Well, I have royally effed my back up. (Ha, speaking of "royally," it all started the morning of the Royal Wedding. What a coincidence). It started with my foot getting more and more numb every day - what started as the tip of my pinkie toe graduated to my entire pinkie toe and up my foot into my ankle. No feeling at all. At first I was horrified and thought of the gigantic blood clot I likely had lodged in my calf, but over the course of the first couple days I was relieved to see that I wasn't losing any color or warmth so I was able to cross "blood flow" off my list of potential problems. That meant it was a nerve issue, which wasn't better by any stretch of the imagination, but at least my toe wasn't dying.
So the MAJOR perk to working at a hospital and being friends with the smart people that work alongside me is that I can run all of my ailments past them to get a preemptive diagnosis before calling my actual doctor and making an appointment. The first doctor I asked thought it was Morton's neuroma, which I figured was a remote possibility but the symptoms didn't quite add up. When the terrible pinching sensation in my lower back started up a few days later, I figured it was a nerve stemming from my back and affecting my foot, rather than an isolated foot problem. Cue the Physical Therapist! My dad insisted I go to a chiropractor but the Physical Therapist I am friends with thinks they're all quacks, so now I take 20 minutes out of my work day to have my spine pressed on in uncomfortable ways by the Physical Therapist. He is doing it for free and it seems to be helping - the numbness has really subsided and, apart from a bruised back from him beating on it every afternoon, the back pain is getting much better. It's halfway through the second week of therapy and I am feeling well enough to tackle my stilettos at the Banquet on Thursday =)
Today was the Spring Fling at work (just another shindig I was primarily responsible for putting together). For those of you that don't have any idea of what the Spring Fling is, and why would you?, it's an outdoor 'fest' at the hospital with a moon bounce, face painting, music, food, etc. I was surprised at the good turn out - and damn do those kids love a moon bounce. At one point there were so many in there I'm surprised they weren't accidentally knocking one another unconscious. Whatever the capacity limit is on those things, I'm pretty sure we exceeded it. Regardless, no one got injured and everyone had a good time. At least I think so. No one outwardly complained, as far as I know, so I deem it a success.
In the meantime, I finished my drawing of Miranda Kerr - the one I have been working on for months now. I probably would have finished her in a matter of days had moving to the new apartment not interrupted my usual routine and had I actually wanted to continue working on her. I think what motivated me to finally get it done was the picture I found of Will and Kate that I really want to draw so I knew I had to finish Miranda because I hate leaving something unfinished to start on something new. So, TA DAAAA! Here she is:
The picture is sorta yellow, which is strange, considering it's just graphite on white paper. Maybe the light in the room changed the hue of the paper, I don't know. Regardless, here she is. Nick says the photo doesn't do the actual drawing justice. I agree, the real drawing is better, but it's really hard to take a picture of a drawing and have it look the same.
Anyway, that's that. I'll update more at the end of the week. Ta ta.
Did you hear that we killed Osama bin Laden? Because we did. Talk about making a Monday bearable. Slightly less awesome were all the Facebook statuses from Republicans saying things like, "OBAMA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. STOP GIVING HIM CREDIT." Something tells me you would have blamed him had it gone awry, though. Funny... I thought patriotism meant supporting your country no matter who is running it. Considering Obama is the Commander in Chief of our armed forces I would think you would have given him some of the kudos for killing the man many would consider the most-wanted on the planet. Whatever. I'm just glad it didn't steal the thunder of the Royal Wedding.
Anyway: I was watching a marathon of the show "Extreme Couponing" earlier today. If you've never seen it, lemme tell you, it's INSANE. It's these people (mostly woman, some effeminate men) who are obsessed with with paying drastically less than retail for absolutely everything. They're hoarders, really, because they have these gigantic stockpiles of food in their basements - things they will never, ever use in their lifetime. They will go to the grocery store with this arsenal of crap that will earn them discounts and five hours later they leave with $1000 worth of stock for like 5 cents.
When watching this show for the first time, I was really inspired to clip coupons. Watching as these people get an obscene amount of merchandise for the price of a haircut is incredible. Don't get me wrong: I really like the occasional coupon. Getting free shipping off an online purchase or getting 20% off something expensive really excites me. But these people scour hither, tither, and yon for coupons that they combine ten times over to get ridiculous deals (which is another beef I have with them... since when can you use more than one coupon on a single item? Don't they all say "limit one per item?") They admit to spending the equivalent of 40-60 hours a week on coupon finding and clipping. One maniac actually dumpster dives looking for ads that people have thrown away, and another stalks the neighborhood to find out which houses are being foreclosed on so she can go steal the newspapers that are still being delivered there. Give me a break. Have some self respect. If you are spending that much time finding coupons, cutting those coupons out of newspapers, and then shopping with those coupons, has it ever dawned on you that getting a JOB with all those hours would more than accommodate an increase in the grocery bill?
Discounts are awesome, but I don't see how having a bunker under your house with 9000 bottles of mustard is worth the savings. Granted you got all those 9000 bottles for like $2.00, but that's still a waste of $2.00 considering you will NEVER consume all that mustard. One crackpot had stockpiled over a thousand diapers and she didn't even have a baby. Totally childless. And that's a trend I've noticed on that show: all the stuff these people get with their asinine coupons is complete junk. Gatorade, candy bars, and soda rack up in the hundreds with each purchase. Why in God's name do you need to buy 60 candy bars in one shopping trip? I don't understand why there aren't coupons for peaches or arugula or something that would actually be of some benefit (to keep you alive longer, so you can continue couponing). They couldn't hoard produce, though, it would rot before they got around to eating it. Regardless, if there is some sort of nuclear disaster I know where I'm headed.
