Halfway

October 1–14

These past two weeks have been a mix of milestones, migraines, and moving boxes. My last two infusions went pretty smoothly, though the migraines afterword were rough. I managed to get some climbing in with Jackson and learned a few new songs on guitar.

Work’s been solid too. I knocked out a bunch of bug tickets. We also bought a house! It’s a cute little gingerbread tudor rivival home in a walkable, bikeable neighborhood. This will be a great new start for my family.

I went down to Nashville and my brother helped me move. I spent a quick day at the office, then the whole night organizing and coordinating pickups with a break to grab some chicken pretzel sandwiches from Riverside Village Pub, which is walkable from our old house if you’re brave enough to take the sketchy bike lane. I had planned to go to a few shows that week but totally underestimated how much work was left to do in the house. Go check out Like You Mean It Records and Kenny’s band.

The movers made the next day easy. I ended up having a civil conversation with one of them who was a Trump supporter about health insurance. We both agreed it should be free and universal like most other countries. He’s convinced tariffs will pay for it. I told him we’ll check back in a year and see how that’s going. At least we agreed that the USA health insurance premiums are ridiculous.

Jason saved the day that morning by cutting open our shed with an angle grinder at 7 a.m. so we could get to our lawn equipment. The final walkthrough with Matt went well, though we did find a big crack in one of the windows. After packing the pods and grabbing lunch, we saw Jason’s climbing shed and I caught up with his roommate. The home wall is looking great!

That night we went out with Kenny to Roy's. He somehow found a ribbon cable we needed for our POG guitar pedal! Thank you again!

The next day, after getting donuts, we packed Drew's car and he headed out. I later met up with Jason and Becky, my first climb with them in months. Managed to send three V5s!

I ran into a few neighbors for the first time since August. Gave Nick a walkthrough of the house and caught up. Autumn, her mom, and her partner Blake also stopped by to chat on our front lawn before their gig at Drkmttr that night. Y'all rock!

Ben and I went to Noble's that night to watch the Chiefs vs. Lions, and talked a few hours.

The next morning came early; final clean, final pack, making sure the PODs had AirTags, triple-checking everything. The drive out was quick and quiet, no stops, just some tears and Alex G playing on my way out of town. After twelve years in Nashville, it’s hard to say goodbye.

My Personal Best of Nashville

I am glad I got to show some of these spots to my brother. The Nashville Scene publishes a yearly best of Nashville. Here is Mine!

• Best birria, Maiz de la Vida

• Best bread for bahn mi, East Side Bahn Mi

• Best breakfast burrito, JMas (Resting Burrito Face)

• Best bagel breakfast sandwich, Mr. Aaron’s Goods

• Best pretzel, Noble’s

• Best morning donut stop, East Park Donuts

• Best scone, Dose

• Best hibiscus tea, Ladybird Taco

• Best back patio for pizza, Smith & Lentz

• Best music store, Fanny's House of Music

• Best gym, Climb East

October 15

The next morning was rough. Early infusion at 7 a.m., missed my vein, mild panic attack. Once things settled, the rest of the session went fine. Later that day, after waking up, I debugged a Kubernetes issue. The CPU was thrashing due to a short polling interval on one of our applications. It’s funny how grounding a bit of technical problem-solving can feel after a morning like that.

This might be my last round of ABVD. I’ll find out about immunotherapy on the 20th. We move into the new house on the 24th, and some friends are coming into town to help and hang.

I cannot wait for the next chapter and will hopefully have some good news at my PET scan.

Love you all.