Stentiki, howyadoin?

Curious brah.

Hey Pablus,

Thanks for asking. I've been pretty preoccupied with my continued recovery so I haven't been here in a while. After months of struggling with deciding whether or not to back to work, I finally determined that it is best for me not to go back to my old job at Pitzer College, in Claremont, CA. The commute was over an hour each way from Huntington Beach and the travel took me away from home for 10 weeks out of the year.

The college held my job for almost a year, but I just don't feel ready to jump back into that intense pace so I finally had to let go. A tough decision but my doctors determined that it was the best thing for my long term health. I am currently undergoing a new treatment called EPC (External Counter Pulsation), a method that uses pressure therapy to pump oxygenated blood from the lower extremeties to the heart to alleviate chest pain. The goal is to open new vessels to create greater collateral blood flow to the heart. My treatments are everyday for an hour for seven weeks. I have three more weeks to go and then I will have another nuclear stress test to see how I am doing.

So as you can tell I have been pretty preoccupied. I'm really going to miss the travel because I had the chance to meet so many great TCer's out in the Northeast like Tiki Greg & Kathleen, Inkylouise, Manic Cat, Tiki Chris & Emi, Urban Tiki, Steve from Otto's Shrunken head and the Fishermen. I'll also never forget the great night I had hanging with Formikahini in Houston drinking martinis and eating homemade tamales at the Davenport Bar!

I often read of many life changes here on TC and I always feel for those who go through them. I try to reassure myself that this is the close of only one chapter in life and that a new one is on the horizon. One great thing that came out of all of this is that I have had plenty of time to play the ukulele and I think I'm getting pretty good at it!

So again, many mahalos for asking, Pablus. I've never met you but hope to someday. If you're ever out my way, give me buzz. Maybe we can have an uke jam together sometime.

hey uncle artie,
glad to hear you're doing well.
emi & i miss you, buddy.

aloha,
chris

Pickin' up the ol' ukulele, eh? Glad to hear it and look forward to strummin' with you (and Pablus) sometime soon. The doc still prescribing the red wine? Hope to see you soon!

-Weird Unc

Hey Pablus,

Thanks for offering the uke books! I'll drop you a line.

Information on EPC can be found here:

http://www.bravermancenters.com/abouteecp.html

Anyone with a heart condition or chronic chest pain should look into it. One doesn't have to nor should not wait for a major cardiac incident. This is the noninvasive alternative to angioplasty or bypass surgery and the results have been very successful.

Tiki Chris,

Give my regards to Emi. I hope to get out there sometime through the wife's work. I'll let you know if and when.

Weird Unc,

You know I'm getting the 2 glasses o' red a day for sure and I've been saving that last bottle of Judd's Hill Pinot for a special occasion. Love to jam with you sometime.

On 2006-05-12 10:42, stentiki wrote:
I'll also never forget the great night I had hanging with Formikahini in Houston drinking martinis and eating homemade tamales at the Davenport Bar!
Aahh, Stentiki, that was the BEST! I use it as an example of much I enjoy meeting folks from TC, even if we're bereft of tiki at the time. ("What do mean - you people actually have something else other than 'tiki' to talk about?")

Now, I do NOT want to hear that you're never traveling again! That's unacceptable, you hear?

In the meantime, I look forward very much to seeing you and meeting Mrs. Stentiki next time I'm out California way. And may I say again how VERY glad I am that you made it through your ordeal intact!

Big, happy hug,
F

On 2006-05-14 21:05, Formikahini wrote:

Now, I do NOT want to hear that you're never traveling again! That's unacceptable, you hear?

No worries about that, Formika. I'll be traveling just for fun now. In fact, believe it or not my wonderful wife just won an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii!

We will have four nights on Maui and three nights on Lanai at the Four Seasons Manele Bay. It came just at the right time before our 10th wedding anniversary so we are truly blessed.

Let us know when you'll be visiting again.

The Davenport rocks!