H20 audio

shanel' s blog about her diabetic cat reminded me of my friend mike, who is also diabetic. mike has this pretty crazy insulin pump which is this little electronic device that houses a small vial of insulin and is connected directly to his body at all times. and by connected, i mean its like a little needle (almost like an IV) thats hooked onto his skin, i think its connected on his side or back, somewhere near his kidneys. so basically, he checks his blood sugar levels periodically(by pricking his finger and feeding this sample into another little gadget), and based on this reading, he adjusts his insulin pump so he receives the proper amount of insulin.

we were on tour with the santa clara vanguard in 2003. for those of you who arent band nerds, scv is a drum and bugle corps (marching band on steroids) that tours the country from may to august, competing against other corps. and we basically travel from city to city by bus and sleep/stay on gym floors at high schools. it was probably one of the most challenging/rewarding things ive ever done, since our schedule consisted of 6 hour rehearsals during the day in 100+ degree weather, a show in the evening, and a long bus ride at night to the next city. repeat. i could write a whole blog about my experiences, but that would take too long. maybe later. back to mike....

so we were somewhere in texas and we had just finished rehearsing and we (me, mike, and our friend chris) were in the gym about to hit the showers. so this guy, allen (who is in the guard, and probably lacks the common sense gene) comes up to mike and asks him, "what is that thing on your hip?" (referring to his insulin pump). mike paused for a moment, trying to think of what to say to allen, since nobody had ever asked him before. with the straightest face, he replied "it's my mp3 player." allen just looks back at mike, says "oh. cool. what songs do you have on there?" mike just tells him "just a bunch of journey." allen nodded his head in approval and walked away. when chris and i heard this, we laughed our asses off. he actually believed that his pump, which was clearly connected to his back(since mike wasnt wearing a shirt), was an mp3 player. so the whole summer, whenever allen would see mike before (or even during) showering, he would ask mike what he was listening to, and mike would have to make something up, just to keep the joke going.

to this day, whenever i see mike, i ask him how his mp3 player is holding up.