Day 15/365 : Oh My Feet
Part of the Marching band at the high school is the color guard - waving flags, flipping rifles, dancing around the musicians, etc. One of the things that I did for the band was run crew - we moved a lot of heavy stuff for the kids and by the end of the season, they were pretty good at it.
So they asked a bunch of us to help with the parking. Wow dude. There were two events going on at the same time. The other event was a business seminar of some sort - 800-1000 people.
AND THEY ALL SHOWED UP LATE! ugh. Rude people man! Managed to get everyone in and parked legally, and managed to get people out. My feet are still hurting though. And it was cold as crap out there.
Day 13/365: sick
I was going to try to be funny and gross and talk about the snot fairy, but I'll leave that be. Just woke up with a head full of yuck.
The biggest problem is I need allergy shots. I have two cats and I'm also allergic to dust. The biggest problem with allergy shots is what happened to me when I went to have them in September.
*short version*
I went in to get shots, I'd been getting them for about 2 months already, going once a week. Mold, Dust, Ragweed, Cat dander, and a weird tree I didn't know I was allergic to. Didn't like getting them, but they were helping. Went in with Fae and the kids, which was a little odd because I usually went in by myself. They make you wait around 20 minutes to be sure there's no reaction and then you leave. I didn't always stay, but for the most part I did. I did that day because Fae and Gillian got theirs as well.
Started feeling really warm and uncomfortable and looked at my skin, it was lobster red. I looked at Fae, who was talking to the nurse, and said "I'm not feeling too good" to which the nurse reacted by practically diving across the room, grabbing me, and rushing me back into one of the exam rooms. I sat on the bed/bench/table and put my back against the wall. About 10 seconds later, I started getting tunnel vision and said, "Yep, think I'm gonna pass out" and I started sliding down the wall.
<inside my head>
I'm sitting in my office with two of my co-workers, discussing plans for an implementation of a project we were working on. Detailed stuff, really indepth long conversations. At least a two hour conversation. I look up from my desk, and my Doctor is there. "Weird" I think. "What's he doing in my office?"
<in the exam room>
I begin to slide down the wall, the nurse catches my head and lays me down, Fae grabs my legs and puts them up on the table. Within 3 seconds the doctor is sailing into the room with epinephrine and benadryl, right into my leg. I come to about 3 seconds after that, jerk back, drop away, and jerk totally awake and aware.
In my head - 2 hours. In the room? less than 2 minutes from "I'm going to pass out" to jerking totally awake.
Trippy, to say the least. I waited around an hour, felt pretty good, so I went home. I was calling 911 an hour or so later, started having the same reaction. That wasn't fun, but they pumped me so full of stuff that I think it's still in my body months later 
Day 12/365: be thankful
Some people don't have anything. Some people seem to have everything. Today I want to focus on how lucky I am, not what I have or don't have.
I have a family that loves and understands me, sometime more than I deserve. Tho how anyone can understand me is sometimes beyond me too. I want to revel in the fact that I am relatively healthy, happy, and taken care of. Things come up that throw you for a loop, but in the end, you have to remember that it's what you think that matters, and the only thing you can control is yourself, and your reaction to things.
I'm in the office today, so I'm going to sign off, but I went to go see Beauty and the Beast in 3d with Gillian last night and I have to say, I enjoyed being there with her and doing something together as well as the movie itself. She's doing this as a play in her school and she was excited when Madame Le Gran Bouche came on the screen. She's a wardrobe And it means Mrs. Big Mouth for the most part Perfect.
Day 11/365: Just be happy
I was reading through this article and realized I do some of this stuff, but I don't do some of the things I'd like to be doing more often. http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/most-popular/12-things-happy-people-do-differently.html
- Express gratitude
- Cultivate optimism
- Avoid over-thinking and social comparison
- Practice acts of kindness
- Nurture social relationships
- Develop strategies for coping
- Learn to forgive
- Increase flow experiences
- Savor life’s joys
- Commit to your goals
- Practice spirituality
- Take care of your body
Life is too short to hold on to bullshit, to allow bad feelings to fester, and not take advantage of every moment to tell those who mean the world to you...well, that they mean the world to you.
Too many times we see nice quotes or cool stories on Facebook and then drop right back down into our same old bs. Take advantage of the time you have on this earth and make a difference.
Day 10/365
So I've made it 10 days with a slipup here and there, but I've continued, so that's good. As I write, I'm checking for my 90 degree angles - elbows, knees, and hips. It's strange to sit this way, but if I want to keep doing this for a while yet, I need to sit at my computer correctly.
Went to physical therapy this morning, it'll be interesting to see how my elbow feels when I'm done working. Oh yeah, other thing I need to do regularly, wear my specs. I didn't think I needed them, but things are beginning to get a little blurrier than I like, so on with the glasses.
Need to get my license renewed today, so Fae and I might go do that and grab some lunch.
Work is good, about to clean up some stuff today that will allow us to move forward on several projects, so I'm less anxious about that.
Working out sucks. Gillian was with a friend most of yesterday evening at a swim party at the Y. She was toast when she got home and I used it as an excuse to not do anything. Bleah, not feeling good today, and I think I'm getting another sinus infection, lucky me.
Yeah, this is the only thing keeping me going. Lots of cream, lots of sugar.
.
Day 9/365
I know, I need to take more pictures. I'm still trying to keep up my habit of posting daily!
Today has been pretty relaxed. I was over at my friend J's house talking to his son about a movie that's coming out that I thought looked cool. It's John Carter, based on the John Carter of Mars books. First of all, I didn't realize that it was written around the turn of the century by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Secondly, I didn't realize it was so well written! I borrowed the book from J's son and devoured the first of three books.
His writing is timeless, you get drawn into the book immediately and it doesn't let you go. I thought I'd get discouraged by the futuristic stuff in the book turning out to be modern day cell phones, but he spends time fostering culture, and motive, and plot to such an extent that you feel for the characters and want some to succeed, and some to go down in flames.
Still nursing a bit of a sinus thing, coughing is producing...well, it's just gross, we'll leave it at that.
Haven't had much time or inclination to exercise, but I think I'm going to get Gillian to do some stuff with me tonight so we can get back on track. Had a good week, and nothing for 2 days, so I want to get back on track.
Treebeard is doing well. I've trimmed back some of the small offshoots I don't like the look of, and now that I'm done with Book 1 of John Carter, I am going to do some research on how to train it to grow in the direction I want it to. I need some supplies and some guidance, so I'll be posting that when I get it
Day 8/365
Okay, so I am a day behind, yesterday was pretty crazy. Started out waking up to drive Aidan to robotics, someone stuck a dagger in my eyeball. One of those sinus headaches that make you sick to your stomach.
Problem was, Fae was wrestling with her own cluster headache, so I drove him. At least I could see straight
Spent the rest of the day just trying to get rid of it, and went to see a dance company at Montclair State university. It was the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and while I did enjoy it, I have to admit, I didn't get it. He was narrating from the middle of the stage at a desk while the dancers did their thing around him, but there wasn't much connecting what he was saying to what they were doing, which I think might have been the point. He had some cool things to say and the dancers were very good indeed.
Still had the headache when I got home, but it wasn't terrible so I actually got some sleep after watching another episode of Spartacus (which is awesome btw). My friend J got us a slick as hell Blu Ray player that allows for Hulu and Netflix to stream in HD. Very nice indeed.
6/365
I've been trying to post things on my blog by writing them ahead of time and publishing them on specific days. You have to hit okay when you set the publish date or it won't publish
Woke up late so Aidan was scrambling to get up and get out. Thankfully he made his bus so I didn't have to drive him to school.
Okay, I'm going to break in here with something kind of funny/nasty. Why is it that cats wait for you to come downstairs or get out of bed before they use the litter box? I have two cats, and they've nailed me twice already. One when I first came down and emptied the box - "Oh look a clean box, we can't have that!", and the other once I cleaned that out so I didn't choke. I guess they just want to go in a nice clean box. Little bastards.
So the kids are both off, and I'm sitting down to work, so I'm going to go now. Today should be fairly stress free, plus I have a physical therapy appointment today so I'm hoping she can massage some of the knot out again. It's feeling SO much better today I can't even begin to tell you.
5/365
Went into the office today, traffic was slow as hell, so I stopped at my bagel place. I've been at this job for about 6 years now and my friend A and I stopped there on one of my first days to grab a cup of coffee and I've been going off an on since. http://bagelboyscafe.co/index.html
They have snickerdoodle coffee, which is by far my favorite flavored coffee. I also get a sausage egg and cheese everything bagel, but we're not going to discuss that
It's about halfway to work from home so it's a good stopping point. Did I mention that my commute is 1.5 hours long if I'm lucky. Yeah, each way.
Generally I don't mind it, I'm so lost in my audio books that I don't even notice the time, but yesterday was rough. I dropped Gillian off at before school Band practice, so I didn't leave town until around 7:50. Got to work around 9:30 and went straight into like 3 meetings in a row.
Came home after accomplishing a lot and hung out with the kids helping them study for tests and watched some TV with Fae before I crashed.
4/365
I had my first physical therapy appointment today, and it isn't going to be as bad as I thought. One of the things I am bad at is posture when typing (jesus, I'm doing it right now). I tend to hunch my shoulders up into my neck and lean on my elbows and it's just a mess. This was my second surgery, my left elbow was done 2 yrs ago and has healed up really nicely. It was only as I was getting ready to think about going back to martial arts of some sort that my right elbow started complaining.
My right elbow isn't healing as quickly as the other one tho. I have a feeling it's because I am using it a lot more because I am right handed. The physical therapist confirmed that last night. I've been feeling a lot of tightness in the muscles that are connected to my elbow, so I was worried, but the surgery site felt fine. The tightness wasn't pain, but it was pretty uncomfortable.
So Mary, my physical therapist, put me through the motions and pretty much concluded that while the exercising that I will do would help, what she wanted to try was massage first.
Let me take a minute to describe Mary and me. I'm 6'2", about 230. Mary is about 5'2", maybe 110lbs. She started massaging my forearm and quickly found the knot. "This might take a few sessions to get rid of, I don't want to hurt you."
"Mary, I live for deep tissue, bruise me." She laughed and started digging, eventually getting to the point where she used her elbow. Painful? Engh. Uncomfortable as hell is a better word, but not painful. It's feeling a lot looser today than it has in the past, so I'm hopeful. I have another appointment on Thurs and Fri and two next week so far plus some exercises that will stretch things out in the affected area, and will consequently loosen up my shoulders and neck.