Okay, so with the new job came new, normal hours. Yay, evenings with the boys! Boo, lost my prime walking time. For the past 6 months I have had a hell of a time figuring out how to get some cardio back into my routine (and boy howdy, I did not realize just how much the cardio was working. Things are fitting differently without it, and I do not like it. I try not to get obsessed with the scale, because that only leads to not-so-great places in my brain, but I've not got money for a new wardrobe). I tried adding extra stuff to the yoga, but all that did was make me not want to do yoga. So last week I was considering how I tend to sleep, and I decided since I'm usually awake at 6 anyway, I might as well haul myself out of bed and do 20 minutes of biking before work.
So yesterday was Day 1 of that. I get up, get the workout clothes on, lace up the shoes, grab the phone and the earbuds, don my helmet, wheel the bike out.
I get on the bike, start to pedal, and the gears slip (I think), my foot comes off the pedal, I have no balance at that point, we all know exactly how klutzy I am; I ripped my ACL climbing onto a jet ski, and I wipe out in the driveway before I even get started. I cushioned the bike's fall, though. Yay?
So now I am covered in road rash. Let's see--the left knee, that has taken all the trauma since I was nine? Badly skinned as a child, ACL surgery, skinned again during the Rafting Trip O' Doom in North Carolina when we all fell out of the boat? Yeah, major nasty scrape all over that. Also some to the side of it. Left elbow is scraped all to hell. I scraped the last three knuckles of my left hand. I also, somehow, got part of my right ankle. I have some interesting bruises along my back and ribs.
BUT I AM NOTHING IF NOT HARD CORE! I took my morning bike ride, baby! And it was nice. A burrowing owl swooped thisclose to my face; I listened to "Tiny Dancer" as the sun came up. I was not eaten by a cougar.
Once I got home, Scott helped to patch me up and off I went to the doctor. This is a new doctor, and she and I have been in discussions regarding my lack of spleen and what that means for my bloodwork results (yay, constant high white cell count); yesterday she was reassured that, yes, this is normal for me, so I'm glad about that.
But. There is always a but. I have a nice vitamin D deficiency going.
(waits for the "Whaaaa?" to fade out. Also points out this is the second round of bloodwork, so I'm feeling pretty confident in the results.)
That's right, all you pale-skinned northern kids can take your porcelain complections and go home--I'm so hardcore I have a vitamin D deficiency in the goddamned sunshine state. If I wasn't honorary goth before, I am now.
The googling about what lack of vitamin D can cause was quite interesting--I am most looking forward to the possibility that I'll be able to sleep through the night again once this gets straightened out--and I'm on a once a week dose of prescription vitamin D. This might take a year to regulate (woot?), but that just means an entire year of inappropriate "D" jokes from David and Jason, so hey.
There are a gazillion possible reasons as to how or why I am, in this way, deficient as a human. I have no idea what really caused it: my tendency toward layering? My lack of exterior windows at this job and the last one? Too much sunblock? Age and weight? My hatred of the hideous light of the daystar? Who knows.
So, in the end, that's me. Everything hurts, possibly because of lack of ... um ... D (heheheheh), certainly because I remain a klutz, but my sense of humor is intact and I get out of "let the child climb on you like a human jungle gym" until the scabs clear up.
(no subject)
May. 25th, 2015 09:24 amFor the record, I want to know where the hell Carrickfergus is, and why Kate is its lady, not its baroness. And why they don’t spell her nickname 'Cate.’ That said, I have no fear of my head exploding without answers, so I call that a win.
(no subject)
May. 23rd, 2015 07:40 amI'm also thinking about doing an experiment and only using my iPad for, like, computer/internet stuff this weekend. Just to see if I can.
state of the Laura: weekend highlights
Sep. 9th, 2014 12:49 pm![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
I haven’t ever thought of myself as a Harry Potter geek, and yet I was all goofy as we walked into Hogsmeade, and did a little geeky dance of joy when we saw Hagrid’s cottage. (FANG WAS BARKING, OKAY? DO NOT JUDGE ME!)
My parents took the boyo to Magic Kingdom for the day, so I didn’t have to have Mom-guilt. I did miss him a lot, though—like, even more than I usually do when he’s not around. It hit the Lovely Husband, too; we spent a lot of time saying, "Oh, Z would love this," or "Z would hate that."
Said Z and I spent Sunday afternoon comparing stories and plotting out what sort of wands we want (even though the wand chooses the wizard and all that; I figure if the Sorting Hat takes requests, so can the good people at Ollivander’s) when we eventually go as a family to Universal.
My other trip highlights include the Spider-Man ride, which was awesome; the Jurassic Park ride (always go on rides with people who are willing to play along); and riding the Dudley Do-Right flume ride in the rain while swearing a lot and making bad 50 Shades of Grey jokes. Because we are very immature.
It was also lovely to stay up late talking about musicals and revenge tragedy and general gossip with Jason. That was probably my favorite thing. Dinner at Tu Tu Tango (art on the walls, dancers, artists painting, and so. much. food.) with three of my favorite people was a pretty close second.
Oh, and …
Z told me today that when he got off the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride, he said a bad word. The ‘h’ word.
Then he paused, and said, “Well, actually it was the ‘b-h’ word.” Longer pause as he waited for the adults to figure it out. ”You know,” he said, “Ron says it.”
Wait. “‘Bloody hell’? You said ‘bloody hell’?”
"That’s the one, yeah!"
This is an odd week—it’s a lot of waiting to see stuff. Mostly good stuff (like, my story goes live on Monday! THERE WILL BE LINKS AND MUCH EXCITEMENT AND PROBABLY CAPSLOCK); possibly good and, worst case scenario, not worse stuff; and not-good stuff that doesn’t affect me or mine directly, but I am waiting to find out how it will indirectly affect me.
I hate waiting. I hate the unknown. I am not good with these things. I would be the worst follower of Earthseed, like, ever.**
But I knew this going in, and so I’ve given myself a very light schedule of to-dos this week (it helps that I have four days off coming up, during which I can clean my damn house), and my mantra is be kind and drink water.
**Read Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. Prepare to cry. And for outrage. Because this is some seriously plausible near-future dystopian sci-fi, that probably deserves its own post.
2. My giddy little dance whenever I take it out to use would make her laugh. (Of course, that makes me want to cry.)
3. Will I ever bake and not get kind of sad?
4. On another note, will I ever bake and not get half of the batter all over myself? This is my second shirt of the day, for god’s sake.
5. Nobody on earth needs this many cupcakes. My co-workers are going to love me. (Assuming these come out—the cupcakes should be all right, but I still have glaze and frosting to make.)
6. Whoever put this recipe together has a brain that does not organize the way mine does—if the first step is “make chocolate cake batter,” then shouldn’t the steps to do so be right there and not at the end of all the steps for the other parts?
State of the Laura
Sep. 22nd, 2013 08:48 pmI've been waiting for what feels like everfor this album. I've been listening to it as often as possible, much to the husband's chagrin (he's not a Bastille fan).
randomness
Jun. 4th, 2013 06:00 pmSo I just sprayed some nasal gunk into my nose, and of course I can't sniff it, so I was lounging in my chair with my head back like Famke Janssen in Hemlock Grove, except I'm this short, round, blonde chick and so very much not Famke Janssen ... and this is my brain, ladies and gentlemen, what can I say.
I was going to post a big long thing about music I've been listening to a lot, but I'm not sure I'm coherent enough for that, so I'm just going to dump some links here.
First off, I'm kind of obsessed with Bastille.
Although this is not my favorite thing--my favorite is actually either "Flaws" or "Pompeii."
And the Bryan Ferry Orchestra version of "Slave to Love" makes me ridiculously happy.
Oh ... wait, there we go, the nose has cleared. I can breathe again! (As I'm sure you were waiting with bated breath to find out what happened.)
Okay. Time to see if the links all work. I will endeavor to be a lot less random in my next post, but I'm not making any promises.
state of the Laura
Feb. 18th, 2013 08:38 amI have work. Scott would have school, but he has no Monday classes.
So yesterday was filled with the promise of Lots of Time to Do Stuff. I had plans: cleaning plans! Photo organizing plans! Bill-paying plans! Writing plans!
And then at noon a migraine hit, and everything turned into taking lots of Tylenol, mainlining soda, and sleeping for two hours before watching most of the Firefly marathon plans. (On the other hand, I also spent part of the day brainstorming the TV show about a rag-tag crew of criminals in a space ship that I'd really like to see with Jason and Scott, so it doesn't seem like a total waste.)
I felt a lot better by about 6pm, so I did yoga and cleaned up the house. I was, of course, awake as hell thanks to the nap and the caffeine, so I got to bed kind of late and am now this morning feeling slightly brain-sticky and sour-stomached. Hopefully food will help. And a lot of water. I want to be well-hydrated, because I have to pay the bills! (Fists in the air!)
Ugh, just ugh.
Feb. 11th, 2013 08:06 amBad night's sleep on Saturday, bad night's sleep last night. Time to break out the Benadryl for a week, I guess. In the meantime, not enough caffeine in the world, y'all, and today is a busy day.
If I keep this volunteering thing going next school year, I'm going to try and shift it to Thursday, because Mondays are really awkward days for it.
state of the Laura
Jan. 12th, 2013 02:30 pmI am attempting to clean the house before I inevitably succumb to whatever damn bug this is. So far the kitchen, living room, and dining room are clean. Next up: the office, the bathrooms, and our room! God only knows when Z's room will get cleaned.
state of the Laura
Dec. 20th, 2012 12:35 pmHmm.
Well, I'll get it done. And if all else fails, Scott likes to wrap gifts, albeit creatively.
Tomorrow, we hope, we get new phones! Scott's is acting all kinds of wacky, and any time anything updates on mine, the phone says there's no memory. It's time to upgrade. I want something with a bigger screen, because I am OLD.
Packages have been arriving, which was driving the Zweeble a little crazy--there was a discussion about the true meaning of Christmas on Monday, and since then things have been much better. Just call me Secular Linus.
Finally, finally, the TV and internet are working properly and not dropping out every 45 minutes, so I'm psyched as I await the Doctor Who Christmas special.
And that is, overall, what's going on in my life. Excitement!
(no subject)
Nov. 4th, 2012 09:13 pmSo, what's going on? I still feel like I'm playing catch-up from earlier in October, but I also feel like I'm getting there. Cleaning the house today definitely helped. I have a bunch of forms to send back to the other guy's insurance company, and some phone calls to make, and there will likely be more forms later, but I'm hoping they're tapering off.
The new car is finally starting to feel like it's mine--it's a 2010 Chevy Cobalt, and for a while there I couldn't really answer when people asked me how I liked it. Out of the roughly 8.2 million cars we test-drove, it was the best, but otherwise I was still mourning my Camry. I really liked my car. Yeah, it wasn't flashy, and it had 100,000 miles on it, and there were things starting to fall apart on it, but I wasn't at a point where I was planning to get rid of it. Anyway, now that the faux-new car smell is gone and I've gotten the seat belt scrubbed down, the Cobalt is cool. The iPod input jack makes me incredibly happy; being able to listen to David Tennant as Benedick without static is ... sigh. Actually, the whole stereo is really sweet.
It doesn't have as many hidey-holes as the Camry (seriously, Toyotas are all about the storage), and I miss the overhead lights in the front seat--oh, and there's no indicator on the dash for the headlights being on, and this irritates me out of all proportion.
I'm glad my long national nightmare of car shopping is over.
Tomorrow I start volunteering at Z's school, in the library. I figured at least this way, I sort of know what I'm doing.
My mother's been getting together with Scott every weekend to do Accounting homework; that means I've been taking Z all over the place to get him out of the house so they can work. This is exhausting, especially since Grandma has joined us in our weekly excursions. But it's also fun, and I know GeeGee loves spending time with the boy.
Got to see
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
It was good to see JC. I miss him. I'm super-happy I've gotten an annual sighting the past two years!
Jason's doing a kids' show! So we're going to introduce the Zweeble to live theater! This is a very exciting prospect.
Then we go get the rental. Not nervous about that.
And somewhere in there, there are phone calls from various parties. I just want that bit over with. I'm going to have to tell what happened about four times today.
I'm still sore, but have moved into it feeling like I slept in an extremely weird position for a really long time, rather than needing to support my neck with my hands whenever I want to sit up. The bruises are blooming, too.
The boy is singing "U Can't Touch This," except he's doing the "U Can't Squash This" version. We're almost caught up on his makeup homework from last week.
All right, have to go get all the paperwork and stuff together for today.
State of the Laura
Oct. 6th, 2012 09:01 pmI hurt, y'all. There are bits of me that I didn't know worked together--like, did you know you actually use muscles in the side of your neck to swallow?--until they started hurting as I did normal things. Plus, the c-collar they used bruised the underside of my jaw, and jammed my jaw up so that, in addition to the stress-clenching I was doing, I've got all the jaw pain back that I'd gotten rid of in June.
But. It could have been much, much worse. According to the EMTs, my trunk was in the back seat of my car. I'll take the jaw pain; I have a night guard.
So now begins the insurance dance, which so far has been smooth. (knock wood.) Everyone I've dealt with thus far has been very nice, very polite, and very sympathetic. (again, knock wood.) I'm not looking forward to possibly/probably finding a new-used car, or the first time I drive the kid anywhere after this, or trying to find my damn glasses ... or any of the other myriad chores that will come after this, but at least I'm here to do it.
If you decide to comment, please no insurance company horror stories, okay? I'm not in any sort of shape to hear them. And no "here's how it could be worse" stories, either. My imagination has been sneaking up and smacking me in the back of the head for the past 36 hours all by itself. Thanks, guys.
(no subject)
Oct. 1st, 2012 08:04 amPart of it is that I don't feel like I got much of a weekend during my weekend--lots of cleaning Saturday, and most of Sunday spent with Scott and my mother trying to decipher his accounting homework and Spongebob as its background music. (shrugs) I can set things up so next weekend isn't like that, but it doesn't really help me with today.
Part of it is that it's the start of another week. Just the start. And Mondays are usually really busy at work, for me.
But, whatever. I shall get through it.
gloom gloom gloom
Aug. 31st, 2012 07:37 amIt's been a long week. In some ways, a long month. I hope September will have a little more routine than August did--I feel like I'm sort of vaguely getting back into my routines, but I want to be more settled into it. I'm tired of fitting writing into wherever I can, among other things.
Now that we (I hope) have Scott's financial aid situated, I'd really love to get him settled into school, too. I think this will be a good year for him, class-wise, since he's doing a lot of the core courses for his program and will likely feel like he's accomplishing something.
Today, I am mustering up the energy for work and then for the elementary school's night out at Chuck E. Cheese. Half the proceeds of the night go back to the school, so we're going. Early-ish, though, so hopefully I won't be elbowing fifth graders out of my way all night.