« December 2004 | Main | February 2005 »
January 30, 2005
Um, Can I Have My Life back, Please?
3 days into my injury and I'm done with it. Despite rest, ice, compression and elevation (and at the doctor's suggestion, heat and copious amounts of ibuprofen), my knee is still HUGE.
I did get tired of hobbling around like an old lady (and of being stared at by all the stupidheads here who have apparently never seen a person with a serious limp before), so Dave and I went and picked up some crutches yesterday. It's so nice to be able to move at a normal pace again (though Dave refers to it as running--hey, I'm just trying to get my heart rate up).
As a consolation prize, we bought a bunch of DVDs on Friday and watched Shaun of the Dead that evening. We howled with laughter throughout the movie, and 24 hours later were still finding things to chuckle about. One of our favorite scenes is when they are arguing over what records to use to fend off the pursuing zombies. Another is when he deals with the dart in his head.
So we were tremendously disappointed to learn that it wasn't nominated for a best screenplay Oscar, because it rocks. I mean, hysterical laughter, serious blood-pumping thrills and true pathos all wrapped up in one movie, along with a bunch of tremendous performances by living and undead alike. What's not to like?
Posted by sally at 09:23 AM
January 28, 2005
And the Doctor Says...
That I have to see an orthopedist. I think it's good news that I can support my full weight on it and that when she pushed and pulled my knee and pressed from side to side to test the ligaments that it didn't hurt at all.
We'll see. The bad news is, she thinks I need to see an orthopedist (and that I am not allowed to run or jump). The good news? She wrote a prescription for a 2-month UI handicapped parking permit. So I can park anywhere I want to on campus now (except fire lanes, no parking zones and spaces specifically marked for certain people). And I don't have to pay if I use the meters.
Posted by sally at 03:54 PM | Comments (5)
My Knee Is the Size of a Grapefruit
Someone "sat" on it, inadvertently, in acting class yesterday. I felt (and heard) a loud "pop" and immediately stopped everything I was doing to yell, "Sonofabitchmyknee!" And then I fell to the floor.
The instructor checked it, he thinks it's just a bad sprain because I can poke it without pain, and I could (at the time) flex and point my foot and fully extend my knee without pain. Not so much now, though that may be due to the swelling.
I'll be calling the doctor at 9, when they open. This is a pain in the ass. I can't move at my normal pace, and it means that workouts are completely out of the picture for now. I am furious at the department for having classes where this shit is possible.
And I have all these questions. Will I have to have surgery? How long will I be out of commission? Will this limit my work in the garden? Will it limit my mobility in the long-run? I certainly can't participate in my acting or movement classes now, much less work out or go for the long walks I was finding so emotionally soothing. It pisses me off.
Posted by sally at 08:38 AM
January 25, 2005
Isn't It Amazing
what a walk through the woods and giving yourself permission to take baby steps can accomplish?
Posted by sally at 07:11 PM
January 24, 2005
Hello, My Name Is Sally, and I Am a Procrastinator
I so don't want to work. And I so have LOTS to do. Which is why I am posting here.
But I'm all ready for my classes tomorrow (both the one I teach and the one I'll be attending).
Actually, the whole topic of class tomorrow and being prepared brings up an interesting point. I had a class in clown work last spring that kicked my ass. There is no other way to put it. It kicked. My. Ass. Every single class period was agony, and though I never missed a class, except when I had pneumonia, it took all the strength of character I had to make myself go. Because for me, that class was nothing but an exercise in frustration and humiliation.
And the thing is, I loved the instructor. He's a great guy. I just didn't get it, and every time it was my turn to go in front of my classmates and work, I started to cry and spent the entire rest of the class period sobbing uncontrollably. The worst part of the whole thing, however, was my not understanding why I had a problem with this work when everyone else in the class was getting it and having a wonderful time. I tried and tried and tried and got nowhere. I was unbelievably relieved when the semester finally ended.
Well. That instructor is back for two weeks beginning today (he lives in Chicago), to work with us as we prepare for Macbeth. And knowing he was coming back, I figured I'd better get to the bottom of my problems with the work. If I didn't figure out why I was having trouble, I was never going to get anywhere. (With all of the italics, I'm beginning to feel like Miss Climpson in Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers.)
Fortunately, I've also been doing alot of self-discovery and analysis working with the book Sacred Contracts, so I was sort of already in the right spot for this stuff. And last week, I had a brainwave. From the beginning of an acting project (interestingly, this is not a problem for me in any other creative area), I have a sense of how I want it to turn out. And I have this desperate need to make sure it turns out right, to make the right choice. So when we were doing this emotional work trying to get as big as we could with whatever emotion we picked, I was skipping the steps where you build up the emotion starting from barely a hint of it and just going for big.
Of course, the problem with that is that when you get to the edge of your comfort zone (and mine is larger than most people's), if you haven't done the little steps, there's nothing supporting you and you fall off the edge, so to speak.
I chatted with him about that this afternoon. I wanted to be sure he understood that what I needed from the work (so that when we did individual stuff we could both focus on that) was to spend more time on steps one through six, so that when I got to step seven, I had somewhere to leap from. And to my relief, rather than acting as though I was trying to get out of the work, he said, "That's a huge thing, to recognize that. That's a really big step. Congratulations. I do that myself and always have to work on it. But now you know. And you can work to get where you want to with that knowledge."
Bless his heart. I wish I'd figured this out last spring, so I could have got more out of the class.
Posted by sally at 08:04 PM
January 21, 2005
The Sun Is out, It's Friday, and I'm Having a Hard Time Being Productive
Which translates into: I have spent 3 hours this morning surfing and not much else. I need to actually DO something. Though now that I think about it, I haven't had a non-chock-full-of-activity day since, um, wow, hard to say. Maybe January 9? I think my brain is telling me it's time for a break.
Only I have stuff to do in the garden, now that the snow is all gone. And I really should go to that yoga class or at least hit the gym for an hour (or three). And I have a meeting at 4:00... ugh. I want a real vacation, the kind where you lie around in the sun and someone else brings you umbrella-clad drinks. And I want to do that for a full week, thank you.
Posted by sally at 12:03 PM
January 17, 2005
I Am Queen of the GEEKS!
I have spent a good portion of the day working on one of my exit questions for my MFA degree. I'm comparing the Arden text of Macbeth with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival cut from 2002 which is the version we are producing in April. So today was all about going through the play scene by scene and figuring out who's in when and what they do, and color coding the acts and indicating all entrances and exits. Just in the Arden version.
And then I got sidetracked by the idea of putting together a map of all the locations presented and/or mentioned in the play...
Took a couple of hours, I never really located Macduff's castle in Fife, and I have no idea where in England Malcom and Macduff have their little conversation in Act IV, Scene 3, but it's a pretty cool map if I do say so myself.
Posted by sally at 08:12 PM | Comments (1)
January 16, 2005
Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow (Lots of It!)
Well, only about three inches, but it's awfully pretty. I feel somewhat suspended and isolated and coccooned in white on this three-day weekend.
I have work to do, but I am making a promise to myself this semester. I am giving myself time off when I need to take it. Since I'm only teaching one class and only taking 13 credits, I should have the time to do what I need to while still being good to me. I don't feel I've been very good to me for a very long time. So. I have lots of work planned for tomorrow, but today is my day off, and I'm treating it as such.
The only thing is, I don't know what to do...
If I were in Portland, I would buy myself a nice dinner, maybe treat myself to a visit to Powells, walk down Trendy-Third and just windowshop. Here? My options are a bit limited. But I don't want to waste my day off watching tv or playing video games. I want to do something enriching and fulfilling. Let's see... I could do karaoke at the Slurp and Burp. I could... No, they're closed because it's Sunday... They're not open nights... They're owned by freaky Christians who believe education is the devil... I guess I could go to Starbucks...
I suspect this may be one of the reasons I tend to do a lot of homework.
Posted by sally at 03:24 PM | Comments (1)
January 14, 2005
How Is It Possible I'm This Old?
I just got an email from the reunion committee. My 20th high school reunion is this coming August. Excuse me while I go Botox and dye my hair...
I'm just kidding about the Botox. I think laugh lines are attractive. At least mine are. But I'm dead serious about the hair dye. I'm roughly 30% grey at this point in my life, and no one needs to know that but us. Hell, people at school don't realize I'm not a natural redhead. Mostly because none of them have seen me naked, unlike my last college experience.
I'm now trying to figure out how I can get some slinky red sequined number for the formally dinner-dance that will show off my tattoo...
Posted by sally at 10:06 PM
I Have Fridays Off
Which means that if I choose to, I can stay in my pajamas all day. So far, so good.
But there's a yoga class this afternoon, which I think I may attend. And I need to do some research on what pigs really look like. Especially from the side. Also dragons. And let me tell you, finding photographs of actual dragons is tough. Especially in profile.
Posted by sally at 11:26 AM
January 11, 2005
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
School starts tomorrow. It's my final semester, but still...
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
(sound of fingernails digging into the dirt as I'm dragged unwillingly back to academia.)
Posted by sally at 08:42 PM
January 09, 2005
Our Bedroom Isn't Scary Anymore
The ugly brown panelling long one wall is still there. As is the old, oooooooooold popcorn ceiling (with gold sparkles), but the green blinds that made you feel as though the room was underwater are gone. We have new honeycomb blinds from Smith and Noble in "champagne," and it's an entirely different room. It's brighter, it's happier, and you don't cringe when you go into it.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
What a difference a change in color can make. I actually spent part of the evening lying on the bed reading a book. Because I wanted to be in there. It felt cozy, rather than cold (I'm using emotional temperatures here, not physical sensations).
And we ordered new lights this week from Hubbardton Forge for the bedroom, hallway and dining room (which echoes the look of the living room light). This is going to be such a nice house we won't want to leave.
Posted by sally at 10:02 AM
January 05, 2005
The Idiots Who Lived Here before Us
I've ranted about these people before, particularly about their interior decoration "skills." Now I would like to talk about landscaping.
Let me start by saying that "the fella" spent most of his life working for the Forest Service. In other words, he should have some idea about how trees work, but no. Not only did he not know that most trees are better left alone than pruned, he hired some equally clueless person to massacre a shrub and completely fubar a hawthorne in the backyard. No wonder our forests are in the state they're in today. The hawthorne I am fixing a leetle bit at a time because that's how these things are done, and the shrub I hacked away to nothingness.
I must say, however, that one of his best decisions ever was the choice of tree to plant along the back fence.
Here is a picture of our backyard. The sunflowers were my choice, planted after I removed the junipers, red lava rock and black plastic "mulch." Note the tree centered along the back fence. (And while you're at it, note the size of its trunk vs. the stems of the sunflowers around it.)
I did not plant that tree. It is a tri-color beech, a relatively hard to find, highly desirable landscaping tree. Some things you should know about tri-color beeches: They get to be 30 feet tall. Full sun burns their pretty leaves and strong winds scorch them as well. They need lots of water.
So let's review. This tree, which will get quite large, is roughly 6 inches from the chain link fence separating our backyard from the alley. It's in the least protected spot from sun in our entire yard, and the prevailing strong winds in the area blow through from the vacant lot on the other side of the alley. Before I took control of the area and added some good compost/topsoil, the tree was surrounded by black plastic. In other words, it's in a location which will require it's removal (or the fence's) in a relatively short period of time, the site for the tree has been carefully selected to assure maximum damage and weakness, and until I removed the "mulch" it couldn't get enough rainwater because nothing could get to the roots through the black plastic.
And did I mention that it's planted between lilacs so that in the spring, you cringe every time you look into the backyard because they do not work well with the scarlet leaves on the beech tree?
There is really no place else in our yard that would be any better for this poor little thing. Fortunately, my parents have a spot for it, so sometime in late February/early March, we are digging it up, balling the roots in burlap (and wrapping the branches to prevent windburn) and toting it to Boise in the new pickup so they can plant it in an ideal spot in their yard. Hopefully it will survive.
I was planning on planting a self-pollinating cherry in its place, but then I got a flyer in the mail for a tree that would not only provide fruit, but would still carry on in the spirit of the man who planted the beech tree in entirely the wrong spot. See for yourself:
(Mind you, when I suggested it to Dave, he said that if I was serious, we should probably re-evaluate our relationship.)
Posted by sally at 10:05 PM
January 03, 2005
Napoleon Dynamite
Oh. My. God. I just watched this film with my friend Yo and we laughed our asses off. Jon Heder didn't miss a trick. He carries his body around like it's a sack of potatoes on legs, whether he's "running" or getting off a horse. And I love the fact that his best friend is also a mouth breather. What Napoleon does for Pedro at the end of the movie is one of the most courageous acts ever performed in a film. He doesn't risk his life, he risks something far more precious to a teenager. He risks complete and utter humiliation. Now that's what I call friendship.
The pace is glacial, so don't expect an action flick. But if you just sit back and let the air of Preston, Idaho wash over you, you'll feel like you've had a vacation. (Unless, of course, you live in the same area. Then it will feel scarily like home.)
Posted by sally at 11:53 PM
January 01, 2005
Happy New Year!
How the hell did it get to be 2005?
Posted by sally at 12:04 AM
©2006 - All content copyright Sally Eames-Harlan unless otherwise noted