Footscicle

I injured my foot.

Probably from running.

All my research with Dr. Google seems to indicate Plantar Fasciitis - an injury to the tissue along the arch of the foot.

Sharon also believes it to be consistent with plantar fasciitis. Fun.

She had told me to ice it. For me, this meant wrapping a bag of frozen corn in a towel and standing on it while applying my makeup in the morning. This morning, when Sharon iced it for me, I found that she had other ideas.

She took a gel ice pack - which is about 20° colder than a bag of corn, and made me put my foot directly on it, no towel, no sock, just foot on ice.

For 20 minutes.

TWENTY. MINUTES.

It hurt like HELL!!!!

Twenty minutes (and 5 sets of upper-body strength excersizes) later, she let me move my foot. By then it was totally numb and very cold. It was a footscicle.

Fun.

I'm seeing a podiatrist today. Hopefully he'll just give me a pill or a shot or something...

Smartass

I sometimes forget that my sister is just as much my father's daughter as I am.

For all her overt rebelliousness (she IS the youngest) she is much more straight-laced and traditional than I am. She's clearly our father's daughter in terms of temper (short fuse, anyone?) but I'm always taken off-guard when she channels his irreverent side because usually that's my purview.

Yesterday, she emailed me a picture of the two of us taken at my college graduation when we were both much smaller and much blonder.

"I would give anything to be that size again!" she lamented.

And I, forgetting the Girl Code, emailed her back: "What did you eat for breakfast? Have you worked out lately" which, of course, pissed her off. It was "feel my pain" not "help me"

But a little later she DID tell me what she'd been eating/drinking etc. I noticed right off that it was all processed and lacking in vegetables. So I haraunged her all day to "Eat Some F Ing Veg!!!"

And then, at the end of the day, she emailed me with this gem:

"...you keep mentioning in texts and email something about “veggies”. Is this something new I haven’t heard of before?? I can’t find it on google anywhere…what in the world are you talking about…are you losing your mind??? I’m really confused by this because I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about…"

I was stunned and appalled.

Had she fallen on her head? Was she kidding? What she so immersed in processed foods and trends (Des Moines is the biggest Test Market in the US for a reason: Iowans will try anything) that she had lost all touch with REAL food???

Needless to say, she was totally pulling my chain. And I fell for it. As I always do with our dad.

The Littlest Klepto Strikes Again

When I was home at Christmas I lost the valet key to my car. I'd brought it along just in case (I've been known to lose keys)

I had given the key to my dad when he insisted on filling up my tank (gas is sooper cheap in Iowa so I didn't argue too much) and I remember seeing it on the kitchen counter the day before I left.

The morning I was set to leave, however, I couldn't find it anywhere. We all looked for about 10 minutes and then I shrugged, figuring it was in one of my bags or something and that it would turn up later.

Well it did turn up later. Much later.

Today, in fact.

The E-man, who is 4 years old (nearly 5) is at my parents' house today. Apparently, he came running up to my mother about an hour ago, holding out my key in his chubby little fist.

EMan: Nama! Look what I found in the Pool!

(Note: by "Pool" he means pool table in the basement)

Now, you can NOT tell me that my dad or I "accidentally" dropped that key into the pool table pocket.

Little thief!

He's hella cute, though.

The F Word

Sometimes in order to get things done, you really need to use the F word.

Especially if it's true.

I'm not talking about the naughty F word, I'm talking about the other F word:

FIRE!

My El car caught fire this morning. Not the whole car, just the heating unit behind my seat. We could actually see flames licking up along the door. The first time it happened, the engineer came back and (I thought) turned off the heater.

But then it happened again two stops later.

The woman nearest it said, in a calm, but not very loud voice: "Can someone hit the button? It's happening again."

Now, this is fine, but not all the people on the train were the same ones who'd been there before. Specifically, the guy nearest said button had only just gotten on and had no clue there'd been a fire.

So I had to speak up. I'm a fairly soft-spoken person (stop laughing, it's true!) but I can make my voice carry - with authority - when I need to.

EEE(calling along the length of the train car): SIR! Press the emergency button please! The heater is on FIRE again.

Firm, loud, calm, no panic. Things progressed in an orderly fashion.

I guess I'm not as useless in a (psuedo)emergency as I thought.


So, the day can only get less interesting from here.

Have a great day, all!

Oh! And: HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some people

Sorry I've been away so long. I've been on vacation. I was visiting old friends in Phoenix and in Denver.

My friends in Phoenix I've known since I was 13 and I see them several times a year. I know what to expect with them.

My friends in Denver, though...

We were roommates in grad school and lived and breathed one another for three solid years. Then I moved away (to follow a boy - but that's a whole 'nother story) and we only saw one another sporadically. In fact, it had been a full seven years since I'd seen Steph.

Before I left, I confessed to a friend here that I was worried about seeing Steph. I was worried that she would be disappointed with how lame and dorky I am. That my clothes wouldn't be cool enough, that my life would be too dull.

Silly, I know.

And ultimately: a complete waste of energy. As soon as we saw one another again, it was as if no time at all had passed. We were just: US.

The funniest part? Apparently SHE was having the exact same worries about ME! She had called her mom before I arrived and confessed that she was worried that I would be disappointed in her, that I would think she wasn't accomplished enough, that her life was lame.

But there are just some people in your life who crawl under your skin and into your heart so deeply that no amount of time or distance can ever really extract them. When you meet again, it's as if no time has passed. Disagreements and differences in personality just don't matter.

I'm glad to have so many of those people in my life.