Publication Barbecue

Featuring updates on Hoppin Hot Sauce inventory, newly published writing, recuperation from surgery, the year's first barbecue, and a new family pet. Sandman Knows Kale Shout outs to the Sandman, who wrote in about kale and he knows more about kale than I ever will. He works with kale as a kaleologist. Extra Hot Shortage Buy Extra Hot Hoppin Hot Sauce from Amazon as we will be out of stock on Extra Hot in the near term, and once Amazon runs out, we're out. Publication Instant Noodles published my 50-word story "CYBERTRUCK DENTAL, S. DE R.L." The link to the stuff that is published, along with what's upcoming is on the Publications page of my author site jwh.whatsthematterwithme.org The sinking feeling you have after publication is the same one you have after you have an art opening. Everything returns to normal. Banal, mundane, normal. But in fact, I did accomplish something. What I set out to do: become a published writer. The thing rolls on, even: a second 50-word story will be published in a different publication next week. I recorded myself reading it in a video at the request of the editor. Surgery Update Looking at the calendar, it's been about 4 weeks since I had surgery. I've reduced my medication down to the pointt where I'm almost completely titrated off of the pain medications I've been taking for months. New New Cat We've got a new cat at the house. It's a two-month-old kitten that's part-lynx. It's in quarantine for the next 10 days, maybe more. Barbecue I lit the barbecue for the first time this year. Now that my meds are reduced, I feel like not as scary to grill. For the first go-around, I made skirt steak and eggplantLast night, I grilled a pork tenderloin with whole grain mustard, brown sugar and Shaoxing wine. We ate it with steamed new potatoes and boiled carrots. Hollywood We ordered a new juniper tree, a 'Hollywood Juniper' juniperus chinensis var. kaizuka. Remodeling After launching my writer's website, I'm remaking the whatsthematterwithme.org website with the same theme. If it all goes well, I could see myself redoing HoppinHotSauce.com the same way. Gary in the press Installation view of Gary Cannone’s Manet/Degas at Compound Yellow, Oak Park, Illinois (photo Jonas Müller-Ahlheim) Past WTMWM? interview subject Gary Cannone got a great write-up by Lori Waxman in hyperallergic about his solo show at Compound Yellow in Oak Park, IL. Check out the Gary Cannone Interview Special here. Gaining equilibrium For the first time in months, I got up from the couch by myself. A couple of times Selfie Publication Barbecue selfie 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:03 - Hoppin Hot Sauce Jingle 00:01:20 - Shout outs 00:02:01 - Instant Noodles Publishes \"CYBERTRUCK DENTAL, S. DE R.L.\" 00:02:34 - The feeling you have after publication is the same one you have after you have an art opening 00:03:17 - another story will publish next week 00:03:35 - Writing site at jwh.whatsthematterwithme.org 00:04:03 - RF Rhizotomy recovery update 00:06:05 - Tapering off habit-forming medications 00:07:08 - We have a new cat 00:09:03 - First barbecue this year 00:10:15 - The Way I Grill Charred Eggplant 00:12:42 - New Juniper Tree 00:13:43 - Remaking whatsthematterwithme.org 00:13:55 - gary cannone hyperallergic writeup by lri waxman 00:14:35 - getting up by myself 00:16:11 - Outro

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
- What's up?
Good morning or whatever time you are
listening to this.
What's up? Check.
You are tuned into the, what'sthe matter with me podcast.

(00:27):
What's up? You are tunedinto the What's the matter
with me podcast.
My name is John.
You are tuned into the What'sthe matter with me podcast.
My name is John. I'm 44 years old.
Husband, father of twosmall business owner,

(00:50):
radio DJ podcaster.
I have multiple sclerosistrigeminal neuralgia
and I made this podcast toshare what I'm going through.
Play the theme song
- Hop hot sauce.
It's the best hot sauce. Hop. Hot sauce.

(01:12):
It's the best sauce in the world.
The world. I'm telling you,
- You should buy Hoppingthe hot sauce on Amazon.
Amazon won't have extra hot in the near
near term, so buy it now.

(01:39):
Shout outs to the Sandmanwho wrote in about kale
and he knows more aboutkale than I ever will.
He works, that's his job.
He is a kale person, a
er shout outs to the Sandman.

(02:00):
He's listening through shout outs
to all the people listeningto what's the matter with me?
The people who listen to every episode
I see you shoutouts to my poetry,
gay Load Star Joe

(02:22):
Instant Noodles publishedmy 50 word story.
Cyber truck Dental, SRL.
The link is on my author website.
jw, what's the matter with me.org.
So that's it. I'm a publishedwriter, I'm published.

(02:47):
Check it out gw, what's the matter
with me.org?
And now that I've experienced
somebody published something, I wrote even
as small as a 50 word story,
the feeling you have

(03:09):
after publication is the same one you have
after you have an art opening.
You're like, my lifeis the same after you.
Like you don't turn into a frog
or any, it's like somehow youexpect something to happen.
But, but in fact, I didaccomplish something.

(03:32):
I was published, it happened.
And then also this coming week,
another 50 word storywill be published in a
different online journal
and I've recorded a videoof myself reading it.
So I'll put all links to this stuff.

(03:55):
Check out the author page.
jw do what's the matter with me.org.
But in fact I accomplished something,
another story published this week
and I got a video of myself
and they're going to sendit to their mailing list.

(04:18):
So I'm like, okay, I'm allready. I'll send you a link.
Come on. So what's up with surgery?
Last week was like surgery,publication, vacation
this week, no morevacation, no more surgery.
And I'm coming off of medication.

(04:39):
So let me give you anupdate on how it's going.
So I had surgery on the 28th of March.
That was a Thursday.
So it was like going on a month,
going on four weeks ago,
going on four weeks ago I had surgery

(05:00):
and I haven't had pain since then.
I've had sens sensations like I wouldn't
compared to what I've experienced before.
It's more like, it feels like a cat's tail
brushing up against my cheek.
So it's not like hurting me.

(05:23):
But I know enough having had five surgery
that any sensation canturn into a bad sensation
if things change.
But I'm having very limited sensation
and really ex extremely low.

(05:45):
And in my teeth, my teeth,it's kind of awe names.
It can kind achesometime, but very briefly
and not so far, not in a way
that really hurts me.
So almost four weeks ago I was on

(06:07):
10 times as much pain medication.
That's the other part abouthaving some sensation.
It might be related to cutting out so far,
90% of the medication
and that of one medication, 90%

(06:27):
and the other medicationhaving cut it out completely.
So I am really low. I kindof sweat in the morning.
I get a little bit, um, you know,
because it's habit formingso it takes some time
to come off of this.

(06:48):
I, in uh, three days
or so, I'll cut outthe medication entirely
and then I'll be offboth pain medications.
It's really helping me,uh, get through my life.
So let's see, more updates.
So it's been four weeks almost.

(07:09):
It's been four weeks going on four weeks
since I had surgery.
I'm almost totally offmedication completely
and any feeling I'm having is not painful.
So things are in the right direction.
We have a new cat.

(07:31):
So we got a new cat a few months back
and it was unfortunately, unfortunately
struck by a car and passed away.
We have a new cat.
Um, she's like couple months old.
We think it's a she we're not really sure.

(07:53):
Uh, part links.
It has this kind of like lion like rah
instead of a nice meow, there'sa meowing, there's like rah,
it's a cute cat like sitting on my lap.
And that's the, that'swhat you want out of a cat.

(08:16):
So far it's been sequestered in the
laundry room
because it can't mix with our other cat
'cause we don't wannaget our other cat sick
because the new cat wasbasically a feral cat
living outside in a box with ear mites

(08:39):
and fleas and all the rest.
Pretty dirty cat.
So we gave it all the pills
and shots, uh, a couple weeks ago
and it has to remain sequestered
for like 10 more days.
So I try and put the um, old cat outside

(09:02):
and then have the newcat run around the house.
'cause the, I feel badhaving the cat live in
the laundry room.
The new cat is cool. Sothings are getting better.
I'm getting off medication

(09:22):
and I barbecued
for the first time thisyear and it's already April
and I live in California.
It's not 'cause it's too cold, it's that
lighting the barbecue.
My barbecue is hot.
It's a powerful barbecueand I could barely stand up.

(09:46):
I had no balance.
And so I felt really unsafe barbecuing,
like if it's gonna trip
and fall face down on thebarbecue, uh, you know,
like I just did not feel safe.
So, but now I'm off.
I was on two medication,thousands of milligrams

(10:07):
of these medication
and now I'm off one entirely
and the other one I'm 90% down on.
So I'm, I'm standing
and moving better than a half in months.
So I lit the barbecue forthe first time this year

(10:31):
and I made skirt, steak and eggplant.
The way I do eggplant is I just kind of,
I preheat the barbecuewith the eggplant on it
with the heat at, youknow, all the way hot
and it kind of turned theeggplant when I, when I
opened the barbecue.

(10:53):
I'll open it one time to turn it
and then open it to clean the grate.
So kind of move theeggplant up onto the rack
above the grate, clean the grate,
put the eggplant back on the grate.
Sh shut the barbecue.
This is all preheating

(11:14):
and so you're kind oflike charring the eggplant
incinerating it.
It'll have like a great crack
and it'll begin kind ofsteaming out of the crack.
And then uh, you put it in a bowl
and it'll kind of leach this black, uh,

(11:36):
coffee looking liquid.
And that is like burnteggplant char taste.
So you can kind of scoopout the cooked eggplant
with a spoon, use a sieve
and strain the burnt eggplant liquid

(11:57):
and then combine that withwhat you spooned out man
a clove garlic or grateit on the micro planter
and add like a lot of olive oil
and add salt to taste
and then you can serve that.
So we serve that alongside the skirt steak

(12:20):
and the skirt steak had acompound butter, a blue cheese
and butter and my son hated that,
which was too bad.
It was really good.
So la that was a few nights ago last week
with the skirt steak Lastnight I grilled a pork tender

(12:43):
loin, a pork tender loin with
whole grain mustard, brownsugar and shing wine.
And then we ate that cut into medallions
with carrots and potatoes and salad.
So cooking is going well. Idon't feel like I'm gonna die.

(13:08):
Something that did dieis our juniper tree.
We had a jour juniper tree infront of the house that died
and it was probably 70 years old
or some, not a super huge one.
Not much taller than the house.

(13:30):
Maybe as tall as our single story home.
Anyhow, I'm gonna replace it.
We will replace it with a Hollywood
juniper Junis.
Chines is variant zuka.
It kind of has sweeping arms.

(13:53):
So we'll see how that comes in.
I'm also looking to getsome hummingbird sage.
My birthday is on Friday. Alot of things going on here.
I'm remaking the, what's the matter
with me.org website.
It's, uh, that'll launch pretty soon.

(14:15):
Gary Canone, the artist, Gary Canone, uh,
that I interviewed on this very podcast
a a year ago about, um,just had a great writeup
in a hyper allergic Laurie Waxman wrote

(14:35):
a survey of some Chicago shows
and one of them was Gary's
and Gary is an artist withms, so I'm always interested
in those people.
So it's cool. He got a cool writeup.
I'll, I'll put a link toit in the description.

(14:55):
I can get up from the couch by myself.
Uh, I did it twice yesterday
and that's been a big change.
I, I used to have to have mywife help me get in a chair
and sometimes I still do like, kind
of help get up into a chair
and then I can stand up from the chair.

(15:18):
But yesterday
and it's, I'm still getting,I'm like regaining an ability
that I lost because I hadno balance in my right leg.
So it became really hardto get up from the couch
with one leg.
I basically had to like liftmy entire body on one leg

(15:43):
and balance like that.
It just didn't work.
So yesterday afternoon at a part
of the day when I'm usuallydon't have a lot of energy
and power, the afternoonI got up from the couch
by myself with no one around twice.

(16:04):
And in a kinda short, not, not like a set,
but you know, I got up andI went to the bathroom.
This is like, you wanna be able
to do this when you sit on the couch.
I've been avoiding the couch,
but I can, I'm starting to be able

(16:24):
to get up from it by myself.
So things are like on the good side.
Thanks for tuning into the watch The,
the Matter With Mepodcast, probably the sort
of podcast with a lot of naval gazing.
Shout out to Gary Kone.Thank you for tuning in.

(16:49):
Shout out to the SandmanHopping to Hot Sauce
Instant Noodles publishedCyber Truck, dental
Esee RL New story coming next week.
There's a new cat, abarbecuing, not the cat.

(17:10):
There's a new juniper tree
and hopefully we'llget that in a few weeks
'cause we've alreadyremoved the Old Dead one
and so it's like we need a new one there.
Gary Canone
and Hyper Allergic by Lori Waxman.

(17:31):
I'll get that link up on what'sthe matter with me dot OR
Thank you for tuning into what'sthe matter with me podcast
and me email [e-mail].
JOHN at H-O-P-B-I-N-W-O-R

(17:51):
ld.com and I'll give you a shout out.
That's the system.Thank you for tuning in.
Catch you next time.