Everybody Gots Feet

I haven't ranted in a while, and this isn't much of a rant, but trust me, you'll enjoy it more than an account of my visit to the urologist today.

I wear sneakers, generally. Or crocs, or things of that nature. I never wear pumps, or any kind of shoes with heels. I wear princess heels if I'm going to a wedding, maybe. That's it.

Aside from the comfort factor, which is the big thing for me, of course, I wear shoes that make no noise. I became aware of this when I was walking through the school hallway on my way to lunch and I realized that the Land's End sneakers I got on Monday were really squeaky. It wasn't the shoes, because they weren't squeaky at home, or in the carpeted library, but they sure were on the hallway floors. I don't know what this substance is called; it's what you've seen on the floor of every school, police station, courtroom, and public building you've ever been in. Hold on, I'll look it up. Talk amongst yourselves.

It's terrazzo. Back to feet.

So I'm squeaking my way from the library into the math section of the school, where I have lunch, and behind me I hear clonk.clonk.clonk.clonk.clonk. The sound of heels walking on terrazzo.

OMG, I cannot stand that sound. Why is it that women in heels feel that everyone in the whole damn world should have to hear them coming? Or going? Or in this case, shadowing, since whoever this was -- I didn't turn around -- was three feet behind me, matching my stride. There are plenty of women in my school who have turned this clonking of their heels on the floor into a kind of choreography, a kind of showing off, or at least it seems to me. It makes me want to scream, YES I KNOW YOU HAVE FEET! EVERYBODY GOTS FEET! NOW SHUT UP!

(When my kids were little, there was an ad on TV for a toy that was a piano keyboard you put down on the floor and danced on to play music, the home version of that giant keyboard Tom Hanks danced on in Big. At the end of the commercial, a serious male voice intoned "If you've got feet, you can play whatever it was." And K, who was about two, turned to us and lookied puzzled, or maybe annoyed at the announcer's stupidity, and declared, because she knew this for sure: "Everybody gots feet.")

Here are my pictures. I'm guessing you can click on them to see them bigger, but I really don't know. I got this iPhone app that lets you take panoramas. The first picture -- Before -- is basically what the view was from where my desk used to be in the library. The second one -- After -- is the view from where I sit now. The second one looks like it's kind of cut in half in the middle, but it's only the edge of a pillar.









FRIENDS :: ENTRY #2006
READING: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by Davbid Wroblewski

Missions Accomplished

That really has taken on a kind of ironic new meaning, hasn't it: mission accomplished? Thank you yet again, Mr. President.

Anyway, I got a lot done between last night and all day today. I moved all my music off my computer and onto a separate hard drive that I already had, so now I have about half my hard drive free. And it looks like they don't carry RAM for my computer anymore anyway, so all I need to do now is get the new operating system -- Leopard -- and put that on. I'm all backed up and ready to go.

I went to the podiatrist this morning and got my orthotics, so now I have to get used to them, an hour today, two hours tomorrow, etc. And this should really help my feet. The podiatrist is a very nice man, but a little odd, because, you know, feet all day, but I got them and that's that.

And I finally got my tattoo. I'll put up a picture over the weekend; I just uncovered it a few minutes ago and put on its first layer of shiny. It's very simple, of course, and took five minutes. Chi Chi was ready and waiting when I got there. I had a 2.00 appointment and I was home by 2.15.

And it was a day off, which was just so lovely. I slept until 8.00, showered and had breakfast leisurely, and didn't have to rush with my hair or make-up. It was a much nicer day today, after a rainy, raw week, and promises to be in the seventies every day through next Friday.

Okay then. I have Enchanted to watch tonight, having caught up on my Law and Orders until next season, I guess.

Are you really, really excited for chaos? Everybody wave bye-bye and throw a big kiss!

WATCHING FRIENDS :: ENTRY #1761

My Visit to Foot World

I'm home from the podiatrist -- it's about 11.30 as I begin this -- and I'm ... what can I say? stable. (Well, sort of.) He wrapped my feet again, which is the way to go until new orthotics can be made. He says the orthotics will not only let me walk without pain, they will treat the condition, so it improves. But I had orthotics made last winter (which are no good), so I'm going to wait until January to get new ones to see if insurance will cover them. I also asked about the cyst that is growing on my right foot, just below where a bunion would be, and told him I want it removed. I do wear Crocs all the time, but I don't know if any other shoe is even possible now. (Although I have sneakers on now to try it out.) Anyway, yada yada, the podiatrist has a partner who is the surgeon and who is joining the group as soon as his details are worked out, so, fingers crossed that I can have it removed during February break. At first, he thought I was asking about removing a bunion (which I don't have) and said something about being out of work for five or six weeks (!!!!!), but then he remembered it's a cyst, so it's out of work for five days. So I'd just as soon do it during a break, either February or April, so I don't have to take so many sick days.

1.00

Just ran around and did a variety of errands, and made various appointments, too. K doesn't have class today, so she just went to campus briefly for a few things and then came home. She thinks she's coming down with something, which time will tell. She did just go out and run around with me, but mostly she stayed in the car. (They were a lot of drive-by errands, like dropping off mail and getting gas.)

I'm off in a half hour or so to get a haircut. I don't feel so hot myself, but I don't know what it is. If it's what I'm starting to think it might be, let's just say, I am too old for that kind of thing. (And no, not pregnant, god forbid, which would require a religious miracle, not to mention all kinds of microsurgery.) I think there's some phenomenon, like the one where you don't quite remember what labor feels like (or you'd never have a second child) that says once menopause has started, you kind of don't remember what cramps feel like. Once again, time will tell. It just better tell the story I want to hear.

4.30

Home, and home again. Got my haircut and had it styled curly, which on me just looks kind of uncombed, but why not, for a change. Once I got home, K and I trekked over to R's to feed the kitty, since R is coming home late from the city tonight.

My chore for tonight is to give the fridge a really good cleaning out, since we'll need all kinds of space in it for the coming week's cooking, and to make up my shopping list for the supermarket tomorrow morning. One of my favorite things is shopping for Thanksgiving. Everything I'm buying is exactly what everyone else is buying, and it's all stacked at the ends of the aisles where it's easy to find.

So, here's one of the things I wanted to mini-rant about that I put off until today. Have you heard how the governor of New York wanted to start a program in which illegal immigrants got drivers' licenses? This was all kinds of ripped into in the press, and by politicians on every side, and even the governor himself finally gave it up. Now, I ask you: why was this a bad idea? As for me, I would like to know that every driver on the road has been tested and is licensed, in this country. So that's one. Here's another. When there are illegal immigrants in a community -- and like it or not, there are -- they are still entitled to public services like education, emergency medical care, use of the roads, water and other utilities, and so on. But because they can't be counted properly, services are often inadequate to meet the needs of the number of people who are actually in the community. Giving them driver's licenses would help count them. But here's the really big question: if we give them driver's licenses, we will know who and where they are. What on earth is wrong with that?

So. I'm not saying this resolves the illegal immigrant problem in any way, although something needs to. I just think the driver's licenses was a great idea on many levels. It didn't make them legal. It just made them visible. I think it would be a smart idea if we knew who they are. I'll bet police departments everywhere wish they had licenses and showed up in a database. I don't know why every state isn't doing it.

I'll save my other thought for tomorrow. Time to attack the refrigerator.

WATCHING VH1 :: ENTRY #1626

Writer's Block

I didn't write yesterday, and came close to not writing today. My head is just full of rants, and I don't so much feel like posting a rant, so that's leaving me with little to say. Writing out rants -- and I'm full of them in here -- will only make me feel more angry and unsettled, and won't solve anything. So I'm trying to put them aside. I'll see if I can write about something happy.

.

.

.

.

Well, you knew that was coming.

It's been a very rainy couple of days, with a definite chill yesterday, but warmer today. Today felt like a summer rainy day except, of course, that it was still dark at 7 am, and is pretty dark now, at 6.20. So that's pretty strange. I did go out this morning to do a variety of things, and I felt that crocs were not the wisest choice in this weather, so I wore sneakers, which were not so comfortable.

When I got home, I put on these Birkenstocks that I had ordered from QVC that came yesterday; I wanted to wear them around the house to see if I could adjust to them. And the answer is no, so they're packed up and ready to go back, which I'll do on Tuesday after school when I take my box to be shipped to the hotel at DisneyWorld. Yes, folks, it's getting closer. According to my desktop widget, 10 days, 6 hours, 37 minutes, and the seconds are ticking down. I keep tweaking my already packed bags in the living room. What will I forget? My money's on bras, because I keep alternating between two bra styles that I have and both of them are really hurting my shoulders these days, but I'm going to have to remember to pick one and pack a few at some point, lest I end up with the one I happen to be wearing on the plane to last me the whole five days. Did you know that our government, in its wisdom, recommends that you not wear underwire bras when flying, so they don't set off the metal detectors? Yeah, not a pretty sight, I'm thinking. Pass.

I still have to vacuum in the morning and wash the kitchen floor, but other than that, my meager cleaning is done. So I guess I did have a busy-ish day. Looks like a quiet tomorrow, although R will probably come by, since she's got to do her laundry sometime. (And somewhere.)

WATCHING AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL :: ENTRY #1614

Okay, Sit Down

It's not often that you'll hear me commend the ... um ... ahem ... Other Side, as it were, but here it comes. There are many differences, of course, between the Katrina situation in New Orleans and the fires currently raging in southern California, but whatever those differences are, the truth remains that the California situation is being handled much, much better than Katrina was for the simple reason that the government of California, lead by its Republican governor, prepared for such a thing to happen, and is handling it wonderfully. There, I said it. I won't take it back, either.

(Okay, just kidding about the partisan thing, but really, Schwarzenneger, who is not generally a fave of mine, is probably doing a better job than 95% of the country's governors would do. Gotta give credit where credit is due.)

Speaking of which, I was just about to send a donation over to the Red Cross, but I'm wondering if there's anyone better to give it to at just this moment? I don't know, the Red Cross seems to be doing a helluva job there, too. But I'll wait until the Hubs gets home anyway; during Katrina and the tsunami, any contribution we made through his business, they matched, so maybe they'll do that again.

Here in Ordinary World, it's hot, it's cold, it's raining, it's not. I can't even figure out where to set my thermostat anymore, but since the heating/a.c. people are coming to service the whole thing tomorrow after school, I'll let them figure it out.

In the ongoing saga of me feet, they were excellent today. Maybe I have this thing figured out. Crocs and ace bandages are apparently the way to go.

I was on hall duty again this morning during the testing, and I finished all the journals I hadn't read since school started, so now I have to think of something to do for the next two mornings. There is nobody whatsoever anywhere in the corridor I'm sitting in, so I don't even need to use headphones if I want to listen to something, but that means I have to bring in the little iPod speaker thingy. I had it on this morning while I finished my reading. (Which is actually book ordering, btw; my journals consist of nothing but book reviews, which is how we decide which books to buy for the library.)

I keep seeing commercials for this movie coming out on DVD called Meet the Robinsons, and there is one scene they keep showing -- it was in the commercial when the movie first came out, too -- that breaks me up each time I see it, so I guess I'll have to rent it and see if the whole thing is that good. Briefly, a little boy -- a cartoon -- is being chased into a kind of narrow alley by the bad guys, and the main bad guy calls out to his henchman something like Why aren't you getting him? And then you see that the henchman is a Tyrannosaurus Rex, who explains in a very garbled voice (because he doesn't have the mechanism to articulate clearly) "I have a big head. And little arms." So he can't reach the kid in the narrow alley, see? Okay, it cracks me up, and it cracked up my sister when I told her over the phone. You gotta see the commercial; then tell me if you think it's funny.

No other news today. K is in class and the Hubs is at a meeting in south Jersey, and will be home very late. So ... should I go run an errand, perhaps, hmmm? It's dark, and I don't go out much after dark. Maybe I'll be bold. And brave.

But put the wash in the dryer first.

WATCHING FRIENDS :: ENTRY #1612

Oh, Hello

So it was a day like any other. There was testing in the school this morning, and my duty was to sit near a fire alarm box in the math corridor, which is where my bad school dreams are usually located, but whatever. It wasn't unpleasant. The irony only came later, after the testing and once first period had begun, when there was a power failure in two-thirds of the school and it set off the fire alarms and we were all outside for 45 minutes. Just another ordinary day.

My feet were waaaay better today, not lim-o-zeen status, but not bad. So once I learn to wrap these suckers up myself every day, I'll be okay. Apparently what I'm needing here is some kind of super-duper arch support. I guess when that first podiatrist told me I had the highest arches he'd ever seen, he wasn't just whistling Dixie.

So that's pretty much that, except this book meme that I got from fi. I may or many not have done this before, but let me say once again that for someone who really doesn't like Charles Dickens, I have read a ridiculous amount of his work, more than are listed here. I also have an antique set of his books that were my mother's when she was a kid, but I didn't count them as being on my shelves (although they are.) Here ya go.

The instructions are: Bold what you have read, italicize those you didn't finish, strikethrough the ones you hated, put asterisks next to those you’ve read more than once, and put a cross in front of the books that are on your bookshelf. Underline books that are on your "to read" list.

Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
+*Catch-22
One hundred years of solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
+*Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveller’s Wife
+The Iliad
+Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
Atlas shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
*The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
+*The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
+*Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
The God of Small Things
A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
+*Slaughterhouse-five
*The Scarlet Letter
+Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
+The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
*The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

WATCHING LAW AND ORDER :: ENTRY #1612

Oh, What a ...

It was indeed a beautiful morning. I got up just about seven-ish, rolled myself out of bed and took a peek out the window, and got myself together for my practice run to the airport.

This is not as goofy as it sounds. When R went to college up in that area, I enjoyed nothing more than having to drive up there for some reason, just by myself in the car with some good music or an audiobook playing. It's an easy drive, and a lovely one, depending on the time of the year. (Winter is not so much fun.) Because most of the ride is through some sort of mountains, I was expecting it to be especially lovely today.

It was, but not in the way I expected. I anticipated glorious fall colors, but because it's been so oddly warm this fall, I only saw splashes of color here and there. Most of the mountainsides are still a pretty dense green, and almost nothing has fallen yet. What made the ride amazing was the mist, or fog. In some places, it was so thick that I could only see a few cars in front of me. In some places, all I saw was a wall of fog, and then I would round a bend and a magnificent mountainside appeared before me, clear as day. So I really did enjoy the ride.

And the airport? Duh. I had gotten Google directions, not at all considering that something as big as an airport -- even a cute little one like this -- would have all kinds of signs pointing to it. Which it did, of course, so it was stupid easy to find. I'd make it a 50 minute drive from the Other Chai's house, which is where we'll be leaving from, and I'll have to leave time to park, because even though this is kind of like a Wee Tykes Toy Airport, the parking lots and signs are the requisite confusing. I can't even say, Well, I'll see the fall colors when we go in two and a half weeks, because it will still be dark in the morning when we take the trip, but it'll be nice when we come home the following Sunday afternoon, assuming we're not too exhausted to look at the scenery.

Speaking of which, I have achieved totally packed status, excepting only those things that have to be packed that last day (phone charger, make-up, like that.) So that gives your average OCD wacko a nice feeling of satisfaction.

Both of my feet are still strapped, and it still felt wonderful walking around all day with no real pain. But now it's driving me crazy again, itching and sticking. Mostly only on my right foot, but it's all coming off tomorrow night anyway. I did manage to find ankle braces at the store, and I'm hoping that they'll be a decent substitute.

And now I would like to sleep. I can see that it's only 8.30, but I can't say I'm adapting all that well to the shortening of the day/lengthening of the dark. Each year, it's more and more disorienting, which is funny because you'd think I'd be really really used to it by now. We're changing the clocks in two weeks, I guess, instead of this week, or whenever we used to do it. I only know that it was done before Halloween and now it's being done in November. And I'll still need the Hubs to tell me what time to change the clocks to, because a couple of years ago I re-set them all the wrong way. Yes, yes, I know: spring ahead and fall back. But I have a little trouble with just what we mean by "back." Okay, yes. I have a few, as we say, profound learning differences. (This is education speak for she's never been tested so we can't call them actual learning disabilities.)

And that's the day today.

WATCHING AMERICAN IDOL REWIND :: ENTRY #1610

Like Lim-o-zeens For the Feet

That must have been an old commercial for some kind of shoes, but it's what my sister always says when she puts on a pair of comfortable shoes: "Just like lim-o-zeens for the feet." I went to the podiatrist again today, and this time he strapped up both of my feet, and I'm still wearing crocs, so it's like I'm walking on pillows with no pain at all. This is a good thing, my friends. And I saw his diagnosis on my file: heel spurs, plantar fasciitis, pain on ambulation. Sounds great, hmmm? Wouldn't you like some of that for yourself?

Anyway, I had asked him what he thought of crocs the first time I was there and he said "Not much." But today, I told him it was the only shoe I could wear and he looked at mine, and said "Hey, these have straps around the ankle!" and I explained that they all do, but most people wear them with the straps up. He said he'd only seen them worn that way, and his only objection to them was that they had no support in the back, so now we have it from an eminent podiatrist, everybody: crocs are just fine for for your feet, as long as you wear them with the ankle strap down in the back.

The strapping, while it feels great, is really such a pain. I'm going to look in CVS later and see if a foot brace will do just as well, you know, one you can take off when you shower instead of having to wrap both your feet in plastic bags. Since I have my extra bucks coupon in my hot little hand, they won't even cost anything.

I did neglect to mention that Wednesday was also a big day for me: my five year diary anniversary. Part of me would like to tell you all -- again -- how much this means to me and how it has become such an important part of my life, but then I remember: you know. You are an important part of my life. Thanks.

...and ...

later.

Did a few things after school, but never did get to CVS. The strapping is now driving me crazy, but yet still my feet don't hurt, so the feelings are definitely mixed here. I'm predicting a short life for this stuff. He even put the stuff over my tattoo! Gotta get to the CVS tomorrow.

My plan for tomorrow, if it doesn't rain, is to see if I can follow the Google directions to the airport I'm flying out of in a couple of weeks. I'll put something nice on the iPod and the colors should be beautiful just an hour or so north of here. But I'll see how things are in the morning. If I sleep at all late, I won't go, I'll go another time.

And now my foot itches. It's not a good sign.

WATCHING LAW & ORDER :: ENTRY #1609

I AM SO BORED

It's about 2.00. Our fabulous new library software is completely down today, so I can't catalog a book, prepare a lesson, anything. I only had two orientation groups scheduled for today and one of them was a no-show, so other than re-scheduling that for next week, I don't have a lot to do here at school today.

I AM SO BORED.

And cranky. My neck hurts. I'm tired. And more, but what's the point?

Although my feet have been feeling a little better for the last few days. Why? Because I went back to wearing crocs. And that's that. And I'm going to wear crocs in DisneyWorld because otherwise they're going to have to push me in a wheelchair, and we've got to reserve that for the Other Chai if she needs it, because she has very bad knees. And there's no way the Chum could push both of us, y'know?

What else can I tell you? R is at work today and feels somewhat better. K has class tonight, but only one, so she'll be gone for awhile but not home too late. And her late class is cancelled for tomorrow, which is good, because I hate the thought of her walking out into a dark parking lot alone after class at 10 at night. All of her classes meet once a week, and are long. When the Sibs and I took our graduate classes there -- maybe ten years ago; our degrees are dated 2000 -- they met twice a week, but were shorter. So if we took two classes in a semester, we went four nights a week (excuse me while I have my head examined in hindsight) but each night was 7 to 9. Is that right? I don't know; one semester we took four classes. We took our normal two at the college we were enrolled in, so that was four nights a week, and we took two electives that were offered as weekend classes, so each of those took up two weekends. Can you tell we were in a hurry to get out of there? And we were both working full time and dealing with kids and our mother dying. And towards the end there, the Sibs re-encountered the love of her life and all that changed, so when we did our last semester, she was already married to him and they had to wrench apart from each other every evening when I picked her up.

Ah, good times.

And I've still got the knife-in-the-eye sinus headache from yesterday. For anyone who's keeping track.

My big fun today was re-arranging my desk a little, so now my computer is at an angle where the two parts of my desk meet and form a big L. Ah yes, all of this was designed so well. Whoever designed the lovely library and the furniture put my desk in such a way that to use the computer, I'd have to be turned away from the door, so I couldn't both work and keep an eye on who comes in. Good planning, as in everyplace else in the building. Have I mentioned that our computer lab has been pouring heat out of the vents for the last week? It's about a hundred degrees in there. The furnaces in the building haven't even been turned on yet, so where's that coming from?

Four weeks from this very minute, I WILL BE AT EPCOT! I always go to EPCOT first. Here's why:

The classic Disney trip was the one I went on with just my sister a few months after my brain surgery. Now, she had been through all kinds of horrible medical experiences before as well, and had even had a kind of near-death experience at one point. So anyway, I survived the brain surgery intact, more or less, and Jack was paying for the trip, and we were happier than two people could be to be going. And we got there, and checked into our hotel, and went out to the bus stop and really just got on the first bus that came, which was to EPCOT. And we were chattering away, thinking nothing of it, and got off the bus and headed for the entry gates, and all of a sudden, we both turned to look at each other at the same moment and said nothing at all but we both knew we were thinking the same thing: We're alive. We made it. We are okay.

This was a major moment in my life, and in hers, too, and we've discussed it many times and the impact it had on us. And damn if I don't feel that all rushing back into me each time I arrive in DW and make my first stop EPCOT; when I get off the bus and walk towards the gates, it hits me every time. It's an amazing thing, that confirmation that I'm alive and I'm okay. It's one of the things about going there that breathes life into me.

WATCHING LAW & ORDER :: ENTRY #1602

Nice Day, Actually

Had a pretty good day today, notwithstanding the two doctor appointments, but for some reason I've been light-headed and a bit dizzy for the last couple of hours. Whatever, it's not getting in my way, it's just annoying.

I got to sleep an hour later, and then went off to doctor #1, the podiatrist. I liked this guy much better than the podiatrist I saw last year. He was very professional (although amusing.) I outlined my list of foot problems, and maybe fourth on the list was that the soles of my feet hurt all the time. He laughed when I said that, and I told him that every doctor I've said that to has laughed, and then explained that well, at this age, I can expect things like that. He said no, he laughed because he couldn't believe I hadn't said that first.

Anyway, so the bunion that's been growing for all my adult life is still there but not worth doing anything about, and he explained why my feet hurt, and "strapped" one of my feet (like putting a mini ace-bandage on it) to keep the foot in the right position. I have to keep it strapped for a week. He said "You're probably wondering what to do when you take a shower. Call me, I'll come over and unwrap it and re-wrap it when you're finished." Which I thought was pretty funny, but of course, what I have to do is put a plastic bag on my foot when I shower. And take it off next Friday and let him know if it helped. In fact, it helped the minute I started to walk on it. So that'll tell him something, I guess. I have to go back in three weeks, and he told me how to use the orthotics (shoe inserts) that the other podiatrist made for me last winter, and I have to start using that when the strapping comes off. And hours later, that one foot still doesn't hurt.

When I came home, I called DisneyWorld again and was able to change our reservations to what we wanted (but which wasn't available when we first called), so now we have all four nights at the same hotel and the room with three beds. Yay! I finalized the dining reservations, too, and put it all in a chart -- you knew I would -- and printed out a copy each for the Chum and the Other Chai.

And then, very cool, I got to go out to lunch with the Chum, who just got back from Maine last weekend. A most excellent lunch. She is, as I may have mentioned, a Disney virgin, and is getting very excited about the trip, as are we all. So I had a nice visit with her, and then, on to the butt doctor.

Good news here, I still don't need surgery, and I don't need to see him again unless the situation worsens. If that isn't what you want to hear from your butt doctor, I don't know what is.

And came home and got my bills all paid, and then leaned down to tie my shoelaces and the room started to spin. No idea what that's about; I thought maybe I needed to eat, but I did eat and I've still got it, pretty much. Well, I'm done for the day anyway, just one last email to write so that the Other Chai knows what I did with the reservation, and then I'm on the couch for the night.

Here's to waking up with a clear head and no bad dreams tomorrow morning --

WATCHING RAYMOND :: ENTRY #1593

On Beyond ...

(On Beyond Zebra was the first Dr. Seuss book I fell in love with, when I was 5. But I digress. Just explaining the today's title.)

... exhausted. I am On Beyond Exhausted. But at least with good reason today, and not the usual bitching about being old and tired et cetera et cetera. For one, I haven't slept great the last few nights and I wake up feeling like I haven't slept. The real reason, though, is that K and I went over to help R pack and move a bunch of stuff, and you know, her new place is on the third floor. So that's lots of steps for old mom. And inside, there was no place to sit, really, except the floor, and that just creates its own problems in getting up, so mostly I was standing, which is hard on my back and also on my feet.

But we got a lot done, kitchen stuff moved and put away, her shelving unit put together, and even a new Ikea chair assembled before we left. And then she treated us to dinner, which was a nice new experience.

The Hubs is in Minneapolis; he called to say he'd arrived while R was assembling the chair. He'll be gone until late Tuesday. I'm curious to see if this will affect my sleep in any way. Part of my sleep problem is that I'm a light sleeper and easily distracted, if I can put it that way, while I'm asleep. I think if the Hubs is sleeping restlessly, then I will, although if he's sleeping soundly, you could set off an explosion in the room and he wouldn't wake up.

Feet. I mentioned to my sister this morning that my feet always hurt. She asked what I meant by that. I thought for a minute and then I said "My feet always hurt." Was that not clear? Anyway, the soles of my feet are always sore, sometimes more than others, but pretty much all the time. The orthotics from the podiatrist have not made a difference. And yes, I'm still considering the chiropracter. I'll see how I feel tomorrow after school.

I got a letter from my bank telling me that they think someone may have been trying to access my account via the Internet. Really? IT WAS ME, YOU IDIOTS. I'm supposed to have online access, and my computer is supposed to be authorized, but each time I try to get in, it tells me it has no record of this computer and it asks me a sneaky question. The questions are obviously based on my credit reports, because there was an error on my credit report (which I thought I had fixed, but I guess not) that listed my in-laws' address as a second address because it got me mixed up with my mother-in-law. The bank's question was "In what county is [her address]?" Well, shit. How the hell would I know? I took a guess and I got it right, but I imagine it's all these repeated legitimate attempts to access my own account that has the bank all nervous, so I have to call them tomorrow and try to straighten this out. If I have to , I'll go into my local branch where there are actually several people who know me by name, and for years, but I have to call their fraud (or whatever) department first. Sheesh.

If I stop writing and sit on the couch, or god forbid, my bed, I think I will conk right out. My hope is to make it through The Simpsons -- 400th episode tonight -- and then collapse. I'll let you know how that worked out for me.

watching King of the Hill :: entry #1470

Cooking 101

[copied from dland]

Here are my criteria for a good recipe, i.e., something I'm willing to make:

• It has to have less than 5 ingredients.
• It has to use one cooking method. No "brown in skillet, then transfer to oven-proof casserole." It's a skillet meal or a casserole meal, it can't be both.
• No cilantro. If I see cilantro in the ingredients list, I'm outta there.
• No weird ingredients that no one has in their house. No "freshly grated orange zest", for example. No "freshly grated ginger root." Any spice or herb has got to be in my cabinet, or I'm leaving it out.

Okay, so the crock pot experiment turned out well, so I've got something else in there now, a mushroom and wild rice stew. Even the Hubs can eat it, and if he does, it'll be the first time in years he will have a eaten a dinner that I prepared. Don't ask.

This is Day One of a three-day vacation, and what have I done? Lots, actually, and relaxed, too (although the relaxation had a premature end, which I'll get to.) I started at the gym, go me! Then I bopped across the mall parking lot from the gym to the supermarket and picked up tonight's few ingredients. I made a variety of phone calls and appointments (so now the rest of my vacation is busy) and crossed things off my list with mad abandon. I've eaten all the right things, and I've even washed my hair.

Ahhhhhh.

Part of Monday is that K is in class until about 8 pm, so, around 2:30, having finished everything I could possibly do (but one), I was all ready to nap on the couch when she called and said she was skipping her night class because she didn't feel well. Relaxation period over, as far as the couch is concerned, anyway. So now she's here, and not cranky, particularly, but I haven't had my hearing aids on all day and now I'll have to put them on because she's talking softly, and I suppose she'll want me to answer.

The only callback I'm waiting for is from the audiologist's office, and I'll call them in a few minutes. The woman I need to speak to to find out what's going on comes in at two, which is an hour and a half ago, so I've given her time to call and now I can be OCD me and call again.

I've got a handyman coming at 8:30 tomorrow morning to look into putting a door at the bottom of the upstairs steps, the better to keep Boo the Cat from randomly pooping in K's room up there.

I got an appointment with the accountant on Wednesday because there was a cancellation, which is good, because I'd completely forgotten to call in January, and by now, I figured I'd be lucky to see someone in April. I even made an appointment with a podiatrist for Wednesday morning because, man, my feet hurt all the time! Is that part of the delightful getting old process? Because I don't think I've heard old people all my life say Man, my feet hurt all the time! The Sibs says I need orthotics for my shoes, so I'm going. This podiatrist is such an odd duck, though. For one, he answered his own phone when I called, which I thought was strange. I have met him, but I don't remember why; I think I took one of the kids there for something years ago. But the Sibs goes to him for her orthotics, and he was very nice to my parents for the years that they saw him. (He made house calls to the senior citizens building they lived in.)

And that's that. Now, I'm hungry. Aw, I've got a few points to spare, I guess. I just need to find something to eat that'll fill me up. (See, if I'd been asleep now, this wouldn't have been a problem.)

---

Hey, renovatingme, do I know you by another name? If you'd like to email me your password, I'd be happy to take a look.


WATCHING KING OF THE HILL :: ENTRY #1381

In My Absence, I ...

[copied from dland]

I more or less forgot to write yesterday. I remembered after 9, by which time I'm generally semi-comatose, so I thought I'd spare you all the incoherence. And now here I am.

I've been very tired lately, which is not all that different from not-lately, so I took a nice long nap when I got home yesterday. Today K and I went to the mall after school on an errand or two. Otherwise, let's see.

R is in Philadelphia on a business trip. How weird is it to say that? She says she's in an absolutely huge hotel room, which is of course all paid for by her employers. She'll be back late tomorrow afternoon, and is actually taking the train from the city here to Bizarro Town, since the trains don't run at those times to where she lives, and we'll drive her home later.

The coolest thing, though, is that she sent me an image via email of the poster that will advertise the high school's spring play, with her name very prominently displayed after Written by. I am kvelling my brains out here. It's the wallpaper on my home computer (it being still unadvertised in school.) I expect to get a real printed poster from the club to hang. Heaven knows I'll be buying a mass amount of play tickets, since everyone I know will have to go see it. The ILs are even coming up to see the matinee, with the FIL presumably riding around on his new scooter.

My baby, in the meantime, has an interview next week to start substitute teaching. Where? Oh, you know. None of us can get away from that place, it seems, ever.

Speaking of which, I began my career there, at good ol' Bizarro Town High School, 30 years ago today. Just making note of it.

What else can I tell you? Oh, yesterday Media Girl commented on how nice my eyes looked with the eyeshadow, so I'm all psyched over that. Somebody finally looked at me, I guess. Although K told me today she liked it, too. I guess it's just hard to miss eyeshadow; you can otherwise look like your skin has somehow assumed a healthy glow, but your eyelids will rarely sprout a color combination of mermaid/spring rose.

Oh, and it appears I have a new medical condition, because, you know, it's a day that ends in y. For the last couple of months, since I broke that bone in my right leg and was on the crutches, really, I have had this weird pain in my left foot. It hurts when I first get out of bed in the morning and walk on it; it feels like there's a big rock in my shoe, except I'm barefoot. It's in my left heel. Once I'm up and walking, I'm okay, but if I sit still for awhile and get up, it feels the same. I mentioned to the doctor last week only that I have occasional pain in my feet, which she said was probably arthritis, which most of it probably is, but I didn't go into detail about the specific thing with my left heel. Then, last night, for some reason I Googled plantar fasciitis and this is what came up:

When your first few steps out of bed in the morning cause severe pain in the heel of your foot, you may have plantar fasciitis.

Bingo! There's more, but it's like I could have written it myself. So that must be what it is; fortunately, keeping the foot flexed stretches that muscle (or whatever) and helps a lot. Each time I woke up last night (which I do frequently) I would remember and flex my foot and it was much better this morning. I think I'll pass on the medical attention for this one, unless it gets worse.

Not much planned for the weekend, except the gym, I hope, and R tomorrow evening. This is going to sound odd as an afterthought, but I have a graveside funeral to go to on Sunday; my sister's mother-in-law passed away yesterday. Let us just say that she was not a nice person in life, and had no interest in her son, who yet cared for her in her last few years as devotedly as any son could. So there's that, a brief ceremony being held more for his sister who's flying in from somewhere or other than for him. This is a sister who couldn't have been bothered to visit her mother in life for over 25 years. Families are so weird.

But I'll write tomorrow, I should think.


WATCHING REBA :: ENTRY #1365

Schizoid, A Little

[copied from dland]

I started writing this entry twice already, once last night and once at school. Here, I'll give you a little bit of them:

Last Night

So. Feet. I was looking at my feet just before. I had socks on, of course, as I generally do, and I couldn't help but notice that my feet -- my toes, actually -- are sort of round, like the shape of sneakers, or clogs. Are everybody's feet like that? 'Cause you know, you kind of grow up thinking that the way you are must be kind of the way everybody is, and how much do you really get to compare? I mean, how often do you have the opportunity to ask people, hey, are your toes pointy, like pointy shoes, or are they round, like clogs? You don't ask. You just assume.

So you're not sorry that I gave that one up. And now:

Today At School

So I'm sitting in the library minding my own business, as it were, and about eight people troop in, one of whom is one of the assistant district administrators, all of them with clipboards. They cruise the library, making remarks to each other and checking things off. None of them speak to the SCM or me until we say hello, and then the administrator says hello and goes back to her clipboard. (She did ask me if my leg was better, since I was on crutches the last time she saw me.) The others are construction/building people. They're checking off their "punchlist", which tells them what things still need to be completed or fixed in the library.

I pointed out the circulation-desk-that-isn't-one and asked if it was on their list. They were not only as uninterested as they could possibly be, they seemed a little irritated that we would presume to point anything out to them. It was made clear to us that they were only interested in the items that were already on their list, a list which they had made themselves. They said that twice.

Okay, who isn't sick of that already?

Now

Nothing as fascinating as feet or work-bitching, but we do have this intermittent smell of natural gas in one corner of the new library, and I came home with a killer headache, with that as the most likely cause. (We have called maintenance on this so many times that they don't even come anymore to check it out. Fortunately, our new secretary formerly worked in the office of the head of building and grounds, and she called him directly. Unfortunately, he didn't show up, either. Curiously, the building does not have gas heat, so we can't figure out what the smell actually is. I digress.) Anyway, I was planning to go to the gym but oy, my aching head, so I ran one little errand to Bed, Bath and Beyond and came right home. I'm counting as my success for the day that 1) I did not buy any make-up, and 2) I did not go to a mall.

I think I slept for about three hours last night, or more accurately, this morning. I am so getting too old for this kind of shit. Part of the problem -- have I mentioned this? -- is that the Hubs is such a restless and noisy sleeper until he's been sleeping for a couple of hours that I just can't fall asleep there with him until he's past that point. That's why I try to fall asleep on the couch when I can. He falls asleep the instant he gets into bed, but I don't -- clearly -- so I can't even go to sleep before he does, because I could still be awake when he comes in. Until I'm deeply asleep, it takes nothing at all to wake me up wide awake, any little distraction or sound or anything will do it. In the morning, his alarm goes off, he goes in and out of the room, gets dressed and all, and I don't hear any of it. Maybe when I retire, I'll sleep every night between 3 and 7 am, and that'll be it for me. Wait, that's what I do now, except I get up at 5:45. So maybe I'll sleep more when I retire, eh? Yes, a better plan.

Rambling. Head. Hurts. Some.

Tired. Want. Pie.


WATCHING THE SIMPSONS :: ENTRY #1339