375 later, I had a new phone, and an insane hatred of Las Vegas traffic. Motherfuck it couldn’t be worse. The one shining moment in the trip was finding a Zappos outlet store in Vegas (which happens to be the new headquarters for Zappos).

But I remember when I used to have everyone’s phone numbers memorized. In fact, I still remember the work phone numbers of the majority of my coworkers from NI. Unfortunately that too would do me little good, since a lot of them no longer work at the company. Now instead of phone numbers, I have the latest episode of I Love New York stuck in my mind. That’s a good trade-off.

To mitigate this problem I think I need to use the old buddy system. So, I need a phone buddy. We’ll exchange complete phone lists and memorize each others phone numbers. That way should my phone ever break again I can get all the important numbers by calling one person. Either that or I’ll just have to reallocate some TV watching memory.  Yeah, sign ups for phone buddy start…now.

I distinctly recall saying that I had no intention of ever going back to ACL; that apparently was a lie. Enamored with the thought of seeing Bjork, LCD Soundsystem, Blond Redhead, PB&J, Devotchka and a whole slew of other bands that I’ve been attempting to see all year, I bought my tickets while there were still three-day passes without any form of a plan.

As luck would have it, a coworker of mine (WK) and her friend Sara were planning on going as well. And in a cruel twist, my trip interfered with a business trip and I ended up having to get approval from five million levels of management before I could go.

Friday
We got to the festival a bit late on Friday but managed to get there in time to catch the end of MIA. After that we saw Queens of the Stone Age and caught up with Jason. Queens of the Stone Age are a full-on arena rock band. It’s unfortunate that their show had to be in the day time. Though they were good I had a hard time getting into it. The real reason I even bought tickets to ACL was to see Bjork again. I went directly from Queens of the Stone Age to the Bjork stage even though her show was still an hour and a half out because I wanted to get the best possible seat. The show was similar to the Radio City show, but it’s always better when you are closer. She didn’t disappoint. And she even played some different songs like I Miss You and Army of Me, which I didn’t expect.

After the show on Friday, we went to Mugshots (of course) and caught up with Amanda, April, and F-Train at different points in the evening. I pwned the jukebox for a solid two hours, it was good fun. I still love that place.

Saturday
It was difficult to get up on Saturday. After Mugshots closed, I kept us out until 4am because I was insistent that we eat at Best Wurst. Even having someone throw up in line behind us wasn’t going to stop me.

The festival on Saturday wasn’t all that memorable, probably because we missed most of it, but also because Saturday really had the weakest lineup. We saw Andrew Bird followed by Arctic Monkeys. They were both alright. Then we saw Arcade Fire who were fantastic, but the show was crazy packed and uncomfortable. Once that was over we caught the last 10 minutes of Muse before heading downtown. We went to Lucky Lounge and had someone throw up next to our table. Awesome.

Sunday
Once again we woke up late. Anthony showed up in the afternoon and we headed out to ACL just in time to catch the end of Devotchka, who were surprisingly good. I’m going to catch them next time they come around. Directly after they finished we headed over to see Bloc Party. I was surprised at how early their set was. Their show was good, but would have been better at night. It was hot as fuck and Anthony wasn’t prepared for it. After Bloc Party we sat down by a bar in the shade and didn’t leave for the rest of the day.

We caught part of the Decemberists, Ziggy Marley, and My Morning Jacket. Then Bob Dylan started. And he sucked. Yes, I’m aware that he is a talented musician, but the guy is old and sounded like shit live. We got the hell out of there and made our way to sixth street.

I had already planned on going to Elysium for 80s industrial night and had told Amanda to meet us out there. We got there a little early, so we hit Maggie Mae’s for a few drinks where we ran into Capitan Morgan. Fuck yeah Captain Morgan.

Elysium is the best place to be on a Sunday night in Austin. I recommend it to people all the time, but it’s really not for everyone. Luckily for me the NY crew that was in Austin with me had a good time. Lots of drinks, good music, dancing, and a bunch of interesting people to look at.

Overall, I’m reminded once again why I hate ACL. It is hot as fuck, there are too many people and it takes forever to get back to your car. I will never go again, until they have another kickass schedule.

I happened to be exercising (big surprise, I know) and saw the aftermath of this.

I was sure that they were filming a movie. Funny.