Transitions
It's been a busy weekend, so this may get long, but we'll see.
Written somewhat incoherently Friday night, before internet died:
Well, I'm partly moved in, but on a quick trip to check out the new place I sprained my ankle fairly badly. It's swollen to about the size of an egg. Five or so minutes after the sprain I could walk on it if I was slow and careful, but right now it won't take any weight at all; I had to literally crawl to the refrigerator and the bathroom, which was...not my favorite at all. Eventually hit on the idea of using my office chair as a walker, which worked well.
Monday night, catching up:
Everyone keeps asking me how this happened, but I was just walking down the stairs at the new apartment, moving at a fairly sedate pace, not carrying anything, and on the next to last step my left ankle just....flexed outwards and the next thing I knew I was on the ground clutching at my foot. Monica brought me some ice, I downed an Advil, and then she drove me back to the old place to finish packing. Right after it had happened I'd been able to walk, but an hour or so later I had to crawl to the fridge for more ice and alcohol because the foot absolutely would not take weight. At all. I tried starting the above entry and just fell asleep.
The sprained ankle was/is horrendous, but I worked through it with help. Saturday morning I limped around and packed until Scott showed up; then I realized that this limping nonsense wasn't working and the ankle needed bracing, so I decided to put on my sneakers. I almost passed out getting the left one on, vision greying out and everything, but then I laced it tight and started giving directions. Greg showed up a few minutes later, I mostly carried small things and pointed, and the two of them got most of my heavy stuff moved. Chris showed up as they were finishing the second or third trip; at this point Mailbox Cat, the large animal that prowls the mailbox unit and demands petting, was trying to dart inside to savor the AC every time the door opened. I was calling it a nice little cat and Greg was all "that is not a small cat, that is a bobcat mutant." And to be fair, Mailbox Cat kinda has no tail and is largish, Indiana (our fat cat) has just skewed my standards. Monica and I finally just let it in and it rubbed all over everyone who was helping and coerced petting out of everyone. We seriously considered just stealing it because it's such a great cat, really sweet and loud and full of personality.
Anyway, the four of us went to lunch at Elmo's because we were hungry and I needed some dead animal immediately. When I'm injured I tend to get meat cravings, and this was....with a bit of a vengeance. Greg and Scott had to leave, but Chris helped move a lot of stuff over to the new place with Monica's boyfriend and his roommate, and then Mike (from kung fu) texted me saying that he'd help for brownies, so I told him to come over. Both of them got minionized into cleaning a few things I couldn't reach as a gimp (the inside of the microwave, the laundry shelf), and I finished cleaning the kitchen. We apparently had mice, and if I never see mouse droppings again I may die happy.
The three of us finished moving things, and then realized that Monica had gotten me a compression bandage; I took my sneaker off to put that on and both of the boys just....dropped their jaws. I went "what?" and they made me look at my ankle, which was horrifically red and purple. I made faces at it, got help with the bandage, and told them to stop freaking out. We dropped off the keys at the rental agency and went to dinner. For the record: the meatball subs at Firehouse Subs are delicious. Nom nom nom forever.
At this point Mike and Chris decided that I was slightly high on Advil (no, I had not gone over the recommended dosage even) and tried to take me home and I declared that no, I was good to go to Wal-Mart as planned for things like a new shower curtain and some wiring stuff to make my awesome globe lamp work again.
Chris rewired the top of my lamp, carefully explaining what he was doing so I could learn, and I was all "yeah, you are funny with the delusion that my sleepy brain is hearing anything that's not about how magic will make my lamp work again." We sat around and talked about how American public education is flawed (many ways). Then I took the bandage off to check on my ankle and the bruising was even worse because of the compression bandage (which had been awesome at helping me walk). He took a picture. Yes, I was wearing clothes. You try moving in June wearing pants. :P
Sunday was okay; I showed up at fu with a pillow and ice, flashed my ankle at people to watch them make scared faces, had fun. Rachel took me back to their house and installed me in the giant cuddle chair. I tried to get up a few times and was prevented; she made me pasta and got me drinks, the works. It was a little embarrassing, but resting my ankle was so nice. I ended up borrowing her pajama pants and spacing out a lot during gaming, but once again my grenade launcher was wicked successful. Last mission it killed the mages, this time it blew up a car. ^^ Greg went off to get coffee to help his headache, and while he was out Rachel asked him to get two glazed Munchkins. He brought back a box of twenty-five and I went all sugar-junkie on....ten or twelve of them. There was still no internet when I got home, so I propped my foot and read with Celtic music in the background. It was absurdly peaceful and nice, and it makes me want to read more. I may have to block off one internet-free evening a week for this.
I think a lot of you have heard this via facebook-stalking, but Monday was great because now I'm employed! Next Tuesday I start working part-time at an excellent small used bookstore with cats, great starting pay, employee discounts, and a really friendly staff. I wrote a follow-up e-mail to the paid internship I interviewed for the week before last and am hoping to hear back from them too, but I'm also basking in the reassurance that this job is more or less permanent until I want to leave. If I get the amount of hours that they said, I'll be able to cover rent, utilities, and food and still save a little bit at a time. After really digging into how much publishing work there is in Chapel Hill, I'm confident that if I keep looking I can get my foot in the door.
My ankle is still a little sore and the bruises look awful, but it's feeling a lot better; no hikes for me, but I can definitely put some weight on it. This is normally the part where I promise to update more, but that falls through, so....we'll see. I have time and interesting things in my life now, so the loose goal is an update every 2-3 weeks.
Written somewhat incoherently Friday night, before internet died:
Well, I'm partly moved in, but on a quick trip to check out the new place I sprained my ankle fairly badly. It's swollen to about the size of an egg. Five or so minutes after the sprain I could walk on it if I was slow and careful, but right now it won't take any weight at all; I had to literally crawl to the refrigerator and the bathroom, which was...not my favorite at all. Eventually hit on the idea of using my office chair as a walker, which worked well.
Monday night, catching up:
Everyone keeps asking me how this happened, but I was just walking down the stairs at the new apartment, moving at a fairly sedate pace, not carrying anything, and on the next to last step my left ankle just....flexed outwards and the next thing I knew I was on the ground clutching at my foot. Monica brought me some ice, I downed an Advil, and then she drove me back to the old place to finish packing. Right after it had happened I'd been able to walk, but an hour or so later I had to crawl to the fridge for more ice and alcohol because the foot absolutely would not take weight. At all. I tried starting the above entry and just fell asleep.
The sprained ankle was/is horrendous, but I worked through it with help. Saturday morning I limped around and packed until Scott showed up; then I realized that this limping nonsense wasn't working and the ankle needed bracing, so I decided to put on my sneakers. I almost passed out getting the left one on, vision greying out and everything, but then I laced it tight and started giving directions. Greg showed up a few minutes later, I mostly carried small things and pointed, and the two of them got most of my heavy stuff moved. Chris showed up as they were finishing the second or third trip; at this point Mailbox Cat, the large animal that prowls the mailbox unit and demands petting, was trying to dart inside to savor the AC every time the door opened. I was calling it a nice little cat and Greg was all "that is not a small cat, that is a bobcat mutant." And to be fair, Mailbox Cat kinda has no tail and is largish, Indiana (our fat cat) has just skewed my standards. Monica and I finally just let it in and it rubbed all over everyone who was helping and coerced petting out of everyone. We seriously considered just stealing it because it's such a great cat, really sweet and loud and full of personality.
Anyway, the four of us went to lunch at Elmo's because we were hungry and I needed some dead animal immediately. When I'm injured I tend to get meat cravings, and this was....with a bit of a vengeance. Greg and Scott had to leave, but Chris helped move a lot of stuff over to the new place with Monica's boyfriend and his roommate, and then Mike (from kung fu) texted me saying that he'd help for brownies, so I told him to come over. Both of them got minionized into cleaning a few things I couldn't reach as a gimp (the inside of the microwave, the laundry shelf), and I finished cleaning the kitchen. We apparently had mice, and if I never see mouse droppings again I may die happy.
The three of us finished moving things, and then realized that Monica had gotten me a compression bandage; I took my sneaker off to put that on and both of the boys just....dropped their jaws. I went "what?" and they made me look at my ankle, which was horrifically red and purple. I made faces at it, got help with the bandage, and told them to stop freaking out. We dropped off the keys at the rental agency and went to dinner. For the record: the meatball subs at Firehouse Subs are delicious. Nom nom nom forever.
At this point Mike and Chris decided that I was slightly high on Advil (no, I had not gone over the recommended dosage even) and tried to take me home and I declared that no, I was good to go to Wal-Mart as planned for things like a new shower curtain and some wiring stuff to make my awesome globe lamp work again.
Chris rewired the top of my lamp, carefully explaining what he was doing so I could learn, and I was all "yeah, you are funny with the delusion that my sleepy brain is hearing anything that's not about how magic will make my lamp work again." We sat around and talked about how American public education is flawed (many ways). Then I took the bandage off to check on my ankle and the bruising was even worse because of the compression bandage (which had been awesome at helping me walk). He took a picture. Yes, I was wearing clothes. You try moving in June wearing pants. :P
Sunday was okay; I showed up at fu with a pillow and ice, flashed my ankle at people to watch them make scared faces, had fun. Rachel took me back to their house and installed me in the giant cuddle chair. I tried to get up a few times and was prevented; she made me pasta and got me drinks, the works. It was a little embarrassing, but resting my ankle was so nice. I ended up borrowing her pajama pants and spacing out a lot during gaming, but once again my grenade launcher was wicked successful. Last mission it killed the mages, this time it blew up a car. ^^ Greg went off to get coffee to help his headache, and while he was out Rachel asked him to get two glazed Munchkins. He brought back a box of twenty-five and I went all sugar-junkie on....ten or twelve of them. There was still no internet when I got home, so I propped my foot and read with Celtic music in the background. It was absurdly peaceful and nice, and it makes me want to read more. I may have to block off one internet-free evening a week for this.
I think a lot of you have heard this via facebook-stalking, but Monday was great because now I'm employed! Next Tuesday I start working part-time at an excellent small used bookstore with cats, great starting pay, employee discounts, and a really friendly staff. I wrote a follow-up e-mail to the paid internship I interviewed for the week before last and am hoping to hear back from them too, but I'm also basking in the reassurance that this job is more or less permanent until I want to leave. If I get the amount of hours that they said, I'll be able to cover rent, utilities, and food and still save a little bit at a time. After really digging into how much publishing work there is in Chapel Hill, I'm confident that if I keep looking I can get my foot in the door.
My ankle is still a little sore and the bruises look awful, but it's feeling a lot better; no hikes for me, but I can definitely put some weight on it. This is normally the part where I promise to update more, but that falls through, so....we'll see. I have time and interesting things in my life now, so the loose goal is an update every 2-3 weeks.