More about me and my back, joy

Hey. Whew. It's Monday. I'm nervous. Off to work again today.

However, today I woke up with my back feeling better than it has in the morning for a while. I took my high-power painkiller before bed, which seems smarter than before work, since now I'm in a better place before the day even starts.

I also have completely changed how I'm doing my mornings. See, I was getting up, coming out to the living room, lying down, doing lots of stretching, then showering, heading to work by bus. Along the way, my back would get fucked up. I thought, well, that's not been working. So, today I got up, showered, went for a walk, came home, stretched, now I'll eat, then I'll scoot to work, and we'll see if the change in routine helps too.

Plus, I'm finally able to do some situps and pelvic thrusts -- hugely important to getting over this. I'm stabilizing from the inside out.

Taking the time off without pay (well, without pay for several weeks) was a really wise choice, I think. I believe it's all going to sort out, I'm working on the money thing with creative solutions, I'm hoping everything sorts out. But it feels like the end of the worst chapter of all this. Things feel different inside my back, it's promising. I'm certainly more stable and not going out of joint as harshly as I had been, and my fluctuations are less severe -- I still go wonky but not as badly.

I can handle some pain. I'm tough. I can get through this.

Still gotta chat with the bank, finish a bunch of paperwork on my diability claim, and all that, but I'm hoping this week goes as well as I have my fingers crossed it will.

Last night, also, I started coming down with a cold during the afternoon. I decided to do the pouring-warm-saltwater-up-nose trick I saw on Oprah and my head's as clear as a summer day today. WHEW. Because THAT would've been just what I needed -- a cold, all that coughing fucking my back up again...

But I think I'm past that, too. Whew. Anyhow. Better place. Let's hope this holds up.

The State of the Steffs Report

Well, every morning I was getting up, stretching lots to negate the damage working for a whole day would do to my back, then I'd rest a bit, get up, and invariably whilst getting dressed and/or onto the bus, something would happen, and I'd arrive at work in pain again after what would have been a nice night beforehand.

Yesterday and today I've been barely stretching, and my back is settling down. I haven't gone for a walk yet today but I will soon. It seems to be helping. Hopefully if I continue my passive approach for another couple of days, things will be better. Also, have my scooter back from the shop finally, so no more hoisting anything. I was carrying at most 5 pounds at any time, and even that was just killer. And with no transport? Oy!

So, good, good, good to have the scoot back.

But can I tell you how saddened I've been to miss this nice fall? Oh my god. I remember Halloweens being -5 celsius when I was a kid. It's 11 degrees! INSANE!

But soon I shall be better. And I shall continue losing weight. I shall be strong. I shall get a couch and a bed, I hope, should a loan get approved in this tightening credit crunch and all. I shall never, ever experience this sort of ordeal again. I am NOT going to be a "back pain" sufferer. I know what to do, I shall do it, and I will be victorious.

In other news, heard some daunting sadness for my brother today -- an old friend has been reported missing since October 10th. What can you say about that? Not much. Hope he's found. But he's in his late 30s, and has no real health issues, so it's natural to assume the worst. Which fucking sucks.

This is the second friend of my bro's to have mysteriously vanished. The last disappeared 14 years ago and has never been found in any way. Blah.

Here's hoping you're around someplace, John.

Meanwhile... aside from my apartment having no hot water (they're on it), my bro's friend missing, my back still gimping, I'm doing pretty good. I'm just taking it easy, doing absolutely nothing, lying around, and passively stretching every couple hours, walking two or three times in a 1-2km circuit in my hood.

If I continue to improve this much each day, I should be able to work on Monday. That would be fan-fucking-tastic. I like my job most of the time. (Everyone gets sick of it sometimes, right? After all, deep down inside I should be living in a coastal shack and writing every day for the rest of my life.)

Besides the fact that I CANNOT AFFORD to take this time off, but have decided I just cannot live being in that much pain when it's work that's the only thing causing the pain, so I'm taking the gamble that I'll somehow come up with the magical $500 this is costing me. (I get the money down the line, but "down the line" doesn't pay rent on November 1st, nor the groceries I'll require on top of that.)

I like contributing. I like the people I get to see at work. It's not the bane of my existence. Some time off is nice, but this is ridiculous. And it's such pointless time off. I lie down. On the floor. I watch the news. Around me, things get messy. Nothing gets accomplished. I see no one. I look awful for long stretches. And I can't go anywhere. I don't even like the effort required to put a movie on.

THIS really sucks. It's boring as fucking hell. I've tweeted 3,000 times since I've been gimped. I'm suddenly in the "Twitter Elite" for Vancouver. It's sad and pathetic and I want a life.

But I'm feeling very relaxed about it. Ahahaha. Yeah.

If there's anything to gain from this, it's being relaxed. Or is that just the slow erosion of muscle tone I'm feeling?

Whatever. It is what it is, and won't be that for much longer. I can feel it in my bones. Literally. :P

Back Update and HEY, LOOK, Traffic!

Finishing my granola and coffee, taking a boo at my new bloggie. Dreading tonight. I'm at the point now where the only thing that really hurts my back is lifting or sitting. Even lifting I can kind of do, but sitting still sucks. I'll be getting more painkillers tonight from the doc, so that work will be manageable until next week sometime. I think this will settle down completely within the week, though, thank god.

The dread, though, is because I have to clean my kitchen. It should only take a half hour or so, it's small, but I need to do the floor and the broom closet. Because I've been sprawled on my back and unable to do anything, my place has been getting increasingly filthy, even though I've tried to wash my dishes each day and stuff. It's the floor -- the floor hasn't been done in three weeks, not really thoroughly. That's when I began my battle against the cockroaches.

WELL, being unable to be a cleaning fiend is about the worst thing that can happen when you're fighting bugs. The roaches have been reappearing. I think they're coming from the broom closet now. I think they're enjoying my dirty floor. So I'm going to clean it really well with my Swiffer. I'll use a half-dozen cloths on my floor and in the broom closet, and sterilize it with a spray of Lysol after.

The last thing I need is to be creeped out of lying on the floor while I'm continuing to rehab my back. Jesus. So, I'll be all passive about it. The walking I was doing yesterday seemed to help loosen my back up a bit, as much as it wasn't very fun to do, so I think a little bit of light housework with lots of stretching before, during, and after would be a little beneficial. I know how to be cautious about it. But I need these fucking bugs to FUCK OFF.

***

Anyhow! I think I mentioned I've spiffed up the old blog of mine, got a hot new template, and I've been writing pretty incendiary political stuff of late, and I'm now getting twice as many hits and page views as I was just two months ago, quadruple my traffic of a year ago, but only 40% of what I used to make. But that's okay!

It seems that Wordpress IS, as I suspected, better at getting picked up in web searches than Blogger is. My search page-lands are escalating a bit. I installed the Wassup widget, which allows me to watch real-time traffic on the blog (how addictive is that?) so I can see what people are reading. Also, I'm getting now about 6% of my traffic from Twitter. Not too shabby.

But I'm pretty chuffed, as the Brits would say, that I've succeeded in taking my traffic up a bunch, and I think the move is helping. I think, as I continue to re-tag and categorize my archival postings (which is on hold until the domain finally transfers and we move the blog back to its right home and change all the DNS pointings), that I will continue to place higher and higher in search finds, because I'm being SO thorough on my tags and categorizing.

I've also downloaded an SEO tool for the blog, so I'm going to read up on Search Engine Optimizing this weekend, and start doing THAT on all the blog posts, too. So, I expect that I will finally be using all the power the web offers me for harnessing search engine power and maximizing my hits.

I mean, I don't need to worry about the writing. I'm back on that front. I mean, fuck, I've been having a blast in my last two political rants. "No, tell us what you really believe, Steff." It shows I'm having fun. THAT is what I have been looking for. THAT is what I have wanted back in my writing.

Well, it's back. Fun. There it is. Fun! Reading a writer who's actually having a good time writing is a wholly different and more enjoyable reading experience. I think I do perspective and internalization well in writing, but I love it when I do "fun" well. It's pretty rare. They come in clumps of three to six months, if I'm lucky. It's generally a signal for when my life as a whole comes together in a more positive way.

All my problems of late -- the back, the eye, the bronchitis, the bugs -- they all have real, authentic causes pertaining to actual situations in my life. It's not like life continually shits on me. The back, the eye, the bronchitis, my workouts, my diet, ALL of that is interconnected, so it was just a shitty domino, but having 10 days off to just REST and be on your back and think and find things to appreciate in life and set goals, WELL... that's a good thing to have before you move on to a new phase.

But none of it has gotten me down. I've had down days, yeah, sure, but the mood always passes. And, usually, it's only a down morning or afternoon, it seldom lasts for more than a few hours now. This is good!

Note to universe: I win. Go pick a different sap to play victim.

But being on my back to get my blog done is a fucking huge accomplishment. If that's the ONLY thing I accomplished in 10 days, if it's the ONLY positive I had in all that time, you know what? I'll take it. I've been meaning to do this for two years.

And since I'm now back in every sense, it's a really fucking exciting time to have it happen. I'm stunned at how good it is for traffic already. Things are gonna get fun.

Well, time for some more painkillers and off to work. FUN. Ugh. Blah. :) Sitting for hours. Sigh. I'm not going to spin that one in a sunshiny way. Heh.

Car-use of cellphones to be blocked with this in-car software!

FUCKING BRILLIANT!

For such a small country population-wise, we sure come up with cool inventions.

As a scooter rider who's sick of experiencing first-hand how fucking bad all of you are at driving while on cellphones, I'm HAPPY-DANCING.

(In my mind, because gimp girl's on her back still. :)

State of the Steff and Her Gimp Back

Let's preface this with: I'm still on painkillers. But...

Things are starting to settle down a little. Finally. Fucking finally. I'm able to do all the more intense stretches now for the low back. Holy FUCK have I been tight.

I'm still tight. I still keep slipping out of joint in the low back. But it's really starting to improve. I'm stable more frequently and for longer, and getting stable is easier than it has been.

I really want to get back to work Tuesday so I've got one remaining sick day as insurance. But given the last couple months I'd REALLY like to see that one go to waste. Seriously. Fuck, man. I'm DONE. I WON. You HAVE NOT BEAT ME, universe. Now fuck off and take the beating like a man. 'Cause I have survived.

I swear, I hear Gloria Gaynor. Take that!

In good news, I'm sitting up a little more, often an hour or more, then I retreat to the floor again. Sitting I need to obviously be able to do by Tuesday.

I'm now stretching my hamstrings and quads a lot because they're now the problem. But that's okay... I expected this. I just wasn't ABLE to do these stretches. I was so tight I was at risk of doing something very, very bad to my back, I had to let it settle down naturally. I know that much about my body at least. Never have I had "DON'T GO THERE" screaming at me as I have this past week.

Definitely the most debilitating pain of my life. I would be quite, quite happy to never experience that again.

During the lay-down, off-time period, one major accomplishment has happened. Someone has been monkeying with my other site for me for the last week, and things are now all hung up on chaos at the hosting companies. Frankly, it's a "telescopic rifle from the bell tower" moment, but I'm chilling nicely as I just wait it the fuck out. It's probably the addictive painkillers my doc hurtled at me. They're keeping me mellow.

But it's also completely out of my hand. Instead, while I'm lying on my back in boring TV shows, I tinker with the archives as I clean up all the postings brought over to Word Press sans tags and categories and with different URLs. It's slow mindless work, better than surfing the web, and I take lots of breaks. I think it took me maybe two hours over the course of an afternoon and evening to tweak the template. The new banner took 15 minutes. It's been very easy, surprisingly.

I've improved the look of my blog by a thousand percent. It's also a far more sophisticated archival system, and with 900 posts and more than 5,000 comments, I can use that!

There's my lay-me-down signal from the back again, so this spell of sitting's over. Ha, settled down again already.

But know this, people: Things are looking up. Heck, I'm getting vertical sometimes! Wahoo. And I don't waddle much when I walk anymore. Snap!

Um, okay. Yes, well, looking good, but a ways to go just yet. Now my feet are asleep. Fuck I want to exercise and get out of my house!

INSANITY. Like I say, mellow about it. Weird. And a little too well-fed on convenience foods of late, too. Sigh. Heh. That's okay. YOU try getting through a week like mine, on your back, bored out of your fucking mind, without a little emotional eating.

Mm. Emotional snacks are the tastiest. You know it!

[OH! Doctor says DO NOT STOP doing the stairs. Just do them better and stretch more. I think the problem was a weight-lifting repetition I was doing, though, now that I've got hindsight and know exactly where all the problem stemmed from. It's the weights, but was exacerbated by stairs and bike. Have no fear. I shall overcome! By the end of the week, right as rain. Fingers crossed. I've bought the Advil and Robaxacet. Heh.]

OMG OMG OMG! Got bent!

OMG, was able to bend over and get something off the floor without seizing up in utter pain just now. For the first time in days, stretching seems to be starting to work. Still ridiculously tight and slow moving, but being able to bend without my left hip locking up, too, was new... Sure, it took me 30 seconds, but, hey! Baby steps.

No improvement yet has lasted more than an hour or two so we'll see how this goes overnight but I'm hoping the bending thing bodes well.

Of course, it's taken a hell of a lot of drugs to get my body to begin loosening up. I think an elephant would feel light-headed. Hence why I'm still on the couch and keep turning off the television every 15 minutes when things begin feeling weird again.

More Furthererer Adventures of Baby Got Back

I was at the doctor's office. I had taken the bus because I'm broke off my ass and didn't know how much the meds would cost that he'd prescribe me would be. I have never endured anything more painful probably in my life. Seriously. I *cried* walking up the alleyway.

I knew it was going to be bad, but that was over the top.

I got to my doc's appointment and was laying on his patient's table when he came in, and his jaw drops and he goes,"What happened to you?!"

So, I tell him. Right away he checks my reflexes, which are spot on. Good, no ruptured discs.

Then, "So, what are you taking for this? What are you on?"

"Um, just Costco over-the-coun--"

"No! No! Ohh," he groans, rubbing his eyes in disbelief. Then he blurts, "You need drugs! Strong drugs! A lot of them. It's going to be expensive."

"Well, I'm kinda brok--"

"Hang on a minute."

He rushes out, five minutes later he's back with a medium paper gift bag, full of three different drugs. Two boxes/10 days of Tridural, an opioide analgesic (can you say narcotic?) and "professional strength" Advil and extra strength Robaxacet. All in all, he probably gave me $80 or so of drugs, if not more.

To tell the truth, I've cried repeatedly from pain in the last few days, but you try psyching yourself up to leave the apartment when it means dealing with 4 flights of stairs and a major back problem.

I took the bus there, because I was somewhat broke and figured the cab would be twice as expensive thanks to all the Olympics construction in town... and my god was that a bad experience.

Fortunately I had patient bus drivers and kneeling buses. I only ultimately walked about a total of 4 blocks over the day, but I also hit up a bank and Steamrollers for a couple burritos to get me through the day for food.

With all the drugs given to me for free, I was able to take a cab home. I was giggling I was so giddy when I saw the cab pull curbside. As soon as I hopped into the back seat I popped one of the narcotic badboys, Tridural, which had me woozy and tripping within 30 blocks.

It's funny, I'm certainly not adverse to pot, but I don't do chemicals of any kind, really. I've taken Tylenol 3 before during all my varied accident rehab experiences, but I've never taken any stronger of a drug. I barely even take Tylenol for headaches. It has to be BAD before I take something. I've got Costco's over-the-counter painkiller that's essentially just Extra-extra-strength, but not harsh, and I usually use it only after killer workouts to prevent tension headaches from springing up, which they would otherwise.

These, though, are some serious pills. I'm wary of using something so addictive as an opioide analgesic, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I've cried REPEATEDLY from pain in the last few days. I don't cry from pain! I never cry from pain! I'm tougher than most people will ever be, after being tossed from a horse, being in several totalled car accidents, and all that shit. I mean, I know pain. I can handle pain! And this, baby, made me its bitch. I cried like a girl. Several times a day.

At least that's over with; this is manageable pain. I look forward to it subsiding enough that I can get off the harsh stuff, but until then? I'm a fan.

I'm still very movement challenged, very slow, and unable to maintain any one position at length, but at least I'm not in constant excruciating worst-pain-in-my-accident-riddled-life pain. I'm in harsh pain still, but it's a whole other galaxy of it. Believe me, this is not about mere semantics.

Whew. Well, time to lie down again. This post was written over the last 12 hours. Weird for someone who writes so fast. Not a week for blogging, friends.

Futherer Adventures

Dreading walking down and up stairs tomorrow. Have all of 12" height in ability to pick up legs today.

Have to walk about 4 blocks with bus transfering tomorrow, too, and 4 flights of stairs. Sigh.

Ugh. Sometimes it really blows not having a car. Looking forwards to chat with the Doc, but mostly to behind-the-counter painkillers that'll knock me out. Ay yay yay. Rest seems the thing for the back. Activity tomorrow is quel dreaded.

I have never in my life requested powerful painkillers. I was thrown off a motorcycle. I landed on my head. I've been thrown from a horse mid-jump. I have never requested powerful painkillers. I have always stopped at Tylenol 3.

Tomorrow I'm fucking demanding them. Now I want more. Sigh.

The Continuing Adventures of Baby Got Back

Oh, I hurt, hurt, hurt. Sigh. Mornings are the worst for back pain anyhow.

I've been up since 6. I've iced, stretched, and massaged myself already. I just finished eating. Soon I'll lie down again. Sigh.

One of my readers, DP, sent me a link for an injury yesterday and I dismissed it, saying "Oh, no, my legs don't have pain..." They don't, really, but they're super-inflamed. So, when I began massaging yesterday, i began being able to better define areas of pain. Turns out the reader's smack-dab right.

So, I have a common ailment of mountain climbers and distance cyclists. It's a sports injury. Wikipedia suggests it can take a couple of weeks to settle down. Oy vey.

Well, I'm not sure if this morning's worse or better than yesterday. I woke up with less pain yesterday but segued into worse pain quickly. This morning, woke up in more pain but it has maintained and/or periodically lessened over the last couple hours. So what does that mean? Fucked if I know!

IN OTHER NEWS.

Last week my aunt sent me a raincoat -- a nice waterproof one, peach-coloured, that fits me like a glove. It's an XL. But you know what? I haven't fit in a regular off-the-rack XL since I entered college in 1991. :)

Seriously! 17 years! FUCKING A. And my friend's mom saw me for the first time in a few years this weekend, outside a store apparently, and told him that I'd lost a lot of weight.

Fantastic. People who haven't seen me in years are noticing? AWESOME. Yay ME.

I guess having cycled as much as I have, climbed as many stairs as I have, over the last few months -- having lost 50 pounds while still often eating piggishly, heh... well, my thigh muscles must be Stronger Than Anyone In The World! Hence this fucking annoying back problem. God.

Massaging my legs last night was illuminating. That's not fat --that's MUSCLE. I had no idea they were this overdeveloped. Holy shit. Holy TENSE, Batman.

Zero quality of life going on here, wow. Blah. :P

Well, at least I can cheer up and watch the markets recover from last week's chaos. Oh, the Dow's down 500 points? Well, I'll be over here hiding under my blanket a while then. :P

[Funnily... I expect to get neck and shoulder spasms from all the massaging I'll be doing... But I can live with neck and shoulder spasms! Hell, I can WORK with neck and shoulder spasms. I have, often! And I'd rather that. This back shit, though, fuck this. If it takes neck and shoulder pain, that's a price I'm willing to pay. Jesus.]

Baby Got Back

So, I go and put my back out again this morning -- the muscles OPPOSITE the muscles I've been exercising got overtight, so ANOTHER area slipped out of place.

I think it's slipped back in... I'm hoping so anyhow. Been a couple hours or so, and it's a little less painful to stand and I'm not radiating as much pain when I sit. I think I'm going to lay off the stretching a couple hours and ice once more before I do it again around 8, and do it more gently this time. I'm stretching my quads, hamstrings, and hips equally now, but all for much much longer than normal.

What else can a girl do eh? Ugh. Fuck. Welcome to 35, indeed. Wow.

And as frustrated and tired as I am, I realize this is all just part of a domino effect, and it's not getting me down.

I got really sick in July from drinking milk, right? And at the beginning of August I went off my antidepressants, so suddenly I had both calcium deficiencies and a need to take more vitamin B-- but, those lacks combined, well, I got bad insomnia for two weeks. Bad insomnia led to getting an eye infection, and all these things combined resulted in me getting out of the mode of exercising regularly. So, naturally I decided to exercise to kick off fall, but wham -- I went from sedentary to active, and while my lungs and energy could handle the exercise, the yo-yo threw off my body.

Hence the mess I'm in. But, whatever. Rains, it pours, sometimes. Doesn't mean I'm some victim; means there's something to this "math" thing. It all adds up.

So, here I am. Dealing. This too will pass. Now, where's the ice?

Making the Switch, Finally

Spread the word, folks, if you read my other blog, it's going to be a few days before you see a new posting. Check back maybe Monday night or Tuesday night.

Sitting around in agonizing back pain yesterday, I spitballed the idea of people helping me through Twitter to transfer to WordPress, but then things went wonky. My hosting company, webhostingcanada.org, took nearly 20 hours to respond to an email for help, as is their typical idiocy, so I've signed up for new hosting. So, everything will get complicated.

Fortunately, I did none of the work, since someone was doing all the fiddling for me, so I got to lie around on my back, but whatever. Soon I/we shall finally have made the switch.

In the meantime, something did get fucked, so I can't publish or update until this is all solved. LAME.

Means I'll be getting cracking on doing a new template, but right now it's just going to be a stock WordPress theme since the last thing I want to be doing is sitting doing coding for hours.

Meanwhile, my back is still fucked. Time to take more painkillers. I suspect it'll settle down overnight. I'm hoping, that is, that it will.

Speaking of which, time for a warm shower and some stretching.

Back Problems and Perspective

I'm gettin' REAL tired of not feeling like myself.

A week of back problems has culminated with it going WAY out today. It's sort of back in, but it's real fucking sore. Radiating pain from the lumbar region.

It'll settle down, I'm sure. Sadly my chiropractor's off on Fridays but I've gotten in bright and early for tomorrow, 10am, so I'm going to get up at 7, have a hot bath, stretch, ice, have a hot bath, ice, and then head to see him. God. Exciting Saturday, no?

I suspect it's several reasons it's gone out. One, I climbed the stairs last week, and I was stiff as shit. I tried stretching often, and for what I perceived to be enough time, and thought I was doing fine by Saturday, then Saturday something just tweaked and got uncomfortable. But I stretched it out and it seemed okay. Then I had company stay with me, they got my bed, and I got the couch. Not good.

But it wasn't bad, just uncomfortable.

Working, however, changed that. Nothing quite like being seated for several hours to screw with your low back. But, you know, I plodded through work, trying to take some painkillers each day, stretching in the morning, when I got home, and before bed. All it did was maintain the status quo, not solve it.

Then this morning, schwing, out it goes. Bad enough that I was in tears on the phone when calling in sick for work. Which made me feel like a loser, but shit happens.

It settled down (by that I mean: hurt a lot but not enough to have me in tears, plus something seemed to go back into place, so that it was muscular and not skeletal, which means it's more likely to start getting resolved) and I figured a bike ride would probably help to "reset" the muscles and take the pressure off...

So, I tried that. For a while afterwards, it sort of did help, but only because I literally spent an hour stretching hamstrings.

But now it's back to the same it was before the ride. I'm on the floor, not lying down because I just ate, but I'll be horizontal before long again, I'm sure.

Whatever. This too shall pass.

I suspect the causes are a few: It's been a stressful few weeks, so I've had things to deal with and haven't been as active. I slept on the couch a couple times too many. I haven't been doing ab exercises, which help keep the low back in shape. I've been sitting on a shitty chair at my computer desk, and since I saw a cockroach by my desk last week, I've been all freaked out about having my feet too far under it, so I've been sitting back a bit, and I guess the posture was worse than I thought.

In any case, I'll be dealing with all of those "causes" and it'll be all right soon. By Monday I should have settled down. I'm doing *EVERYTHING* right, and that's all I can do.

But it's still real fucking annoying.

Gained a little perspective when I was bitching about it this morning, though...

A woman whose blog I've just started reading, it turns out she's got maybe a month to live because she's got some unmentioned kind of cancer. Her husband's taking time off to be with her, she's got kids, and she says that in four weeks she's either gonna be here, or she's gonna be a miracle.

Well, as annoying as my back is... I'm fortunate in so many ways. I know it. I'm grateful for it.

And this too shall pass.

Her cancer, however, probably won't.

A little perspective can do us all some good.

Morning Bitch Session

Sigh, I've been having back problems since Saturday. Very unstable in my low back, screwing with my right hip. I'm at home with an ice bag on it right now, and will have to suck it up and head into work quickly here, but I'm waiting a few more minutes for my laundry to finish -- which I forgot to put in the dryer.

Sigh. SIGH.

And I'm tired of American coverage of "high gas prices" when our at-par dollar yields a tank that's nearly $2 a gallon higher than America's average price. Around $5.10 a gallon here right now. Hell, my scooter? Cost me $3.10 to fill up when I bought it, nearly $8 now. Crazy, hey? Madness. And it pisses me the fuck off that we're not regulating prices here more. I can't imagine what sucking that price up as a car owner is like.

God, I really need to ice myself down a lot tonight. I feel inflamed all over my body. Ow. This sucks!

I'm probably going to go pick my old desk chair up @ GayBoy's tonight. I think the majority of my problem is how I'm sitting at my desk right now for writing and stuff, so I need to have a better seating arrangement or else I have to cut back on the writing for a while. I'm using my laptop in a different chair right now, for example, but considering my laptop's missing a few keys and is slower than molasses, I hate writing on it. Gah!

Whine, whine, whine. Bitch, bitch, bitch. :)

Okay, laundry's done in three minutes, then I shower and skedaddle.