Friday

Wednesday night I started having this really bad muscle pain in my right shoulder and chest. It's definitely muscular so I didn't worry about it being anything dire. Just pain.

Yesterday morning I tried to get out of bed to satisfy a demanding kitty cat who thinks I'm supposed to be out of bed when the sun is up and in bed the minute it gets dark. For whatever reason, my body was out of the bed before my feet were solidly under me and I hit the ground hard. Gravity is not my friend.

As a result I've been curled up with the demon heating pad since yesterday morning and every time I've tried to stand up, it's been with a lot of groaning and moaning and let me just tell you... the cats do NOT care. They just look at me and roll their eyes. I can't really use my core muscles to sit up because it hurts my back and aggravates the hernia (or whatever that gut pain is) so I rely largely on my right hand to push up into a standing position and it is no bueno. Makes me not want to move.

Austin has had several friends over this week. I got tired of that Basement Clown Posse during the Summer but honestly, it's healthy for him to have friends and want to hang out with friends and I like that his friends like to be here. Most of his buddies have been sort of sidetracked by work and girlfriends and the kind of things that slowly evolve to be our priorities as we grow older and he's missed his guys. So it's been good having them here. Austin's been good about taking care of his chores even when he has company so I have no complaints...

Other than the new pain that came from hitting the ground hard yesterday morning.

I swear, it feels like the same pain I've had in my lower back now has an additional location in my upper back. I suppose it is possible for the same kind of things that impact the lower part could impact the upper part. The worst part is that I know that the real discomfort comes a day or two past impact.

Without sounding crazy (although let's be honest, that ship sailed within my first year of blogging) I can see why God would allow me to not be at my best for next week's evaluation and I'm glad. I don't want to suffer but I also don't want to go in on the best day I've had in months and give a false impression of my abilities.
That's my rationalization anyways... but the bottom line is that I'm so aggravated with my clumsy self.

Despite all of that... this morning I finally made my first pound cake. I had achieved maximum pain relief and wanted something sweet to eat. We're out of sweets and I won't drive while impaired so I thought... "pound cake sounds good". I used a pretty basic recipe and swapped out milk for eggnog, added freshly grated nutmeg and some rum flavoring and although it's a tad bit underdone in one spot, it is the BEST cake I've ever had. Turns out I CAN bake, after all!

I finished watching all the episodes of Mad Men that are on Netflix. I tried to get my hands on Season Six but I can't without paying for it so that will have to wait. It will be on Netflix next April.

To satisfy my need for episodic tv, I started watching Parenthood. I had watched it when it first came on but it was on too late and is one of those shows that gets you too wound up to sleep so I quit watching it. There are three of four seasons available now so that should keep me busy for awhile.

I've also been working on my family tree again. I renew my ancestry.com subscription twice a year and each time, it makes me want to get my money's worth. I also started researching my Mayflower Ancestors (there are fifteen!) to do a special Thanksgiving blog entry and/or have a record of it somewhere.

It's been cool and damp today and it's almost dark outside, even though it's not yet 4 o'clock. I am really off schedule this week. I took a shower at 5pm the other day when I usually do that at 10am. I've been making bigger meals for lunch and smaller meals for dinner. Austin has been waking up before noon - which is odd - and going to sleep before me. We truly have no concept of time here other than the tv schedule and the cats' demands.

So that's what's going on here. Hope you guys have a good weekend! Love and hugs!