Monthly Archive: September 2012

Warning: Very long. TL; DR included at end.

I was responding to a friend who has been tenaciously trying to get me out of the goddamned house and to have food and drink and see friends and whatnot. He’s even offered to brave the Beltway to come get me and – presumably – return me home. As I was trying to write up, for the nth time, why his attempt wouldn’t work, I realized that I probably owe a similar message to several people who I have not seen in [some large time span, ranging from several months to several years].

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Wow. Many moons ago, I asked for the ability to have my audiobooks (generally provided by Audible.com) to magically sync up with my ‘printed’ (generally Kindle) books. While some people agreed that it’d be kind of neat, most didn’t see the use case, because you lose the story-teller side of the narration. However, I find that there are some books where the narrator, while pleasant and certainly easy to listen to, doesn’t actually bring that much extra to the tale, and I’ve been hoping for a  way to continue with the story even after (say) going to bed – without inflicting the audiobook on my partner.

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A rough night all around at … you know, I don’t think we’ve ever named this house. We should fix that. I suppose I could co-opt the name from the Centreville apartment, but that would 1) fail to make the distinction between separate locations, and 2) be rude, since it’s G’s house and all. Worth some thought.

Anyway, yeah. A rough night for me, and for G. And even (kind of) for the cats, as the humans kept getting up and down and thrashing around, all of which required investigation. I am incredibly tired, and yet unable to fall back asleep. So, instead, I shall whine to you, dear Internets. Aren’t you the lucky ones?

(Also, why the hell has my WordPress → LiveJournal plugin stopped working? Damnit.)

I hereby propose that the acronym YAMA (standing for ‘Yet Another Medical Appointment’) be added to the common vernacular. This works especially well, as 山 (yama) in Japanese means ‘mountain’, and those dealing with chronic (or serial) medical conditions know that the continuous treks to various medical offices feels like climbing a mountain sometimes.

The reason this springs to mind this morning is that, thanks to the suggestions of those of you who responded to my query “WTF should meri do about her knee?“, I made an appointment with my PCP. My insurance does not actually require referrals, but 1) I like my PCP quite a lot, 2) I could get an appointment reasonably quickly (Thursday), and 3) she’s well aware of how broken I am, and might just suggest some scans or whatnot to have in hand at an initial appointment with an orthopedist or whatnot.

So yeah. Thursday. Gonna be a long day, as I have YAMA (!) that morning, and am planning to hang out with Jenn afterwards, but hopefully, it will be a useful day. (Not the hanging out with Jenn part. That doesn’t have to be useful. Just fun. And that’s pretty much guaranteed.)

I am growing increasingly weary of waking up not because my body and mind have been sufficiently refreshed by the act of sleeping, but rather because my pain medications have worn off.

(Also, I now have “I’m Henry the Eighth, I am. Henry the Eighth, I am, I am!” stuck in my head.)

I really need to figure out what is wrong with my knee. It does not hurt until I try to move it, at which point it informs me that I should go back to not moving it. Attempting to do things like lever myself from a sitting to standing position causes me to produce sounds not unlike those of a puppy being beaten, assuming, of course, that the puppy knows how to swear fluently in English. The pain is almost exclusively down the front of my knee, which is (I believe) mostly tendon-y, as opposed to muscle-y.

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These days, most of the time, I think that I’ve come to terms with the changes that I (and those in my life who deal with me on a regular basis) have had to deal with over the last couple of years. I’ve had to completely redefine myself a couple of times in that span, and it’s been hard. Hard on me, and G, and my friends, and my (former) co-workers, and the ragtag bunch of people who are my not-through-biology family. But, I reach points where I think I’ve come to accept things as they are, and start to think of ways I can move forward.

And then a run of weeks like the past couple come rushing through, and I’m kicked in the ass and reminded once again how much has changed, and how much I’ve lost, and how much I have to adjust my thinking. And I discover that I’m not quite as reconciled to my reality as I like to think I am. And it makes me recede more into hiding, which is kind of an impressive feat at this point.

So, if I owe you emails or phone calls or visits or beer or whatnot, I haven’t forgotten about you. It’s more that I’ve misplaced me, and I’m digging through the mess trying to find me. I apologize for any inconvenience or discomfort this might cause you. I’m working hard to cobble together a new version of myself as quickly as possible.

Though I suppose much of this also applies to web page layout as well.

1. White space matters.
2. There is only so much room on  a page.
3. In most cases, there are only so many pages that can reasonably go into a book.
4. The more things you want to cram onto a page, the less room there is for stylistic flourishes.
5. White space matters.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go back to banging my head against InDesign.

If you are interested in the crocheted tank slippers that I posted about last week, the creator’s Facebook page can be found here. Probably of more interest, the pattern (and apparently the occasional finished product) can be purchased at her etsy store, located here.

Note again that these slippers are crocheted, and not knitted. Keep that in mind whilst purchasing your pattern.

Many thanks to arr and ardaniel for the legwork.