i just got back from my vacation in greece. two and half weeks in limnos, four days in mykonos and two days in athens. 

i know exactly what you’re thinking…not enough time. maybe in mykonos. but overall, i could’ve done another week in limnos, maybe a few more nights in athens. there’s just so much to see, do and time to be had to relax. why was i in such a rush to get back to this life of online courses for the next few weeks? well, truth is, the family booked the tickets together and so we went and left together. 

it was good though. i got to see family, friends, foes, that i haven’t seen in more than seven years. eight to be exact. no foes, i kid. i swam in beautiful beaches, i ate delicious souvlaki, i smoked my brains out with cigarettes to maintain the mediterranean lifestyle, i partied on the craziest island in all of the motherland, and i got a crazy tan to enhance my olive tone.

how could i complain? i’m not! i’d do it all over again in a heartbeat and then some.

but when? before this trip it had been eight long years since i last visited. will it be another eight? i hope not. there’s people i want to see there, there’s people i want to take there. eight is too long. but with so much other beauty and mystery to see in this world, how could i fall into that trap that so many greek american’s fall into of going back year after year and then never see another coast, mountain, sunset, monument on this earth?

it’s sad that some of these people never get to see another part of this world because year after year they spend their summers in greece. visiting their grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. but wait is that sad? or is the fact that i hadn’t seen the people that love me and care for me in such a long time, sad?

you give and you take. life is about moderation and balance. of course it’s beautiful to see the world and experience different cultures, but you must not lose touch with your own. especially when that culture is so rich and beautiful and full of life. 

so maybe again next summer i’ll take a trip out to greece for a couple of weeks. but then am i holding myself back from seeing other beautiful parts of this world? 

of course not, there’s the EURO RAIL!

in a few hours i will be boarding a plane heading to madrid. yes i have been to madrid before, but never for this reason. when i reach madrid, i will go ahead and board yet another plane just hours after landing and will then be heading towards Athens. And just a few hours after that I will be boarding yet another plane, yes another plane, towards the island of Limnos.

if you recall back in january, i was in cape town south africa and my sister had a baby. well just six months later we are all together again and heading to greece, the island of Limnos to baptize that child. Anastasia Danae will be baptized, I will be on holiday for the second or third time this year and I cannot be more excited about it!

of course it means laying in the sun on a beautiful beach. yes it means being with family and in the country your ancestors are from. it’s all of that and more! it’s all of that PLUS! i get to blog again! Do you remember? I use to blog quite often when i was in cape town at the beginning of the year. in fact, this whole blog, helloBos.com, was created while i was in cape town.

so does this mean i will be blogging everyday…probably not. but it does mean that i will have so much to say AND i will have so many photos to share, so you should probably keep up with me. 

i am not quite sure what the internet situation will be for me, but i know this much. where there is iPhone, there is helloBos.

cheers & all the best!
-Bos 

so I know a bunch of you heard that I was in the hospital from Wednesday evening to Friday evening. I’ll give you a quick run down as to the events that took place.

Wednesday, 5:30am - Woken up by painful cramps that felt like twenty people were punching me in the stomach and twisting and turning my abdoman. This lasted easily for about 2 1/2 hours. I was unable to stay in a single position and was tossing and turning. At one point, it probably looked like I was getting an exorcism. I thought it was constipation though, so I put ice on my stomach which calms me down a bit and drink lots of tea. This eventually allows me to fall asleep for a couple hours.

Wednesday 11:00am - I wake up from a nap to the same pains, just a bit less sever and very localized in my lower right abdomen. I still think it’s constipation but I still have no urge to go poop.

Wednesday 1:00pm - My sister comes over for lunch, and tells me that I should probably go to the doctor cause it’s probably my appendix. I call the doctor and his offices are closed on Wednesday so I get an answering service. I decide that If it is my appendix I want to be sure, so I need to rule out constipation. I call up Las Asadas and order a steak burrito and one horchata.  

Wednesday 2:30pm - The burrito was delicious. But I still had no urge to go poop. Now I’m late for my 3:00 class, but I’ve already ruled out going to school for the day. Time to kill some time. The burrito was quite filling and the pain was still there, better take a nap. 

Wednesday 6:30pm - I wake up from my nap, the pain still there. I decide that I should probably play some MLB The Show 08 for a couple hours before I go to the ER. At this point, I’ve made my mind up and will be going to the ER. But I want to avoid having to sit around for a while, so the later I go, the less I’ll have to wait. And plus, the longer I wait around there, the greater my chances are of getting something. Oh and I’m still not totally convinced that it’s my appendix. I feel like they’re going to look at me and say that I’ve just got really bad gas.

Wednesday 10:00pm - I just rocked the house in MLB The Show, now it’s time to get into my car and drive to the ER. I told my parents I didn’t want them to accompany me. So I drove myself. Very uncomfortable drive to say the least. I lit a cigarette and thought that it probably wasn’t a good idea to smoke right before going into the hospital so the cig was short lived. I arrived there a good ten minutes later cause I took the long route. Checked myself in, told the receptionist about my traveling girlfriend. There are not many people in the ER, but of course there’s a few there and of course there is a young kid that is crying his lungs out for some odd reason. I put my headphones into my iPhone and just kinda daze out while watching the late night lineup on WGN which consists of Friends, Will & Grace, some Waynes brother show and some other crap. It was a long 2 hour wait. 

Thursday 12:00am - I finally get called in to get check up on. They ask my on a scale of 1 - 10 what my pain is, I say it’s at about 6 but earlier in the day it was around 12. They take my blood, and my blood pressure and my temperature and send me out to the waiting room. Now it’s just me and another couple. Some time passes and now it’s just me, and my IV. 

Thursday 1:00am -  Now I’ve got my own room in the ER. It’s a nice spacious room. I’m alone, there’s nobody around. The ER is a bit quite for the night. I get into my gown, use the toilet a few times, still I’m in pain. I get checked out by 4 or 5 different doctors, all of them ask me the same questions, and to each i give the same answers. At one point, I think the 3rd or 4th doctor comes in, his name is Kumar. I thought this was a joke, like I was getting punk’d, but he was legit…oh boy was he legit. Anyway, I was glad to see Kumar not come back that night. And each time he walked by I looked the other way. Let’s just say that Kumar got to know me a little better than most people do.  

Thursday 1:30am - 3:00am - A nurse came in and gave me three cups of stuff to drink that will “make my guts glow” for the cat scan that i’ll be having later on. I need to drink one every half hour. They tasted pretty good, I asked what they added for flavor, she said Crystal Light. 

Thursday 3:00am - An angle graced me and decided to offer me something for my pain. Morphine. I asked her if I could listen to my headphones while I lay down, she said if you have Comfortably Numb you should probably play it. I had it, so I played it. I was floating. And for the first time in my life, I realized what Pink Floyd was for, and when to play them. 

Thursday 4:30am - I go in for my cat scans. This machine is huge and I felt like it was going to eat me up. Thankfully not. This scan was going to determine if this entire process was cause i was constipated or if i had to have my appendix taken out. 

Thursday 6:30am - After my scan I took a quick nap. When I woke up my mom was there sitting next to me. For some reason I got real angry. I just didn’t want her to be there, to bother the doctors to ask the wrong questions, etc… Just as I wake up I’m told that I will be going under cause I have appendicitis. It was confirmed. The pain that I had felt over 24 hours ago was definitely cause something in my body was awfully wrong. 

Thursday 7:30am -  I meet with the surgeon. He tells me about the procedure. And to be ready in about 2 hours. Alright. I’ll be here doc. Now I’m nervous. You don’t really hear about people not coming out of the anesthetic, but when you do hear it, you always think to yourself, shit I hope that never happens to me. So that was what was running through my head. How embarrassing would that be. Now my sister has come by the hospital and it’s just a waiting game until they wheel me out to the Operating Room Waiting Room. 

Thursday 9:30am - I am carted out to the OR Waiting Room. This is my final stop before being knocked out and operated on. There was no turning back. 

Thursday 10:32am - The anesthesiologist, Dr. Kim, comes by and speaks with me. I was already sleeping waiting for him so he had to wake me and have me sign papers saying that it was ok to put me back to sleep. I signed away, told me sister and mom I loved them and if anything happened to me let those close to me know that i love them as well. There were some specific things I said to them, i said a prayer and then I was carted off to the Operating Room. Now for those who have never been through this, the only way to describe it is everything moves kind of in slow motion. Everything is as you’d expect it to be, blue and sterile and cold. There is nothing inviting about this area. So I pushed to these doors that look like a set of butchery doors and i can see through the windows all these instruments and the lights and these people wearing all green and i can’t see their faces. I was pretty sure this was it. This was the last of the Bos. There was no way I was making it out of this. This room looked too official. It get’s worse. They open the doors and put my bed next to this table. Literally a table and they kind of life and roll me onto it. There’s hardly room to move so they have to strap my in with this big leather belt across my waist. My arms get tied down to the sides and then the green people start walking over to me.  I’m shivering and shaking and thinking I wish I had more time. Scared for my life and they plug me into the IV. The surgeon that I had met with early walks over to me and says, “Haralambos, it’s time to fall asleep”. Within a matter of seconds I cannot remember anything else that happened after that. 

Thursday 2:00pm - I guess the surgery lasted about 2 1/2 hours. There was a complication because my appendix was upside down. I don’t know how that happened but thats what I was told. All I can remember now is opening my eyes and being in this long line of people that had also just woken up. I couldn’t speak, I could barely move. I was in such pain, I didn’t know what was going on. I was just confused. A nurse came by and fed me ice chips then walked away. I was silent and just looking around, my eyes half open not realizing what was going on, where i was. Another nurse walked up to me and fed me some more ice chips and told me that I just had surgery and that it went well and soon I’d be taken up to my room. A few minutes passed and I was kind of getting a grip on things but i was in no way fully functional. All I knew is I wanted more ice chips cause my mouth hurt like a son of a bitch. Apparently they put a tube down my throat to help me breath. Oh and my penis was hurting cause there was a catheter in it too. They did all this while I was knocked out, including removing it all from my body. Anyway, my penis and mouth were sore and I wanted ice chips badly. So with whatever energy I had I yelled out “ICE CHIPS” to whoever was listening. It probably sounded like there was a sock in my mouth and my tongue was hanging out, so I probably sounded like a retarded but to me I sounded like King Leonidas screaming “THIS IS SPARTA!” in the movie 300. So anyway, I got more ice chips and then I didn’t know what was going on or how long I was there for, but before I knew it, I was being taken up to my room. And All of a sudden I hear this familiar voice. It was my childhood friend Steve Wagner’s mom. I hear her voice, I see her with my half closed eyes and it was the weirdest things that could’ve happened. I mean sure there were more weird things but what are the chances right?  

So I guess the rest is history. I was in the hospital until Friday afternoon when I finally got discharged. The rest of the story isn’t as entertaining as most if involved laying in bed, doing breathing exercises, not being able to sleep, and smelling like a goat.  

Thank you to everyone who called, emailed, messaged, visited, sent flowers, prayed or even just thought about me during this time. There was one email saying that this was a blog stunt, and it wasn’t but it sure as hell made for one hell of a blog if you ask me. I hope you enjoyed reading this. And I hope to God that I never have to experience something like this again.

Cheers,

Bos 

I’m going to make this short because it’s now 11:43 PM SA time and as you remember we’ve been up and at it since 4am.

By now, I’m sure all of you have heard that Koula & Dimitri had a little baby girl. Anastasia Danae Philippou came into this world @ 5:27 pm weighing in at 3.12 kilos. (312 coincidence there? I think not. This baby has Chicago in it from birth!) That’s 6.9 pounds. Baby Anastasia is 48 cm long, that’s 18.9 inches. And she’s so beautiful with a head of black hair and big blue almond shaped eyes. I cannot explain how exciting the entire process was and how much of a blessing it was to experience it with Koula & Dimitri. Anastasia is a blessing to us all. She’s extended our family generation to 5! Which is incredible and so exciting.

I’m beyond myself right now. I’ve attached a photo for you all to see baby and mom and dad. But Maria should have sent you guys photos that I’ve sent to her and asked to pass along. Hope you’re all doing well. Mom, Dad, Baby, Grandma, and Uncle here are all doing well, we’re just all a bit tired. So with that, thanks for reading my emails. I hope they’ve been a day brightener for you all and you’ll surely receive more emails/photos from us soon.

with love,
Uncle Biko

***Disclaimer***
Fellow Bos-Network loyal readers. The following posts, the “phase” posts are emails that are being sent out to my family. They are regarding my sister’s pregnancy, which was the sole reason for coming to Cape Town, South Africa. I hope you’ll enjoy reading these messages as much as you’ve enjoyed reading my other posts. I must tell you now, I will not be doing anything creative such as the quotes. But not to worry, they’ll be back as soon as things get back to normal here. Until then, all the best!
****************

Just thought I’d update you all on Koula’s status. We’ve shipped her off to the hospital where they’re going to induce her. She took a couple pills at 12:00 AM South Africa time and right now it’s 1:20 AM SA time. Mom, Dimitri & Me are all home now. We plan on waking up around 4:30 AM to go to the hospital as they’ll be giving Koula the next set of pills at 5:00 AM and hopefully then she’ll start having her contractions.

We’ve packed a hefty bag, actually a couple bags and a suitcase for Koula. Everything from pajamas to her iPod are with her. We’ll be taking the video camera there tomorrow to film the whole process (thanks Goof for the tripod), so that when they come back and visit us in Chicago, everyone can have a chance to see the birth!

Everyone is doing fine. Mom got a bit emotional, but that’s normal, so there shouldn’t be any concern. Dimitri is keeping cool. Koula seems to be doing fine. We heard the baby’s heartbeat and it’s racing, he can’t wait to get out of Koula. Imagine, 40 weeks with Koula. :-) And I am just dreading having to wake up in a couple hours.

There’s nothing to worry about. Everyone is healthy & happy.

We’re going to cover the entire birth on Film, Camera, Email, Telephone. Everyone will be informed and we’re hoping for the best…soon!

With Love,
Biko

Ok. so we’re all awake, it’s 4:45am and just got off the phone with Maraki. She said she has insider information, coming from the source, of the baby kicking and moving like crazy. Apparently the baby was so active last night that Kou didn’t get much sleep. These are Maraki’s rumour’s take them fro what they’re worth. :-)

We’re starting phase two right now. We’re going to the hospital very soon to visit Koula and see how things are going. The next update will probably be via telephone.

with love,
Biko

PS: I’m a bit grumpy b/c mom left all the windows open last night cause it was hot and now we’re both itching all over out bodies. Does she listen to me when I tell her that malaria flies around at night and bites you? I mean mosquito’s? Of course not.