The Icy Cold is NOT My Friend

Do you ever get to the point in where maybe you've gotten too used to writing for an audience?

I was writing an email last night when I realized, as I was hitting send, that I used a bit of my "blogger voice" in it. You know, where you start relating a story and you just GO with it in the style of your blogging persona? This isn't such a big deal with me as I have no "blogging persona" per se, but like a good student of writing, I always keep my audience foremost in my thoughts as I write. An audience of one friend of 10 years is a little different that the invisible internet friends of a few months/a little over a year are.

I don't know if I'm going anywhere with the above, but I just thought I'd share. It's New Year's Eve after all! Like xmas I'm sure my "audience" will have dwindled significantly. And no, I don't want a "Mouseketeer Roll Call" to find out the exact numbers...I know this isn't a popularity contest or anything, but I know I'm not all that popular.

Anyhow, I have been sorely remiss in my blogging duties as I had a bit of a Carpal Tunnel scare. I awoke the other night, in the middle of the night, to pains like you wouldn't believe along the inside of my forearm. I was in the middle of pulling blankets over me in my sleep. This happened ALL NIGHT LONG, as I am quite a fidgetty sleeper, it would seem.

So I kinda slowed down on everything I do that involves my thumb and repetitive motions...blogging and emailing are pretty high up on that list. As well as all the data entry I've been doing at my recent assignment...I chose a mountain of filing instead. Everyone was happy.

After doing far too much internet reading and speaking with my Hana'i mom in Hawai'i I realized it just isn't following the usual CT agenda. So it must have a WHOLE lot to do with the fact the I fall, A LOT. I mean it. Just the other day I got to fall downhill on a rather icky sidewalk in downtown Seattle. Fun times. I smashed both my knees and my left hand, but my right one was holing a tall mocha and somehow I saved it. I think I know how, now. I think I may have "bounced" on my wrist and torn my already iffy tendon, again.

I'm used to having a little pain in my wrist since I was involved in a pretty bad bicycle accident back in Hilo, HI when I was on my way to sign my divorce papers. (Coincidence? Yes, completely.) The wrist and a bump on my hip that makes its presence known whenever I try to buy pants (urgh), are what keep the bitter high in my tactless heart.

Anyway, so the other morning the whole "old hurts + icy cold weather DO NOT MIX" mantra/jokes that I'd heard in old cartoons and stories growing up truly hit home. I did not fall as I "skated" to the bus stop, but by end of my wait for the bus...say 10 minutes, my shin (busted after river rafting 15 years ago), my knees (thank you 6 years of fencing and a lifetime of smashing them on concrete), ankle (strained to within snapping distance, but saved by a birkenstock 9 years ago), the aforementioned hip and wrist were BOTHERING me to the point of my limping to the happy warmth of the office.

The warmth and multiple applications of my hot tea mug on the joints in question made the bad pains go away...except for that buggy wrist/tendon electric shock feeling every time I try to do anything beyond the stiff-wristed norm. So I've gone out and bought the big guns:

No more simple ace bandages for me! urgh. But I can't complain, much. It really is working. I hate getting old...I've done far too much damage to myself for this to be a pleasant experience from here on out. My last tendon escapade lasted about 4 months before I could pretend to be semi-kinda-okay...Who knows how long this one will take.

Okay, I've exceeded my comfortable typing experience.

Happy New Year everyone!

Let's all be safe out there tonight. I'm planning on plopping myself down on my friends' couch and eating Pozole and sipping Champagne, cuz that's how we roll at casa de Tactless.