Archive Recycle Meme

I've been tagged by Lady Tess for the Archive Recycle Mememe--basically, look through my archives and recycle a post...

Hmmmm... this is what I came up with, from May of last year:

Better-er

Well, today the back is better-er. I took something to help with the muscle spasms, and I took NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), and I tried to keep my butt out of my chair, since sitting is one thing that makes my back stiffen up and get hurtful.

There has been much improvement, which means much joy in my neck of the woods.

Under ordinary circumstances, tomorrow morning would be a workout morning, but that ain't happening. I'll go in on Saturday when I have my usual appointment with my trainer--I have every confidence she'll help figure out things I can do that won't hurt me even more, and might even make me better. (This will be A Good Thing, since I'm pretty sure working out on Tuesday exacerbated whatever it was that was going on back there.)

My friend K. is telling me to get my hip checked out. I suppose I ought to; I forget to mention it when I have my checkup. I have a muscle by my shoulderblade that'll spasm if you press on it; before I used to work out, it would hurt every now and again. That went on for years--years--before I mentioned it to my doctor.

I kept forgetting.

Other than that, things are good. No writing, nor even thinking about it, but I read something in Stanley Karnow's Vietnam: A History that helped me understand something about the world of my fantasy--that every society/people has a myth about its origins that has some connection to historical fact, but is not historical fact. This was mentioned in a very non-judgmental, "This is what human beings do" kind of way...and it helped me see how my people, my society, would see the origins of their world in that kind of mythic, heroic, "That was a time when giants walked the earth" kind of way. I know the truth in my head, so it was kind of hard--until this particular moment of reading--to understand emotionally how my characters would see it differently.

But now I do understand.That's really the best part of writing this particular story: everything I read, however unrelated it may seem (a history of (almost entirely 20th century) Vietnam?), can have bearing on what I'm doing.Which pleases my perpetually digging curiosity no end...

~*~*~*~

This post jumped out at me because it's taken me a year, but I finally did get my hip checked out. Like I said last time, I'm getting physical therapy for it (which is really helping). I'm slow, but I eventually learn...

I'm tagging Kim, Cory, and Chris this time...

Wearing You Down

It's funny, the things that'll make you feel worn out.

I'm going through a course of physical therapy for my hip, which has been popping and aching for a while now. It's nothing major--two appointments a week, and some daily exercises to be done at home. The appointments, including the walk to and from the office, take an hour and a half. The exercises take 15 or so minutes a day--5 minutes in the morning, 10 or so at night.

No big deal, right? Well, the thing is, since starting the PT, I've been tired, all done by 9:00 PM, and that's not because I'm getting up so early. I think the added physical activity, as little as it seems, is what's doing it.

However, if I really think about it, I shouldn't be surprised. I've basically added almost five hours of physical activity to my weekly schedule, which more than doubles it. In fact, it almost triples it. So of course I'm tired at the end of the day.

Speakers Matter

A million years ago, when I was a young and foolish sprout, I once said that speakers didn't matter. I truly believed the quality of the speakers--of the whole sound system--didn't matter. Today, listening on my mp3 player to songs I've known forever, I wonder what the heck I was thinking.

Of course it matters. It matters enormously.

Listening to old favorites on a system that allows me to hear all the things I'd missed, all that texture, is like hearing new songs. All those layers, all those nuances, all those sounds I hadn't heard before--it's kind of the aural equivalent of the moment in The Wizard of Oz when things go from black & white to color.

I find myself putting songs on repeat and listening to all the little details I've missed for years, losing myself in songs again. It's the coolest thing, and it makes me very happy.

Divide and Conquer

"The time has come," the Walrus said,

"To talk of many things:

Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--

Of cabbages--and kings--

And why the sea is boiling hot--

And whether pigs have wings."

--- Lewis Carroll
"The Walrus and the Carpenter"

I've decided to maintain two blogs: this one, which will be noodling on any old thing, except my writing, and my new one, which is all about the writing thing. This is me over coffee or popcorn, me on a Saturday afternoon, hanging out. The other is me as a writer, very serious about it, maybe a little less goofy.

Anyway, I hope you'll visit both...and say hello now and again.