John Myles White: Die Sudelbücher

As I’ve done for two years now, I’d like to thank Harek for being the best friend I could ever ask for. Even though we almost never find the time to talk anymore, I have not once doubted that our friendship is still something sacred.

Time flies and it’s flown away with me this time. All my good intentions taken out by my absent mind. Apologies are far too small when in them arrogance stands tall, so let me throw away my pride, because I have nothing to hide. This is our fight, side by side, reaching out to make this right. No matter how small the chance or how great the task I will try; no matter how long the fall or what’s at stake I’ll aim to fly. Because you’ve shown me what it’s like to live, nowhere to look but up, nothing to hold back, everything to give. Your friendship means the world to me. Maybe we’ll never lose this. Maybe time will make us into memories, but one thing is true, in the end we’ll be glad we gave all we had.¹

1. With Honor : Heart Means Everything : Milwaukee↩

Today, I am not sick. I woke up today at 6 AM and I have stayed awake since then as I wasn’t tired enough at that hour to go back to bed after having had a long sleep since 10 PM, even if one punctuated by frequently waking up in the middle of the night to relieve my bladder of the weight of the Gatorade and half-melted Häagen Dazs I’d been drinking. To be honest, waking up here on the East Coast of the United States at an hour when in Madrid I would still be hoping to go to sleep is beautiful.

But far more beautiful is feeling healthy. On Wednesday, I started to feel less sick for the first time in several weeks. Both my schedule being automatically recalibrated by the shift of timezone and the reintroduction of large quantities of curry, General Tso’s tofu and eggnog into my diet seem to have done the trick of getting me back to health. (As I suspected the changes might.)

And, on top of all that, my wisdom teeth were taken out yesterday: all four at once. Having them removed was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time. My face is sore today and I’ll be focusing on soft foods for a few days, but there’s no real pain to speak of — and if you see the one tooth that had been infected and the cavity that was ruining it far faster than in my worst fears — all of which damage had been done almost entirely invisibly since the hole had been covered by the flap of gum into which the tooth had impacted –, you’d realize how large an improvement this bodes for my body.

So, I am happy. I feel meaningfully awake for the first time this year. I feel energized as I normally do and should always.

Onto my work, then. There’s still more eggnog is this world that needs a-drinking.