Wilco In Fort Wayne…Night At The Oakwood Inn Resort…Getting Out Of Your Own Head

Getting away from your normal surroundings is a good thing. Sometimes just a change a scenery – be it a week or just a few hours – can be just the thing you need to reboot and recharge. Now, I’m the first to tell you that I’m a homebody. My house is a home, and filled with my favorite things. My comfy chair, my records, my movies, and my brand new 65″ TV. I don’t need to be constantly busy and out and about. They say home is where the heart is, and that’s a true statement when referring to me.

But getting out once in a while makes you appreciate home even better. Thursday night my wife and I did just that. We’d bought tickets to see Wilco at the Clyde Theater a few months back, and yesterday was the day. This was going to be challenging for me, as it was the biggest outing I’ve done since getting out of the hospital two weeks ago. I thought I’d do okay, plus I really wanted to go as Wilco is one of my all-time favorite bands and they were playing 50 minutes from my house. I had to at least give it the old college try.

My wife made us reservations for dinner at The Club Room, a restaurant connected to the Clyde Theater. I was kind of nervous just because I’d been very strict about what I’ve been eating, keeping it to a very low sodium diet. I ended up getting a roasted beet and chicken salad. It wasn’t bad, but I found out that I’m not a fan of candied pecans as they put a bunch in the salad. Not my thing. Roasted pecans? Oh yeah. Candied? No thanks.

Anyways, my wife had paid for upgraded tickets so we had a special area where we could stand with access to bathrooms and not down in the general admission. Well, turns out this special area wasn’t so special. Felt like anybody could meander up there. My wife found a spot to the far right where there was a railing and a wood bar where we could lean. Yeah, I’m not meant for 3 hour stands anymore. That’s for a much younger version of me. Me now needs seats. Anyways, it was better than where we were and we could see the stage pretty well.

So we’d been standing for about 75 minutes prior to the show starting at 8pm, and I was already getting groggy from my old man BP pills. The show starts and I’m like “Great! Here we go!”. Wilco sound fantastic and the Clyde was absolutely packed. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a show that was that packed before. As the band played on, I started to feel woozy. A cold sweat broke out over my face and that weird, wavering feeling came over me. I was starting to feel like you feel when you know you could pass out. My wife had said before the show started that at any point I felt bad to let her know and we’d leave. I was feeling bad, but I didn’t want to leave. I thought maybe I could at least last until the end of the first set. I looked at my watch and they had been playing 20 minutes. Shit.

I kept it together until almost the end of their first set and then told my wife I needed to step out. So she grabbed me and I stumbled through one of the tightest crowds I’ve ever encountered. People were standing on the exit ramps, which I’m pretty sure that was a fire hazard. We made our way out and even stopped at the merch table for a couple t-shirts. I apologized to my wife but she said there was no need to. She was starting to feel a little unsafe at that over capacity crowd as well.

Compared to Thursday, Friday night is a far calmer affair. Our daughter set up reservations for us at the Oakwood Inn Resort in Syracuse, In for a little getaway. She works there and got us a sweet deal on a suite. A pre-birthday present for my wife. I guess you could say it’s also a “Hey congratulations on surviving heart failure!” for me as well. Dogs are allowed at the hotel, so we brought Celeste with us. We got here at 5pm, and now at 10:14pm she’s finally relaxing. New surroundings brings out the old dog anxiety I suppose. We were afraid to leave her in the room while we went to eat at a Japanese restaurant, so we took her with us. I grabbed a to-go menu and we ordered over the phone. We drove around the lake for 40 minutes while the food was prepared. Finally ate back at the room around 8:45pm.

Our daughter is working tonight, so when she gets off she’ll come up to the room and take Miss Celeste back home with her. I’m sure Celeste will like that.

We have the room for two nights, but I really just want to go home tomorrow. We’ll eat a light breakfast here, and then I think we’re going to go buy me a new pair of shoes. My tennis shoes are all worn out, and so I need to get some new kicks for walking and exercising.

It’s nice getting my mind off the health insanity I’ve been dealing with the last several weeks. It’s nice feeling normal, even for a little bit. I’m constantly thinking about my health now, and what I put in my body. Eating maki rolls, dumplings, and crab rangoon felt downright decadent tonight. Not gonna lie I did have some regret, thinking about sodium counts and calories. But dammit it tasted good. I’ll probably fast tomorrow just to make up for it.

I don’t think it’s a bad thing to feel that way. Eating willy nilly played a part in what happened, even if I thought I was eating pretty healthy. I’m down to 203 lbs and I want maintain that. I feel really good at that weight. I kind of went through hell to get to this weight, so I don’t want to blow it.

Anyways, I got out and did things besides home things. Felt good, and a little scary. Like life I guess.