Ultranormal

  • We’re ba-aack.

    We’re finally home. I am tired, sneezy, and swollen. Max slept from 8 pm last night to 10:30 am this morning. I guess the boy was tired too.\
    Before I get into the details of our trip, a few thoughts:\
    I am sad Kevin couldn’t come. But the 2 bedroom cabin was small and probably would have felt cramped instead of cozy if he’d come. Since I was vacationing with my parents, I felt no qualms about sneaking a nap on their bed or hiding in their room at night while they were watching bad reality tv (heh, I am not a fan of reality tv, can you tell?). I am not sure Kev would have felt so comfortable doing that (just like I wouldn’t hang out in his parents’ room without his mom).\
    I loved Hawaii and am so glad we went for 2 weeks, instead of the 1 week my dad was pushing for. I wish we could have stayed longer, but also feel satisfied with our trip. I can’t believe that there were still things we didn’t manage to do, even though we were there for so long.\
    We stayed in a cabin that was only 20 feet from the ocean at Bellows Air Force Base on O’ahu. The base which was much nicer than I expected. They had tennis courts, paint ball facilities, miniature golf, hiking trails, kayak tours, snorkeling, craft lessons, free movie showings at the rec center, DVD rentals, fishing, internet terminals, an arcade, camp grounds and more. Of course, the best part was the beach. It was beautiful and really uncrowded. At its busiest, there were only 4 other families there when we were at the beach. If you plan on going though, I would recommend you stay at the Hale Koa, the military rec hotel in Waikiki, for a few days and do all of your Waikiki touristy stuff so that by the time you get to Bellows, you are ready for rest and relaxation without the pull of being an active tourist.\
    More later. Aloha!

  • Little Victories

    I was able to get my foot into the boot yesterday and crutch/walk around the kitchen a couple times. That’s better than I’ve been able to do since surgery (almost a month ago now). Unfortunately, I could only handle it for about ten minutes before everything revolted and I had to take it off.\
    My food really doesn’t like being at 90 degrees (you know, where it’s supposed to be). All the tendons on the inside of my foot revolt if they’re held there too long. So, I’m doing a lot of stretches and still writing the alphabet with my toes a hundred times a day.\
    I have an appointment in a couple hours to see how things are going. I’m supposed to start physical therapy this week, but I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet. It’s still swollen right around the ankle (you can’t see the bone still), and it’s still puffy around the incision (bad sidekick photo). We’ll see what happens.\
    In other news, I’m working on the couch, which is really not the most “inspiring” place to try to work. I hope to be up on the boot next week and back in the office. I hope….

  • A Little Update

    There’s really not much to talk about when all I do is sit on the couch… I had a lovely Thanksgiving over at my parents’ house. I think the infection is gone, although where the doc re-opened the incision is healing kinda funny. I’ll take a picture when Jen gets home, or if I can find the sidekick. Ok, the infection’s not gone, it’s moved to my sinuses, but I’m not really worried about that because I’m on really good antibiotics.\
    I have a new goal. It’s to be walking without crutches, cane or boot before I go to France at the end of February. At the rate I’m going, I’m not sure how easy this goal is going to be to reach, but I’m going to do it. I don’t want to be hobbled for that trip or SxSW the week after I get back. I probably won’t be playing kickball next year, but I don’t want to miss out on anything because I’m gimpy.\
    Jen and the boys get home on Tuesday, and then I’m sure you’ll get a ton of Hawaii pictures and stories. I’ve talked to Max on the phone a couple times, and I think I’m going to try to get him to write some too.\
    I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. Hopefully, it’ll be all good news, because I’m tired of the other kind.

  • Pre-Breakfast Gross Out

    I slept from 10:00 PM until 1:30 AM, and have been up trying to get comfortable ever since. There’s an uncomfortable moment any night I don’t sleep where I resign myself to being awake. It usually happens around 5:30. It’s a horrible feeling, being exhausted, but knowing that I’ve just made the decision to get up anyway and do something (usually that involves checking e-mail and finding something to eat).\
    Last night (this morning?) while I was sitting there trying to ignore the stinging in my foot, I realized I forgot to tell you the grossest part about yesterday’s trip to the doctor. Since my foot’s infected and the previous antibiotic wasn’t doing the job, they wanted to do a culture (stop reading now if you’re eating or feeling squeamish). You know how they do a culture on a surgical wound? They slice it open and jab two giant q-tips in the wound. I had no idea a q-tip could go so far into my foot without me passing out (this is where Dr. Wilson found the “live nerve” he didn’t kill off during surgery).\
    And an added bonus, this morning when I went to change the dressing, it was stuck to the incision so I got to open it all back up again. Hooray for mornings!! Hooray for gore!! Hooray for stinging pain that never goes away!! Hooray for sleeping on the couch!! Hooray for pop-tarts!! Hooray for Dr. Pepper!! Hooray for crutches!!\
    Hooray, hooray… yeah.

  • Vicious Cycle

    First, there was the contamination. Now, it’s an “infection”. I have a fever, I have puss. I have new antibiotics, cultures at the lab, incredible pain that’s making me watch the clock (two hours until I get to take more pain killers), and a slowly creeping disdain for my right foot.\
    I got to watch Dr. Wilson cut into my foot today, which once I got over the weirdness of seeing it happening and watching the blood come pouring out, it was kind of cool. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, although the numbing stuff they put on it didn’t quite do the job.\
    It just feels like moving backwards. I was progressing. The steri-strips were off, and I thought things were healing. And then, the puss, the red, the white… it all came back, and here I am again with an open wound (no staples this time, it’s just sitting there under 8 layers of gauze – oozing).\
    I’m ready to walk again. I’m actually longing for the stupid black boot. My foot is still too swollen to fit in the boot, which means no walking. It means more crutching (my biceps and abs are getting a workout – the one positive I can think of). It means more helplessness. It means creating ways to carry things from the fridge to the couch (under the chin, in the pockets, held in a grocery bags, etc).\
    I’m sorry, there are good things happening. I think. The family’s having a great time in Hawaii (look forward to pictures… be grateful I don’t have a camera in the house). Yeah, that’s about it.\
    update – Feeling blood seeping out of my foot feels really really gross.

  • Trade-Offs

    When you sleep for thirteen hours, that means you miss three doses of pain medication. That probably means you’ll wake up in a good deal of pain (probably because you moved wrong and woke up swallowing a scream). But, part of you is happy and shocked that you got more than two hours of sleep at one time.\
    Trade-offs, man, trade-offs.

  • Love Actually… Short Version

    I am such a girl for this movie. I watched it this afternoon and cried and cried. I blame exhaustion, but honestly, I’m just a big baby. I have more to write on why I’m such a fat blubbering baby, but I’m too tired to write it at the moment.\
    I will though, really.

  • Mikey’s Got A New Album

    I’m a shameful loser for not posting this earlier, but please go check out Mike Golay’s new album. I haven’t heard it yet past some demos during the summer, but if it’s anything like his first album, you won’t be disappointed. If you like acoustic guitar, you’ll love Mike’s stuff.\
    Oh, and you can find his first album in the iTunes Music Store, which was really weird for me. Mike used to be my boss, and finding your boss in iTunes? That’s just weird.

  • Incredible Commentary: Geeks From Another World

    I’ve watched a lot of movies stuck here on the couch (except for a couple nerdy hours today when I went back to work to give a presentation to almost 200 people, but we won’t talk about that now). I’ve gone so far as to start watching the commentaries on movies I’ve seen before. I never watch commentaries. Most of them are really boring. But, I’ve found a couple really, really good ones, and they’re both from the same movie!\
    The Incredibles has a really nerdy animator commentary that’s way too revealing about the neurosis of nerds. You get a peek into the never-perfect (in their mind) world of animators, obsessing over displayed-for-a-second hand gestures and eyebrow raises, gleeful geek-joy at getting to animate a scene with two guys talking in a car (yeah, I know). It’s just brilliant to me to peek into another World of Geeks, full of new vocabulary but the same passion for craft and the same obsessive search for perfection. It’s fun, and really enlightening about the whole process of animation.\
    The “main” commentary is fun after watching the first. The Animators commentary is the “victim” commentary, where Brad Bird (the director) inflicted all of these really hard things on them. In the main documentary you get the director and producer’s justification for the “pain” they caused the animators, and usually with throwaway lines that belie the pain they caused the animators. Isn’t that always the way it is? The idea folks never care/realize how difficult it is to create the idea they come up with. I think that Brad Bird does, being an animator himself, but it’s funny to hear the differences between the two “versions” of the story.

  • iPod Virgin

    I’ve come into some “free money” and I’ve decided to blow it on a sexy black video iPod. Oh, dear internet, what accessories should I get? How should I protect my new toy? What should I definitely NOT get?\
    Thank you and good night.\
    UPDATE: My iPod shipped this morning less than 18 hours after I ordered it! Come on, you sexy beast, come on!!