I started physical therapy! This is a big deal. I think my funk was in no small part due to my having injured my shoulder and the sense that nothing but major surgery would do me any good. I had reached the point where undressing at night was a very painful thing. Nicole finally convinced me to see a doctor, and the doctor gave me a very grave look when I demonstrated just how little range of motion I had in the left arm. But…because she knows a lot more than I do about this stuff, she recommended I try physical therapy.
For those of you who’ve never gone of a physical therapist, it’s a strange experience. It’s much less intense than I’d imagined, but extremely targeted. What we’re trying to do is build up the muscles around the torn…crud, I forgot the name of it, but it’s part of the rotator cuff…and allow the torn muscle to heal. They have me doing very simple exercises work on one muscle and one muscle only.
The good news is that I’m seeing progress. Once I see the needle move, it’s very easy to stay motivated and dive into it. The bad news is that I’ve managed to get myself sick. I don’t think it’s the flu, but it’s really, really nasty. Being the wuss, this has wiped out any gains I’ve made, mood-wise. In my own signature style, I’m now set up to spend the entire weekend in bed in hopes that I will ready to get to back to work on Monday.
I started this almost a month ago and then saved it as a draft because I lost half of the post to a mistake, likely on my part, with the SquareSpace editor, and then the plague that has been, well, plaguing Austin kept me down and deeply, deeply depressed. Today is the first day I’ve felt any kind of spring in my step and I’m bound and determined to make use of it as all good things in this life are fleeting, aren’t they?
The lay of the land hasn’t really changed much since I started this post. We have moved to a new office which is exciting (new!) and disappointing (lousy commute, oh-so-much construction detritus in the air), but overall, it’s a good thing. I share a room with a dude I get along with really well and that makes a ton of difference. Still, it’s work, right? There’s a hard cap on just how good it can be.
I do get to go home soon, and I am looking well forward to that. Since Nicole isn’t on social media these days, she may not even see this, but I’d just like to say how impressed I am with her. I love her, sure, but when she puts her mind to things, she does them and she doesn’t do half-measures. She much better than I am at many things (drawing, writing, costume design, etc.) and I don’t even feel any jealousy over it.
Now that’s an interesting thought: There are people I genuinely resent when they surpass me, or know things I don’t, or whatever. My guess, and it’s a deeply speculative one, is that the more you respect someone, the more you’re willing to celebrate their victories as opposed to feeling diminished by them.
Depression makes reading hard, but I’m at least back to reading comics again. I’m enjoying the two new-ish Kieron Gillen books: “Die” and “Once and Future”. They couldn’t be further apart in tone, but they’re both great reads. As someone for whom tabletop RPGs were literally life-changing, “Die” was always going to be a must-read and where he’s going with it is truly vicious in the way only the best DMs could manage. “Once and Future” is almost a Warren Ellis pastiche and I’m not just saying that because Bridgette McGuire could only be played by Helen Mirren.
Speaking of Brother Warren, his latest installment of “Trees” is an absolute treat. It’s set in Russia, but it’ reads more like Scandinavian crime fiction which is a Very Good Thing Indeed. His rapport with artist Jason Howard has gone from “tight” to “telepathic” which is pretty damned chilling when you wrap your head around the subject matter at hand. I’m also reading Ellis’ “The Batman’s Grave” which sees Warren working within the confines of a character who should, by all rights, have run out of stories. I’m enthralled with the first two issues, but I’m not at all sure where this one’s going.
God help me, I’m trying Final Fantasy XIV. I thought I was done with MMOs and, to be honest, I met be, but I like the characters from (deep breath) Dissidia: Final Fantasy Opera Omnia so much I’m giving it a try. There are some really good bits and at times it feels like Final Fantasy, and at others, it feels like a re-skin of Dark Age of Camelot with shitty DirectX support. So, we’ll see. It’s miles ahead of FFXI in terms of solo playability (no big hurdle to clear) and I really, really like the character generation. We live in hope.
That’s it for now. I hope to go back to being me soon, but for now, I’ll do my best to fake it.
-RK
P.S. Physical therapy is going surprisingly well. They’ve cut me to once a week because I’m a good patient, and I’ve been doing my homework. I’ll be honest: I didn’t expect it to work.