Why I am Secure in Getting the Pedicure - If it ain't broke, don't fix it

Since I started training for the Chicago Marathon, the one that later quit while I was running it, I have been getting pedicures. Why do I get them? Well, at some point, let’s say early March of 2007, I had a toenail grow in just enough to cause a slight infection in my big toe. The girl I was dating at the time suggested I get a “pedi” to prevent those in the future. Of course, there I was frequently soaking in Epsom, and all of the other things one could do to prevent an infection as such. The next time I needed them cut, I went and had one of those petite immigrants clip the nails for me.

I had just finished a ten-miler when I was in the process of getting my first “pedi.” During the treatment, she began viciously beating my calves as a massage, screaming, “these are like stones, they are like stones,” in a broken English. Of course, I was trying to find the humor in that whilst I was internally screaming from the pain of having the lactic acid beaten out of my lower leg muscle tissue.

Nevertheless, I have never ceased getting “pedis” provided the preventative maintenance with which they leave me. In short, the pedicures through my training for the Chicago Marathon kept me from ever having an infection in my big toe, near the cuticle on the side. All of that said, of course, I am writing you, as it has been probably more than six weeks since I have had one. With that, and a planned long run on Sunday, I sat there clipping my toenails. I didn’t do a great job; however, I thought I was able to get along the cuticle well enough, like I’d seen, to do the job well enough to not suffer the same pre-pedicure fate.

I had a great long run on Sunday, and I stopped at Java in the North End of Boise after my run, as I had planned, enjoying some coffee with a nice older Irish couple living in Boise since ’82. Of course, my coffee with the lovely couple kept me from soaking in Epsom straightaway as I had planned, but I thought, “my goodness, these things don’t just happen like that. What are the odds?”

There I was last night, I took the evening off provided my great run on Sunday, and I had just taken my shoes and socks off my beloved tootsies. There, looking down at my toe, I thought in great dismay, “Well you dumbass, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That’s right, hindsight being what it was, I was kicking myself. There along the inside cuticle of my left toe is the redness, which looks like the beginning of infection. For nine months, I have been devoutly getting “pedis” to avoid a run-affecting toe infection, and they have worked. The one time I don’t, like clockwork, here I am again, trying to find a good doctor in Boise to diagnose, double blindly, and prescribe the appropriate treatment.

Why I say “double blind” above is due to the fact that this is too comical, it’s too Hollywood, such that I don’t want the fact that this is poetic to be reason for my being hypochondriac. Well, what can one say? I need to find a good Doctor here in Boise, and let it be for something as small as this to find a good physician. Of course, by the same token, I am kicking myself for messing with a working formula. That, of course, is why I am brand loyal to following goods: Subaru, Mizuno and Kashi. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – rules by which to live.

First Blog is First

It is ironic, sitting down to type one’s first blog on something as catholic as a move and company change, alas a beloved English teacher, Dr. Watkins, once instructed me, “The best way to cure writer’s bloc, is to simply start typing.” I am convinced, so that is what I am doing, and it is my expectation form and substance will follow.

That is to say, if you have not read a blog from Matt in a long time it’s not because you’ve not checked old forums. I simply have not written a blog, or posted anything substantive in a great while. It has been too long since I have, and as such, I think it is time for me to start writing.

As you probably know, if you have received or come to this link, I am making a move to Boise, ID here in the States. I have been eager to move out West for some time, and Boise has sat firmly at the top of my list of preferences. If you have never been to Boise, it is a lovely city, much smaller than Chicago, nestled in the Southwestern corner of Idaho. The climate is absurdly temperate, and the people of Boise are exceptionally kind and down-to-Earth. It’s hard to summarize it any further than that.

I suspect as you continue to come to this website, over the coming months you will see a more substantial reckoning; however, for the time being, I can only speak for the five days I have been in Boise, three of those being for my interview.

I have much intrigue in the changes I am to expect, both from cultural and quality of life perspectives. I suspect I will greatly enjoy attitudes that are less intense than those one might find in Chicago, but part of me also wonders about the times when I will want more intensity, when I am frustrated by the lack of progress on something professional or otherwise.

Alas, that is why one simply sits down to start writing, the form and substance will come, and that is my expectation with life as well. There are numerous clichés or allusions I won’t bore you with that say this more immediately, but I like the analogy back to Ole’ Dr. Watkins, “just start writing,” methodology, one just has to start making a desire change. With making a change, I have most certainly made the effort to complete this as prudently and as well planned as possible, but that is not to say there aren’t anxieties or things left undone that are more continuous doing so.

If my writing as kept you along to this point, now I suppose I should explain the title of the blog “Escaping the Iteration of the Pastiche.” I used “Iterations of the Pastiche in a conversation last night, and on its own, I realize the two words together “Iteration” and “Pastiche” are largely redundant. Quite simply, in the conversation from where this phrase came, what I was referring to were the iterative observations of the same thing repeatedly pertaining to “Sushi dates on Friday,” “Big Ten Male Alumni drinking macro-brew beer during NCAA Football Saturdays in Lincoln Park,” “keeping up with the Jones’s in condo purchases in fashionable younger Chicago neighborhoods,” or the “Rock Her World” advertisements for engagement rings and the truth in the market they convey.

Videlicet, this is my Blog and here I am. This is not meant for anything other than keeping up with my friends, and offering the opportunity to see my updates in this move out West. Of course, I always welcome comments or thoughts, and I look forward to the discourse.