ick.

Sooo yeah it's been a week (!) since I last posted. I'm sorry about that. I've been having some major left thumb/thumb pad/wrist pain over the past few days, so I saw my doctor today ... I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. (This wasn't before a trip to the ER last night after work when I thought I had internal bleeding because of some weird bruises in my left middle and ring fingers. But enough about that.)

I've been mondo-stressed about this thumb/wrist pain, it first felt like tingly throbbing (like when you shut your fingers in the car door) and has settled into constant achiness. I don't know if I overextended my thumb somehow or what. The nurse practitioner recommended anti-inflammatory, so I'm popping Aleve once or twice a day and I took it upon myself to get a new sticky bandage and I'll keep it wrapped while at work (which totally helped tonight) and any other time I'm using it. And I'm really going to try to cut back on using the computer at home (and, if I do, avoid using my left hand).

I forgot to ask the nurse practitioner about whether knitting is OK. I'm going on the assumption that if I feel OK, knitting is OK. Unfortunately I haven't felt OK in days. I have to wait until Aug. 1 to see a hand specialist, because that was the next available appointment, which stinks, but I'm really going to take good care of it and hope the pain lessens before then.

Apart from the wrist thing, working out has kept me from blogging. I've been a good girl, going to the gym Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Friday. An hour of cardio on Mondays and Thursdays, 45 minutes Tuesdays and Fridays. I did some light weight work yesterday for the first time, and I'm going to try to make that a regular thing as long as my wrist cooperates. (And maybe it will strengthen it?? I must research this.)

The only downside is all this gym-going is making me tired and I'm not picking up around the apartment as well as I should be! Case in point - instead of doing laundry/vacuuming/cleaning as I normally do on my non-gym Wednesday, I went back to bed after the doc appointment and slept for two hours. Between my general tiredness and relieving the stress of the past few days, I think the sleep was much needed.

But enough about stress and wrists. It's my weekend, and a three-day one at that. I tend to prefer staying at home to going out, but today I am tickled because I got invites for a lot of stuff ... sushi tomorrow, the beach Friday (followed by happy hour with another friend), and a knitting afternoon Saturday for WWKIP Day with a pal I haven't seen in way too long! And I'm already going to the Tides game for KIP Day Saturday night with Josh and some friends and their adorable babe! And there is pick-up baseball before work Sunday. I think all of this will be a perfect remedy to the blahs I've had lately.

P.S. The debacle I mentioned in my last post? I worked out a temporary fix with the credit card company. They're lowering my rate to something much more reasonable, and it may go back to 0% after the next monthly review. So, yay. =)

clumsy fool (or, why I'm getting old).

I smashed my ankle into the side of my bed on Monday and it still hurts. I have a slat that sticks out about 1/2 inch (I put my bed together myself; what do you expect?), and I've usually avoided it, but the other day, it hit the ball of my ankle (for lack of a better descriptor) head on. I cut my ankle slightly, but more painful was the throbbing ever since. I can't even sit Indian style with my left leg on the bottom. Running has been out of the question, so I've taken Gracie on long, ambling walks around Ghent this week. I guess I was feeling brave tonight, it was raining as I left work, and I did that jogging-that's-mostly-your-arms-moving (Dane Cook does a funny skit about it), put my weight on it, and pain shot up my calf. Since then I've had twinges of pain in my heel. Fun fun fun. I'm going to continue to be bull-headed about it and go to the gym tomorrow anyway.

And before I go ... here's a pretty yarn shot!



It accidentally fell off the needles the other night, and I scrunched over it cursing while Josh watched "The Daily Show" beside me. He said "I thought knitting was something you did to relax?" I can't believe it took him this long to say it.

That's much better.

Today Gracie started whining around 6 a.m., so I shuffled out of bed to walk her. I was so surprised ... it was really nice out! In fact, at about 70 degrees, it was practically chilly. Had I had a few more hours of sleep, I think I would've rushed back to my place and put on running clothes. But sleep-running isn't a good idea. So I got a few more hours sleep and put on my running shoes around 11 a.m. Gracie kept looking up at me, panting/smiling, as if she were saying "man I've missed this!" The poor cookie has been cooped up in the house except for our half-block long walks in this miserable heat.

Today is my lone day off. I think I'm going to organize all the knitting/crochet patterns floating around my room with my spiffy new binder and maybe even pick up a knitting project for the first time in almost a week. (Whee!!) Tonight I'm going to a co-worker's barbecue. He just got back from a photography job in Africa for a nonprofit that sets up medical clinics. I am in awe. I want to bring my camera, because I'm sure it'll be a great time, but I'm half afraid to try to take pictures in front of some of the most genius newspaper photographers in the world.

The universe works in mysterious ways.

My last post talked about how I am unable to buy myself more than one thing at a time. Well, without going into much detail, I very quickly got over that speed bump. My iPod might arrive today (Thanks to Josh ... he is the best!) and I am very excited to swoon over it and upload songs to it and create the perfect playlists.

Last night I pulled out a couple of CDs I haven't listened to in about a year: the mix CD I pulled together after my semester in England, and a CD my then-friend Matt made that my roommates and I listened to compulsively during my senior year of college. I can still see one of my roommates dancing around with him, singing "Hotel Yorba" by the White Stripes. (I realize this was two and a half years ago, so I shouldn't be reminiscing as if I'm about to expire or something.) But it's funny how music can conjure up those things.

I think I'm almost over this bug I caught from Josh. I'm forcing myself to go to the gym today because I haven't been there in a week and a half (yikes!). Granted, I've been dogsitting and have been feeling pretty crappy, but still. Admitting that in a public forum is even more incentive, y'know? Then I plan on spending my day off watching my newly purchased movies (True Lies, Benny & Joon and Four Weddings & a Funeral) and crocheting.

the best one of the best ones

Man but the past few days have been great. On Friday, Josh took me to dinner at my new favorite restaurant and I had my second meal ever there - the Louisiana cajun pasta (in a lunch-sized portion, which was still huge - we were there at early-bird time, I guess). We weren't super hungry for cheesecake, though. We were in the mood for gore (!!!), so we saw "28 Weeks Later" and it scared the bejesus out of me, as I knew it would. Despite my poor sleep that night, it was a good movie.

And Sunday was fun ... we went to D'Egg for breakfast and while we waited for our food, we read the Sunday Times. Then at my place, he read some more while I took a few hours to edit some pages from our redesign guide. I love that kind of editing - little odds and ends here and there. It was so relaxing. I came home from work to find him playing Wii golf (oddly his Wii has lived at our house since he bought it last week), and we played more Wii for a few hours before sleep. It was really an unremarkable weekend, but it lovely and perfect to me.

P.S. Today I ran for the first time in a while. Granted, it was on a treadmill and it was a laughably short time, but I just felt like I needed to get something out of my system, and running was the only solution. On my way out of the gym, I stopped at the registration window and on a whim grabbed a class schedule. So tomorrow I'm signing up for a belly-dancing class. It will be good for me and build character, like Calvin's dad always says. I'm wondering whether I can convince any friends to sign up, but I think I might prefer to keep my flubbiness to myself and a bunch of strange women in a hourlong class each week.

P.P.S. The title of the post is from my new favorite song, thanks to the episode of "Scrubs" from May 3. It's cheesy but I love it. I'm surprised "Grey's Anatomy" hasn't picked it up yet.

Exercise: 15 minutes on the treadmill (run/walk), 20 minutes cycling

accountability

There's an easy solution to getting in shape/losing weight: eating less, exercising more. Yet why can't I just do that? I know there are no magic tricks. My friends and I have been going around about this for month: How can we accomplish this? I think my friends and I might be on the right track, though. Nick and I went to Cogan's last night, and over pizza (you don't have to say anything, I know it's bad), we talked about how when we were younger, we'd just go play frisbee outside. Or go roll down hills and ride bikes with friends. There didn't have to be some end goal, we'd just goof off. So maybe we need to make it a point to do that kind of thing now. I know, planning spontaneous exercise is kind of ridiculous. But maybe we should make an effort to go for a long walk around Ghent. Or play tennis at Fergus Reid. That kind of exercise is great, because it's fun, you're with friends, and you're accountable to other people. It's easy to skip the gym when you're not supposed to meet a friend there.

With that in mind, I'm going to try to put a little kicker at the bottom of each post with what I did that day to get moving. It'll keep me accountable to someone out there, even it's just typing it on the screen.

I haven't forgotten about my trip to South Carolina. I want to post about my trip-within-a-trip to Asheville, too.

Exercise: 2.3 mile walk with Gracie, 40-45 minutes (17:24-19:36 pace - it was pretty hot out)