Oh can't you see it, baby? You've got me going crazy.

It seems my recent medication dilemma has dominated my last few posts. Appropriately so, I suppose, since that has dominated my conscious thought for the past week or so. Now that the issue appears to have been worked out and I anticipate receiving my shipment tomorrow, I feel OK in acknowledging that life is going on and will continue to go on.

Let me start with a humorous story.

The other day, I was on the S-Bahn (Bahn = train) with a couple friends. I was sitting diagonally across from the pair of them, while a rather hefty bloke was seated directly across from me. His dour expression was complemented by an apparent lackadaisical approach to matters of personal hygiene. To put it bluntly, this guy was hating life.

After a couple stops, a pair of twenty-something fellows got into the car. One pulled out a guitar, the other a saxophone. Such occurrences are very common on the rail. The two proceeded to launch into their rendition of Richard Marx’s “Wherever You Go,” a staple on grocery store playlists all across the States.

This development elicited a clearly audible “Sonuvabitch!” from our unsightly friend. Certainly, most of the car heard, including the musicians, as no conversation or very muted conversation is the norm on public transportation here. My friends and I worked hard to keep from busting a gut at this guy until he exited stage left a few stops later.

Now, I normally reserve an emphatic “Sonuvabitch!” for something upsetting like dropping my phone into a puddle or leaving my wallet in the coat that’s still hanging in my closet. Does a couple of harmless guys playing live muzak really need to draw that stern of a response? Is it really causing that much distress? I don’t know. It was amusing to me.

Work is keeping me pretty busy, of course. We had our first home game last weekend. Unfortunately, we got dusted 22-0 by the Rhein Fire (quarterbacked by Drew Henson, for you Michigan folks). It wasn’t pretty at all. Luckily, we have free Warsteiner at the post-game meal.

Not having to travel on Sunday after the game clears a lot of time to get a jump start on my week, so my press release and story deadlines are not quite as stressful. But not scoring any points makes trying to write a positive press release a true challenge to my creativity. On the bright side—or darkly humorous side—I have experience doing so from last NFL season…

One of the major downsides to this job is that I’m missing the NCAA tournament. My favorite sport is college basketball, so missing the tournament is not something I enjoy. Last night, however, I was able to go to an American sports bar with some of our players and catch one of the games.

The first (and probably only) tournament action I saw was George Mason’s win over UConn. Now, like I said, it’s killing me that I can’t see the tournament. But if I’m only going to see one game, I’m pretty happy with the one I saw. I still can’t believe George Mason is in the Final Four.

This Saturday, we travel to Hamburg to play the only winless team in the league. I’m told Hamburg is the best city in Germany besides Berlin. It’ll be our first trip that’s in Germany, but outside of Berlin.

Enough about sports, if you’re still with me. Yesterday, I went downtown and walked around this outdoor museum exhibit called Topographies of Terror that chronicles the 1930s and ’40s Nazi rule. By the time I made it there, the people I was meeting were almost done so I didn’t get to take the audio tour. I just looked around at the pictures (the text was all German) for a bit, but that was enough to depress a person.

Briefing me on the audio tour, my friend told of how the government took all power from the people and made themselves the absolute authority. Those in command obviously knew what they were doing and were quite effective in their methodology of setting themselves up as the supreme rule.

What drives a person/people to desire that kind of power and how does one become so calloused to disregard those that get trampled under along the way? The fact that this was only 60 years ago is even more mind-boggling. Anyways, one wonders if humanity will ever learn from our collective mistakes and what one’s role should be in helping prevent and fix the “mistakes” that are still happening today.

Wow, that got really somber really fast.

Changing gears again, it’s now been nearly two months since I’ve seen anyone I know from before said two-month period. That’s causing a little bit of homesickness. I know that I won’t be back for another 2 ½ months, though, so I’ll push through it. Also, I still have no word on any potential jobs for when I return. That’s causing a bit of nervousness, though I’m still hopeful about Cleveland.

If nothing works out, though, I need to quickly make up my mind about what to do when I get back. Unfortunately, I didn’t take my GRE last year (poor decision on my part), so if I opt for grad school I have some major cramming and hurry-up planning. Still, I am itching for academics again as I plod along in this intellectual vacuum known as professional football.

There’s much to be weighed and determined in the coming months. Pray that I am wise in making decisions.

a temporary sigh of relief

Here’s the promised update…

This morning, I hopped on the public transit to go to the pharmacy and get things squared away. After I reached my stop, I called Customs Woman to make sure I was on the right track. The phone just kept ringing. No answer. That’s not what I needed to have happen.

So I went over to our stadium, which is near both the pharmacy and the doctor’s office, waited about 20 minutes and called her again. She was there and told me that she would speak with the pharmacist to get things figured out.

I went to the pharmacist, who spoke little English, and was unable to explain the situation so she could understand. So she called Dr. D, our team doctor who has been working with me in this whole episode, and he explained it. After that, she was happy to help. Then she had to talk to Customs Woman. After that, she didn’t want to help anymore.

I don’t know what took place in that conversation, but whatever Customs Woman said made the pharmacist back out. I immediately called Customs Woman back, and she just said, “Oh, the pharmacist does not want to help you.”

I called Dr. D, and he had me come up to his office. He wanted to talk to Customs Woman, so I called her again. By the way, every time I called Customs Woman, she gave me a progressively more contemptuous greeting.

Anyways, Dr. D spoke with her and hammered out the tentative solution. My meds will be shipped directly to a pharmacy here in Berlin who will relay the shipment to me. Apparently it’s illegal to ship medicine to an individual in Europe from another country.

Now, all of this progress is necessary and crucial, but I was still sitting here with less than a week’s worth of medicine awaiting an international shipment.

Thanks to some networking back home, the right people in the States got in touch with the German branch of Baxter, which is the company that manufactures my meds.

It just so happened that one of their sales managers was in Berlin for the day. She was able to acquire 5 doses, or 10 days’ worth, of my medicine from their pharmacy here. She was an absolute angel about everything.

For about the first time in handling this situation, someone I was working with (outside of my family) said, “We have to get this medicine to you,” rather than, “How is this going to be paid for?” or “The law says this, so we can’t help you.” (I bet you can’t guess who that last one was…)

So the immediate threat of being without any medication has passed.

Still, we’ve only bought time and still have to get the long-term solution settled. As mentioned above, it appears we have that solution. We will find out for sure over the next several days whether that is the case. Let’s hope so.

In the meantime, I can’t thank everyone back home enough for your prayers, encouragement and creative solutions (thanks, Evan!). From the moment I saw the Baxter Angel in our hotel lobby with my meds, my stress level began dropping. I feel like I could go to bed at 7:00 and sleep all night. I didn’t realize just how great an effect this whole episode has been having on me.

I can breathe again.

medication frustration (and alliteration)

There’s nothing quite like a little drama to spice up one’s life… not to mention make one’s head nearly explode.

Let’s just say the last two days or so have been some of the most stressful and emotionally draining days I’ve had in awhile.

On top of my 12-16 hour days at work, I’ve been dealing with issues related getting my hemophilia medication.

By the way, if you aren’t familiar with hemophilia, here’s a link with a relatively brief synopsis: http://www.medceu.com/tests/hemophilia.htm

In spite of being assured by all parties involved that receiving my medication in Germany shouldn’t pose a problem, it has—and a rather serious problem at that.

With a week’s worth of medication on hand, a fresh shipment sits in the UPS located in Cologne, Germany. Yet the people in customs have refused to give clearance for the package to be allowed into the country. Apparently, bringing any medication into Europe is illegal. Great.

Now, I have dealt with many red-tape headaches regarding my medication throughout my life. The stuff is criminally expensive, so insurance companies hate me and state-funded programs for cover as fast as they can.

I’m like the smelly guy on the subway car to medical coverage agencies. Fortunately, the train is packed enough that someone has to sit next to me at some point, so I do have coverage. OK, enough with this ridiculous analogy (you can tell I’m tired).

Anyways, with all the bureaucratic problems I’ve encountered, few have reached this level. Throw in the language and cultural barriers, and now I’m really cursing the heavens above that I have this blasted disorder.

So I talked to UPS reps, the United States Embassy and NFL Europe people, but came up empty for the last two days. Everyone could tell me that there was a problem and I couldn’t get the package, but nobody could quite seem to tell me why that was or what course of action I could take.

Finally, this afternoon, I talked with the Customs Woman who makes the thumbs-up or thumbs-down call. She seems like a very thumbs-down kind of person. After repeatedly assuring me that she would not allow this package in, I finally communicated to her that I needed to know how I could get a package in. I must have asked her the same question for 10-15 minutes before getting the information I actually needed.

I have to obtain a prescription from a German doctor—no problem since I work for a sports team who has a team doctor—and have a pharmacy here “order” the shipment from my provider in the States. The pharmacy will communicate with Customs Woman and hopefully the matter will be resolved.

I will go into the pharmacy first thing tomorrow (Friday) morning to hopefully get everything set in motion. I’m very desirous that that will come off without a hitch.

I’ll post an update on the situation sometime tomorrow. Hopefully I will have good news to report.

look at my pupils

Holy smokes, friends, I am several days late with my Amsterdam stories and photos (see below). Yet here I stand. Or sit, as the case may be.

We flew Air Berlin into Amsterdam on Friday, which went along uneventfully. The airport in Amsterdam was pretty much a huge, nice shopping mall that happens to be an airport as well.

One of my immediate observations was that English was much more prevalent there than in Berlin. I could actually read signs! And, on occasion, people would walk by speaking English and I’d be shocked to actually be able to understand what passersby were saying.

Following dinner at the hotel, a bunch of the staff members were going to check out the city. Once we got off the train, most of the group immediately decided that the red-light district was where we needed to go.

Now, this wasn’t exactly where I wanted to go, but decided that maybe I could see it for the sociological value of the experience. What I’d previously heard about Amsterdam was pretty much on target.

Even walking down main streets, one passes whorehouse (for lack of a better term) after whorehouse (ditto). Essentially, the women stand behind glass doors in their underwear waiting for/beckoning “customers.” If I can go Holden Caulfield for a moment, it was depressing as hell. I’m just guessing, but a large percentage of them probably aren’t there by their own choice. And even if they are, what does that say?

Anyways, I won’t dwell on that here. I already racked my brain trying to make sense of it last weekend. All the “coffee shops” were amusing. They weren’t exactly Common Ground, if you know what I mean. I didn’t go in one, having been told they’re not the safest places to hang out. I enjoyed the names though—High Times, Grasshopper, etc. Nothing but ridiculously lame puns, for which I am a sucker.

So I made it through an evening in Amsterdam relatively unscathed, even though I was troubled most of the whole next day trying to process all that I had seen.

But Saturday was our first game, so that was exciting. We played in the 55,000-seat Amsterdam ArenA, which is the home of the Ajax soccer team. I didn’t know dish soap played soccer, but whatever.

Our game had the dubious distinction of setting the record for the coldest game in NFL Europe history, with the game-time temperature checking in at 32F/0C.

During the game, I was on the sidelines communicating injury updates to NFL Network, which was broadcasting the game. It was pretty easy, and being on the sidelines was exciting. In spite of the fact that attendance was around 16,000, it was probably the loudest stadium I’ve ever heard. They’re allowed to mic the audience and magnify the crowd noise, a big no-no in the NFL, so that obviously contributed to it.

We took a big lead, let Amsterdam back in the game, but held on in the end for a 33-29 win. Wins always make my job much easier, so I was pleased. Plus I want a huge World Bowl championship ring, and we have to be in the top two teams (out of six) at the end of the regular season to get in the game.

On Sunday, our flight didn’t leave until 6:30 p.m., but we had to be out of our hotel by noon. So they sent us all on a canal boat tour of the city. Apparently, Amsterdam has more canals than Venice, which was news to me.

The tour was good, but I faced a dilemma. I could sit in the heated boat and hear the occasional comments of the tour guide/waiter or stand on the back deck and take pictures. I chose to stand outside and take pictures. So I have some great pictures—I just don’t know what most of them are of. Oh well. We have to make that sort of decisions in this life.

One site they did point out to we picture-takers was the Anne Frank house. That was kind of interesting to see.

They also have a huge bicycle parking garage in the city. I couldn’t believe the number of bikes. They were parked up and down every street. The odd part was that, in three days in and around Amsterdam, I think I saw one bike that looked less than 30 years old. Every bike looked like an old Schwinn cruiser.

We finally got back to our hotel in Berlin about 9:30 Sunday night, and I was wiped out. Since then, I’ve pretty much worked non-stop. So I’m still wiped out. Wednesday and Thursday are my slow days—off days don’t exist—so I’m looking forward to that. I may catch a nap or go downtown and see an American movie in English.

By the way, I was featured on a Browns Web Radio spot on www.clevelandbrowns.com, so you can visit the site and find the clip with my name on it. I just chat with them about what I’m doing over here and such. So if you’re really longing to hear my voice (and I know you are), here’s your chance.

“Oh sleep! It is a gentle thing, beloved from pole to pole.”
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Gute nacht

Anne Frank house

The place where Anne Frank stayed is through the windows just above the green doors.

Amsterdam ArenA

Amsterdam

Today we fly over to Amsterdam. This whole week has flown by. I've basically done nothing but work all week, so I don't really have any good stories today.

Hopefully once we get the first full game week under our belt, everything will get into a routine and become a bit more manageable. I'll have a better idea of what to expect and how to react in certain situations. Of course, a win tomorrow will help the whole following week go a little better.

Our game will air on tape delay back in the States tomorrow (Saturday) night at 7 p.m. on NFL Network. I'll be on Berlin's sideline, so you can look for me if/when the game gets boring!

I'm sure I'll have photos and stories following the weekend. I hope everyone is well back home.

Peace, friends.

it has snowed non-stop for three days

Again, more pictures below…

The excitement never ends around here. On Friday, I had to take two players over to a studio for a photo shoot. The marketing department makes game posters for each home game and wanted actual players for some of them rather than just models.

So it’s on me to tell these football players they have to come pose with no shirt for a poster that’s going to be plastered all over town. That’s the part of my job that I just love. Right.

This photo shoot was hilarious because of the cast of characters working. There’s the rail-thin makeup artist, and she’s wearing all the latest fashion. Our marketing guy was trying to pick her up. You’ve got the photographer with the creative facial hair. The guy in the blazer and blue jeans with the perfectly messed up hair was leaning over the photographer’s shoulder the whole time telling him poses for the guys to do. I’m still not sure what his actual job was. And then the poor photographer’s assistant was obviously a student and was running around all frazzled. I think she was the only one doing any real work.

I never would have imagined that working in sports PR would take me to a modeling studio in Berlin. I just sat there the whole time thinking, “How the heck did I get here?”

On Saturday and Sunday, we had a couple fan activities. Saturday, fans came out to watch practice and meet players, get autographs, etc. Sunday, there was a 5K called Run4Fun downtown and the team was there making an appearance to kick off the race.

As luck would have it, it was cold, windy and snowy both days. After about 90 minutes out in it on Saturday, I could barely feel my hands. Our punter gave me his hand-warmer pouch since my fingers were starting to turn different colors. It’s a good thing that kickers don’t do anything during practice.

After the festivities ended on Sunday, I was able to make it to the Potsdamer Platz area of town. It’s kind of like the Magnificent Mile in Chicago or Piccadilly Circus in London—lots of stores, restaurants, theaters, and such. One of my co-workers from Cleveland (hey B!) has a college friend who is an au pair over here, so we met up for dinner. She’s been over here about five months, so she told me about some cool stuff around town.

We walked over to the Holocaust Memorial just south of the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate. Interestingly, there is little to no conspicuous explanations, just the concrete slabs. I didn’t have my camera, but will return and post pictures sometime. It was very thought-provoking. Since I’ve been here, I have wondered a lot about how the Germans have come to grips with their history and how similar it is or isn’t to Americans still dealing with the repercussions of slavery. Discussion of such matters is a very sensitive issue, though, so I don’t know whether I’ll have the chance to hear a native’s take on it.

Well, that’s about it for tonight. Saturday is our first game, and it’s at Amsterdam. I can’t wait to get the season underway. I’ll also have to be especially sure to hang out with the non-trouble-making/finding group of the team while I’m there…

By the way, Goda, our offensive lineman who’s pictured below, is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He barely understands a word I say and hardly speaks any English, but he’s the most cheerful, respectful guy on the whole team. Whenever he’s in the play, you can always hear him yelling “YOO-sah!” when the ball is snapped. After almost every play, he’s like “Good catch, Lance!” or “Good pass, BJ!” or some other encouragement. What a guy.

at the Run4Fun appearance

Goda, our former sumo wrestler

here

After months of preparation, I’ve finally made it to Berlin.

Note: There are pictures beneath this post.

Here’s what has gone on since I last checked in:

We pulled out of our hotel in Tampa at 7:30 Monday morning for our five-hour bus ride to Miami. There’s nothing like a little pre-trip trip to get things started off on the right foot. Or not.

About 20 minutes down the road, our coach gets a call. The bus had left one of our players at the hotel. Or, more accurately, one of the players failed to catch the bus before it left. Coach, being an old-school guy, said, “Keep driving. Screw him.” Fortunately for this player, he was able to catch a flight from Tampa to Miami and actually beat us to the Miami airport.

So we pull into the Miami airport at about 12:30, got checked in by 1:00, and waited. We like to be early. Our flight wasn’t supposed to board until 3:40. And it certainly didn’t.

In the first 30 minutes of those three hours, I blew the $15 per diem I got for the day. Airport food is expensive, everyone. That money didn’t go far at all. Of course, the $4 that went to gum and a king size Snickers was probably not the most economic route. But I digress.

By the time our flight boarded, I was well over halfway done with The Perks of being a Wallflower (thanks, Caitlin). So the long hours were good for reading at least.

Our jet was easily the largest one I’ve ever flown on. It had the upstairs first class penthouse. Needless to say, I didn’t catch a sniff of that. I did have an aisle seat, though. And they served free drinks. After a glass of wine, a Sprite & vodka, a bit of Bailey’s and a Warsteiner, I thought I’d go right to sleep. I was sorely mistaken. I rested my eyes a bit through Walk the Line, but never really slept. When the second movie came on, I dozed off and on throughout until our quarterback, Lang (pictured below), walked by and kicked my foot. On purpose. Bastard.

When I woke up, I got started on A Generous Orthodoxy—no small accomplishment given the fact that it was 5 a.m. and my body was telling me it was 11 p.m. and I was all kinds of confused. Our flight touched down in Frankfurt at about 6:30 a.m. local time. We had a layover, so Rich (also pictured below) and I went wandering around the airport to stretch our legs. We were fascinated by the bicycles careening up and down the terminal and the smoking stations near some of the gates. I’m not sure if that’s actually interesting or it just was to us because we were just really tired.

So our final flight took off about 9:15 and we were in Berlin by 10:30 or 11:00. The team was greeted by throngs of fans… or at least dozens of fans… OK, it was about 10 or 11 fans. Some local media and team cheerleaders were there, too.

After dropping our luggage and grabbing a bite at the hotel, we were off for our day tour. Basically, our Marriott here in Germany can best be compared to a Motel 6 back home.

Anyways, we first stopped at the team’s facilities. It was quite different than the Browns, for those of you who visited me there. It’s an old brick building with the offices on the right portion and a locker room and trainer’s room on the left. The “gym” is three rooms in the basement with weights and cardio equipment crammed in. The best part is the dank concrete stairwell that leads to the basement.

What’s lacking in the daily facilities, though, is more than made up for by the stadium. Olympic Stadium is easily the most impressive athletic facility I’ve ever seen. Of course, its history is fantastic as well. Olympiastadion, as it is called here, was originally constructed for the 1936 Summer Games under Hitler’s watch. Of course, Jesse Owens won four gold medals in track events at those Olympics, throwing a bit of a wrench into the Third Reich’s whole white superiority deal. The torch from those Olympics still sits in one end.

In addition, the stadium has had a ton of improvements recently looking ahead to this summer’s World Cup. It will host several matches, including the final. Like I said, it’s fantastic.

After that, we went on a bus tour of the city. We stopped at Brandenburg Gate and took photos and such. Some local media was there, so they got to take pictures and have some interviews.

After that, we drove around for what felt like forever. Honestly, I love seeing all this stuff, but none of us could keep our eyes open. The first time I saw the Berlin Wall, I was half asleep, but was awakened by hearing the tour guide say “Berlin Wall” somewhere in her ramblings. I stayed awake to catch a couple blocks worth of it.

Next, we stopped at Checkpoint Charlie. I got out just to wake up in the cold. It worked, and the site was pretty interesting, too.

Then we went somewhere very exotic for dinner: Hard Rock Café. What a cultural experience.

I was in bed by 9:00 and slept hard all night. I’ve had to keep myself from taking a nap all day today so as not to throw off my sleeping pattern.

I didn’t do much but go out to a store for a bit. Highly exciting, I know. I’ll get to bed soon and hopefully will be back on some sort of regular schedule.

Peace.

Olympiastadion

Brandenburg Gate

Rich, Lang and me at Checkpoint Charlie

getting the heck out of here

My last 48 hours in Tampa have been a bit interesting. Yesterday was our final scrimmage and roster cuts. So we've had to say goodbye to some good guys who've been in camp with us the last three weeks or so. That's never fun.

On to odd happenings...

Our hotel runs a shuttle, so I took it over to a Border's bookstore last night to pick up some reading materials for our trip over. I got A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2005 edition edited by Dave Eggers, and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. They were 3 for the price of 2. I can't go to a bookstore and not buy books. It's a fact.

So, upon my purchase, I called the hotel to send the shuttle back over, which the nice lady said she'd do immediately. Half and hour later, I called back and asked what the deal was. "Oh, you haven't been picked up yet?" Um, no, that'd be the reason for my call. So once the shuttle finally got there, the driver proceeded to go careening down the street (40 MPH limit), hitting 63 at one point. I feared for life and limb.

I made it back to the hotel, watched some basketball and called it a night at about 11:30, but our hotel had other ideas. At 12:22 a.m., I was awakened by a strange noise coming from somewhere. Oh, joy! It was the fire alarm, so I slipped on my flip-flops and headed outside. Standing in the 50-degree night in my tank top and flip flops, I had flashbacks to Crawford Hall fire drills. So after about 20 minutes of shivering, I was able to come back to my room. As I lay falling asleep, the alarm continued to go off every few minutes. So I'd start to drift off and suddenly be awoken again. This continued for another 10-20 minutes. Blasted Doubletree Hotel. Don't stay there if you ever visit Tampa.

So Monday morning sometime we'll set out on our cross-Atlantic trip. I can't wait to get to Berlin.

Keep in touch.

oh man, am i a tool or what

I've filed my first video report with Browns TV. You can catch it by going to http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/ and finding the link under "Brownscasts" on the home page. You'll know which one it is. It might take a bit to load, but it's worth it to hear my wonderfully informative report on these "quasi-professional" football players, in the quarterback's words.

You can also read my introduction to the city of Cleveland at http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/news_room/news/arts/5173.0.html where I truly sound like a PR guy (probably because I am).

This is a pretty nice opportunity for me, and it's enjoyable seeing my mug on an NFL team site. Hopefully it adds to my value to the team and aids my continued efforts in convincing them to ask me back for next year.

warning: this post mentions rammstein

Now, I like football as much as anyone (obviously). Slowly, I may even be learning to appreciate the finer points of the game. But, seriously, watching practice for four hours every single day but Sunday is getting a little ridiculous. Let's just say I'm ready for training camp to wrap up and get on with the season. Fortunately, we have just one practice day and one scrimmage day remaining. We'll have Sunday off and depart for Germany on Monday.

I'll certainly miss the nice Tampa weather. To be honest, though, my enjoyment of said weather has been limited to standing outside watching practice. If I'm lucky, perhaps I'll get to go to a beach this Sunday, but that's no guarantee. The whole not-having-a-car thing really throws a wrench into trying to have fun some days.

By the way, anyone wishing to speak with me before I leave should call by Saturday afternoon. Either Saturday or Sunday, the cell phone goes into a FedEx envelope back to the fam. Just don't call during The Office tonight. I won't answer.

Now, on to the Rammstein mention. Each NFL Europe team has a security rep who is from the team's city. Generally, they are former policemen, but Berlin's is a former military man and professional bodyguard. Not like the chump at The Orbit Room with "Security" on his shirt, but more like a personal protector for people in danger of physical harm/aggression. Anyways, when he's not on assignment, he'll provide security for large concerts. I asked him whose concerts, and he revealed that he's been on staff at four Rammstein concerts. Four Rammstein concerts! That pretty much made my day.