Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

I had a follow up with my podiatrist this morning. Result: he carved a corn off my little toe (unrelated to anything else going on), and released me from follow up appointments on the plantar fasciitis. There was almost no pain when he pressed on the heel, and I’ve been able to walk around town and do some short sprints (a la running for an elevator or the Metro) without paying for it afterward, so there was no more need to go in and see him. I have the brace to wear if I feel the need to stretch out the tendons, and I’m cleared to start running when I feel ready to do so, with the caveat that I have to build up very slowly with any running I might do.

I should be relieved, but I’m more scared than anything else. Scared that starting up will mean the return of pain. That this will somehow end up being an even longer process because I’ll screw up the foot by doing too much.

Yuck.

I’m going to have to play it by ear. First step will be sleeping without the blinkin’ brace on my foot to see how that goes. Then maybe some running, on a dreadmill treadmill, in case something isn’t right with it. Keep your fingers crossed.

Had Chris over today to help me cull my clothing collection. 20-odd T-shirts went out, as well as polos, button downs, and others. Much space was made in the drawers and in the closet. All in all, four paper grocery bags got filled with neatly folded clothes. Also found some items I shall offer to my brother for his daughters (blankets our grandmother made, etc.) so perhaps they’ll get use rather than taking up space in my closet which could be better used.

As an enticement to come play fashion critic, I offered lunch. The menu, from The Voluptuous Vegan, was pomme frites, a roasted garlic and herbes de provence aiolï, citrus and cucumber salad, and a provençal stew with couscous. Was tasty, though the pomme frites could have been better (they kept sticking to the paper, making it difficult to turn them when needed).

Finally cleaned up all the dishes (thank heavens I was cleaning as I went along or I’d never have had room for it all), and inventoried and bagged the culled clothing. Relaxing now with a glass of the pinot grigio I opened for use in the stew, and enjoying not having any more dishes to clean. It did push home the need to replace the blinkin’ dishwasher, though – doing that many by hand was trying, and not good for my hands (yay eczema).

Odd, odd dream last night (sci-fi geek alert). Was at a university, a graduate student. There were folks in the world with mental abilities (a la the beginning of the first X-men movie), and I was one of them. Somehow got wind of the board of directors, because of defense contracts & security concerns, voting on a proposal to have people at the university mentally screened (presumably by someone with telepathy whom they trusted) before working on certain projects. I got into the meeting just before it began and accused them all of advocating the equivalent of rape, that they couldn’t possibly know the violation of having to submit voluntarily or “voluntarily” to have their mind probed. It was a huge mess of a fight with several members of the board. And the rant I unleashed on their general counsel for giving in to them and telling them it was okay was truly stunning (ethics much?).

Why yes, yes I am a big ole geek at times. Even in my dreams.

Got it finished, so without further ado:

1. Breathe
2. Find my rituals
3. Race an Aqua-velo
4. Fix the foot for good
5. Go to Comrades in June
6. Get an entertainment center
7. Replace my shelves
8. Reorganize the closets
9. Hire a cleaning service
10. Replace my dishwasher
11. Participate in a charity ride, if there is one this year
12. Cull my clothing
13. Donate the old microwave
14. Check on upgrading my cable service to digital
15. Re-read the Book of the Way and its Power, in Mandarin
16. Frame my graduate school diplomas
17. Assist at CBE in April in Philly
18. Take more pictures
19. Knit some socks
20. Knit Kathy’s hat
21. Knit Tina’s baby scarf
22. Knit something for my nieces
23. Establish a weight routine
24. Visit Atlantic City
25. Make margarita cupcakes
26. Learn to use my convection oven
27. Paint a room
28. Beat 2 games on the Xbox
29. Beat 2 games on the Wii
30. Play a game online with a friend
31. Reduce my waist size back to a comfortable one
32. Increase the gauge on my earrings
33. Commission a piece of art
34. Reduce or eliminate caffeine
35. Reduce my consumption of HFCS
36. Replace the old PC
37. Get a set of blinds
38. Clean behind the fridge
39. “Fix” the front hall
40. Floss regularly
41. Get at least one professional massage
42. Attend a heart circle
43. Pay off another student sub-loan
44. Read more books
45. Get below 155lbs
46. Have friends over for dinner
47. Host a bad movies party
48. Host a game day
49. Do a massage exchange
50. Take a knife skills class
51. Pick up items from Les
52. Brunch
53. Practice erotic play
54. Read the unread Chinese fiction in my collection
55. Go see A in Vancouver
56. Look into getting ink
57. Cry
58. Clean out the kitchen cabinets
59. Update my resume
60. Roomba-ize the living room
61. Go dancing
62. Get folks down to Cantina Marina
63. Come up with a display for my medals
64. Frame my finished cross stitch projects
65. Finish a cross stitch pattern
66. Get a power tap for the tri bike
67. Get a body fat scale
68. Get photos done
69. Use my crock pot
70. Take leftovers in for lunch
71. Decorate the bathroom
72. Go on a date
73. Pay off a credit card
74. Remember that I have an oven
75. Record things in Quicken faster
76. Track my cash spending
77. Clip coupons
78. Go to the Holocaust museum
79. Join a museum society
80. Meet Tycho
81. Fix the tire sensor on the car
82. Fix the AC in the car
83. Get air purifiers
84. Increase my TSP contributions
85. Water my plants regularly
86. Grow balcony plants
87. Cook what I grow on the balcony
88. Use some of my unused gear
89. Donate more books
90. Go to the optometrist
91. Get my annual physical
92. Get away from desk at lunch more often
93. Volunteer at a race
94. Get to a farmers market
95. Get a pedicure
96. Attend a play
97. Do regular core work
98. Reduce surface clutter in the apartment
99. Learn how to do multicolor knitting
100. Clean out work desk
101. Go grocery shopping more often
102. Readjust my sleep schedule to earlier
103. Take chair & shelf to parents
104. Get rid of the extra crates
105. Dispose of roomba battery properly
106. Get prescription goggles
107. Store my bike rack properly
108. Use or donate my old cooking magazines
109. Get a better tool box

Well, I’ve lived up to one of the items on my as yet unpublished Uberlist:

Cry

In many, many ways this past year stunk on ice (the break up and my foot injury being the most notable). As many others are, I’m hoping that 2009 will be a better one for me and for those I know and love.

I’m working on an Uberlist now for 2009. I didn’t do one the past two years, after doing them the 2 or so years prior to that, and I think I miss the structure it imposed upon me, to think about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. Having something written just helps, so I’m at it again. Hopefully it’ll be complete by the weekend and I’ll get it up once it’s done.

Until then, have a safe and happy new year.

I thought I’d expand some on the vacation thing and why this is such an unusual occurrence for me.

Growing up, we never took vacations. I can remember a grand total of two that we did when I was a kid (outside of summer camp) – a trip to Disney World when I turned seven, and a month on the road in an RV going to and from New Mexico. In both cases the travel was combined personal and business travel for Dad. The Orlando trip was actually to attend a convention he was going to for work (which happened to coincide with our two birthdays in early October), and the trip to NM was one week getting to Albuquerque, a week in Albuquerque for a convention for Dad (while Mom, my brother and I took day trips around the state), a week at the big boy scout camp in northern NM so my parents could take adult leader training while I hiked the trails and my brother did cub scount stuff, and a week to get home (that was also the trip when Mom finally quit smoking for good).

But that’s really it, again, outside of summer camp with the scouts. We just weren’t a vacation-going family. Not entirely sure why, but we just didn’t take them.

Add to that, once I got out and started working (at the total exclusion of school, that is), I was an intern with a low salary and a crushing amount of student loan debt. Even after paying on these beasts for a decade now, and paying off a couple of them entirely, I still have six figures worth of education debt that I have to service each month. So when I did get out of school, there wasn’t really any excess cash there that was available for “frivolous” things like vacations. Plus the first couple years as a fed they don’t give you a ton of annual leave (until you hit your 3rd year anniversary, where it goes up considerably), so there wasn’t a lot of that available, either. Leave got used to go see relatives for the usual holiday obligations, or on needed errands around town. But going to see relatives is a poor substitute for a vacation (no offense, Mom & Dad!).

Then factor in that I’ve made a nice little niche practice out of doing appropriations law, which is good in that I’m necessary enough to be fairly layoff-proof, but at the same time it means they’re reluctant to let me go for long periods of time because no one else at work does this type of law, so if I’m not there, they tend to stumble hard. This is why I’m not travelling for the inauguration – the closest thing I have to a backup at work will be out on maternity leave sometime close to the inauguration (she’s “due” the day before), so my supervisors had something of a panic attack when I suggested I didn’t want to be here.

Now I’m finally in a place in terms of leave availability (I’m carrying over 80 hours into 2009, plus what I’ll earn over the year) and cash availability (those loans are still there, but are a much smaller percentage of my monthly income, thanks to directed spending on the more expensive ones, and a steady stream of promotions) that I feel like I can take a real, honest-to-heavens vacation. So I am, finally.

Which is all background on why I’m going to be gushing about this for some time to come, and why my planned trip in June/July is so unusual for me. I still can’t quite believe that work gave me over two full weeks of leave at one time; I think I managed to catch my supervisor in the holiday mood with the request and before she had a chance to think about all the “might-be-happenings” while I’m gone (and I fully intend to ignore the work blackberry during this period).

Dear Parental Units,

I’m taking a real, honest-to-heavens vacation in 2009, leave done been requested & approved, so I’m set. I will be gone & out of touch from 19 June 2009 to 5 July 2009. I think, outside of going to Ironman Canada with JT in 1999, that this is the first actual non-me-doing-a-race-or-other-family-related vacation that I’ve taken ever. So, just letting y’all know that I’ll be out of touch for those 2+ weeks for planning purposes.

Moose

Got the boys on their way just now. A quick, but fun visit with them.

When they were on their way here yesterday I asked Kelrick which cuisine he’d like, and got back an enthusiastic “Indian!” in response. Dragged them up to Adams Morgan and one of my favorite restaurants, Jyoti, where we all managed to quickly inhale a good appetizer sampler and the three dishes we ordered. Kel couldn’t stop raving about how much he loved the food – seems it’s difficult a) to find good Indian food in Houston and b) to get suthunuhs to go eat it when you can find it. So that was a lot of fun.

Next we wandered through Dupont and past the 17th St strip to Halo where we were confronted with the frou-frou drink menu from heck, compounded by the bar tender from heck (there was a modicum of attitude there, which his cheekbones, while impressive, did not warrant). Kenny and I ended up getting the blueberry lemonade, which was something of a production (they crush the lemon and blueberries in the glass in front of you), but which was very tasty and sweet. Kel had a blueberry vodka and 7. Thankfully for all involved there was couch space, which we grabbed, and as the alcohol took hold we slowly started commenting to each other on the crowd (I so love being gay just for that little bit of gay cattiness among friends). Brian and Fredo showed up after a bit, with a couple friends, and a little more talking was done, but the three of us were starting to feel a bit worn out by that point, so we got our 2-4-1 special refills and once those were done relinquished the couch to the other boys and caught a cab back to my place.

The plan this morning was for a 5:30 wake up, but a car alarm at quarter to 5 killed that, and when they heard me wander up to the bathroom shortly thereafter they went ahead and started breaking down the spare bed. Got ’em set in the moving van, and they’re off. I’m debating going back to bed, but it’s so warm outside that the apartment is a bit uncomfortable for sleep (and the downstairs neighbor must have been smoking cigarettes – had to light a candle in the bedroom this morning to try and kill the odor; yuck, but at least it wasn’t pot). Cooling the place down first with some cracked windows, then we’ll see about more sleep.

Yay, the arc lamp came in (from my order at the beginning of the month). Boo, the connector for the shade (on the arc) was completely crushed in transit. The base and shade (differently boxed) were fine, thankfully. Will have to drag it back tomorrow to the store and hope they either have a replacement in the back or that they can order a replacement piece quickly. I’d drag it back tonight but I’m waiting for Kelrick & Kenny to arrive now – they texted a bit ago and weren’t too far away.

Went out last night to JR’s, had fun seeing folks, chatting and what not. In a change of pace I had bourbon for the first time in forever (I’ve been sticking to wine & beer of late), and wasn’t too painful today from it. Met a couple boys as well, got some numbers. We’ll see how that works.

And there comes Kelrick, so I need to zip.