Well, apparently the Fates decided they weren’t nearly busy enough destroying the southeast corner of our country, and have been playing with me for a spell over the past month. On the bright side, Mom came to visit for ten days last month for my birthday, which, btw, was a fabulous birthday this year, spent with my favorite people. We went to three out of four Red Sox/Angels games down in Anaheim (both Red Sox wins, and one of the Angels’ wins). Unfortunately, on the way home from the final game, my car decided to die its final death with a blown head gasket on the freeway. There were red gauges, there was smoke front and back, it was quite dramatic for a final death knell. Since my mechanic said it was a waste of time and money to fix it, Mom and I hit the dealerships, and I now have a new (to me) car, a 2002 Hyundai Elantra, which hopefully will live at least 14 years like the old one. However, while a new car is of course a happy occasion, the new monthly car payment that came with it makes it slightly less so. Woo.
Of course, now that I have this new car payment (and correspondingly higher insurance premiums), my cat Trouble decides it’s the perfect time to injure her–no lie–left knee. (Why yes, that’s the same body part that’s been plaguing me since last January.) $500 later, after a vet visit and a visit to an animal orthopedic surgeon, she’s now on pain meds three times a day. If she doesn’t improve by the end of this week, well, there’s talk of examination under anaesthesia, and possibly surgery. Please keep your fingers crossed for her if you can spare them.
And as for my own knee, well, it’s about the same. I’m back on the cane in an attempt to alleviate some of the pressure on it while it heals, and I dutifully present myself twice a week to be tortured by a physical therapist, but it often seems like nothing works in the end. It’ll feel better for a couple of weeks, and then go to hell again, and sometimes I know why it went to hell (how was I supposed to know swimming in the ocean was bad for it??), and sometimes I don’t (a weekend spent on the couch knitting and watching dvds should not result in a sore knee, dammit).
It’s demoralizing, to be honest, but there’s a lot to appreciate on the brighter side of things–I still have a roof over my head, and my friends and family are all safe and relatively healthy (knock on wood); I have lots of dvds (thanks to my family’s generous birthday gifts) to keep me occupied while I try to stay off my feet; I have a shiny new iPod mini to keep me entertained (thanks to my generous friends who know me so well); I have an understanding boss who lets me take time off for my PT appointments; and I have a job I still love, even after five years (might even be five years today, come to think of it).
So that’s the state of me.