trogdor!!

i'm a little cranky right now because i'm sore still. my face is ready to declare mutiny and secede from the rest of my body, and i think i have a suture sticking out. sorry. i'll try not to be gross for the rest of this post.

i just went to my last poli sci class for this quarter. my prof was a former lieutenant governor of ohio, which made for some unique inside knowledge of the overall topic - campaigns and elections. we've been talking a lot a lot about the '08 election. i'm trying to reserve judgment on the candidates so far, although i pretty much already know the people i don't like. i'm just trying not to like anyone too much this early in the game. it's not working very well :) but the class was great. it was a 430/630, which meant we had a couple of grad students in class and the rest were undergrad but almost all majors. so that made for some good classroom discussion. the entire thing was conducted more or less like a group discussion class. and even though i didn't have to watch because i'm done with class now, i actually want to go back and watch this past sunday's meet the press. we had to watch it every week for class and now it feels kinda cool to have that habit. not that tim russert has a monopoly on truth around here, but he asks a question and lets whatever talking head or politician is on for the week actually answer the question. or inexpertly dodge it, whatever.

anyway. in about 45 minutes i have my last geology class of the quarter, followed only by our final exam on wednesday. i have to say, i wish i could take the next class in this series next quarter. unfortunately, it coincides exactly with a class i promised another professor i'd take. that one is an am lit class on writings during reconstruction, more or less, up to about the turn of the century - mark twain and henry james and shit like that. i'd taken his class on am lit 1820-1865 in the fall and he'd asked me to come back and write another paper for him. how could i say no? so i'd already planned my schedule around that one class, and that happened to be the only time geology 106 is offered in the spring. but the am lit class comes around once a year, if that, and gl 106 is offered every stinkin' quarter, so i knew my choice. too bad, though, because my geology professor keeps things interesting. he'll go off onto some tangent about chemistry or astrophysics and how they relate to, say, plate tectonics, and he'll be all erudite and interesting, and just then he'll somehow bring in the smurfs or buttcracks or something. totally my kind of class. (my prof is early 30's, barely older than i am, so just in case you were picturing some 70-year-old dude talking about buttcracks, i'm here to clear things up for you.)

i want to be able to eat real food! i liked my broccoli cheddar soup for lunch but really, how much soup can i consume? i have jello at home, though. mmmmmmm jello. and pudding. i have never felt so much like a 4-year-old. well, other than when i *was* 4. but i digress.

rosie perez was amazing last monday. she has so much to say about the condition of puerto rico and about the horrifying things that have been done to the women on that island. one in every three women in puerto rico has been surgically sterilized, and my government did this, ostensibly in an effort to reduce poverty, which of course has risen since the sterilization program was put in place. just another excuse to continue absconding with resources while blaming the citizens. ms. perez made a documentary - watch it if you haven't yet. it's called yo soy boricua, pa' que tu lo sepas! and it traces the history of puerto rico and vieques and their colonization and exploitation. (and i need an upside-down exclamation point in there somewhere, but i don't remember how to do it and i'm too tired to look it up right now. i can do ñ all day long but not that one. ññññ.) i caught it on bravo a couple of months ago and was simply transfixed.

my sweetie and i went to noho over presidents day weekend. once again, we ate our way through town. this time i got him to spoleto, which was amazing, of course, because it is spoleto. we had to get a poppyseed bagel with scallion spread from hayfield (which to me will always be the vermont deli), and we had to get scallion pancakes from taipei and tokyo, and we had to get anything at all from the haymarket, and we had to get bath beads from the cedar chest. and we spent much of the rest of our time addicted to hgtv. i don't know what it is about watching shows about flipping houses, but we could not turn it off. so not interesting when we're at home but it just grabbed us this time. we both came away convinced that we are *not* ready to own a house.

past that, we spent just a few hours at a time in town because it was so cold. this was right after aaaaaall that snow came through. paradise pond was frozen over and everyone was out skating on it. i'd never seen that before. it was what people imagine new england to be in the winter. it was like a norman rockwell painting. we finally did something i'd never done, which was to go sledding on hospital hill. the whole thing was one big block of ice, so each bump that i hit knocked the wind out of me a little bit. i ended up chickening out on the top of the hill and went down about halfway downslope. my sweetie went from the top of the hill and slide probably a quarter mile. i should mention we did this at night, which made the whole endeavor that much scarier. and then i got upset with myself for chickening out and burst into tears. but i dried my eyes and we drove around holyoke for a while and eventually found our way back to chicopee falls, where we were staying, and got hot chocolate at dunkin donuts and watched hgtv until we fell asleep.

oh, my hair has bled out to green. just in time for st. patrick's day, as everyone has reminded me. part of me wants to research the history of my irish and scots-irish and welsh ancestors on that day, sort of as a primer on the persecution they endured at the hands of the british, and make it about more than green beer and kiss-me shirts. and the rest of me right now just wishes i could have some green beer but for my mouth and its missing teeth.

quick update. i am coming down with a cold. all day i've had a sore throat and my ears have been stuffed up. perfect day to go to best buy orientation. oh well, it's only four hours and most of that will be paperwork and stupid videos. i just detest getting dressed when i'm not feeling well. all i want to do is sit around in a bathrobe and drink grapefruit juice.

i had a marvelous time in the tri-state area with my delicious aliyaskie! and i will have to journal about it later. but we had enormous fun, and we got to hang out with my brother, and good times were had. so thank you, chicky. *hugemous hugs*

i'm on tenterhooks (nobody ever uses that word anymore) waiting to find out whether i got into school. i don't think there'll be a problem, but i did have to petition to get in because of the way i left smith. of course, that's been six years, and i told them it's been six years and i've sorta lived since then. but i wanna know nooooowowwwwwwowowow dammit.

my ribs suck!

so right after christmas, i was walking through the mall and had this weird feeling under one of my ribs. so i twisted a little to adjust, and bam! felt like i was gonna throw up. dizzy, momentarily couldn't see, needed to sit down a lot. that part let up after a couple of minutes, but i was still left with this insane discomfort and tightness in my ribcage-type area and tenderness when i pressed certain places on my ribs. it didn't go away, so after about a week, i went to the doctor. he said i'd dislocated one of my floating ribs. never knew i could do that. he popped my back and gave me motrin and sent me home.

felt better for about a month. then it felt as though the rib slipped out again. same symptoms, minus that first ten minutes of bleah. waited three weeks, mentioned it to the doc during a routine thingy. he very graciously popped my back again and said there was weakness there that was causing it. so i resolved to strengthen my back. i did a couple weeks of working out; then my job got crazy, and then i went on vacation. so a couple of weeks of not working out.

now it's happened again! this is ridiculous. i don't like the thought that this could become a chronic condition. so i've made an appointment for tomorrow, and in the meantime i googled and found something called slipping (or slipped) rib syndrome, which sounds like what i'm experiencing. i get the abdominal issues and the stiff back and the shortness of breath and the whole bit. i'm hoping this time a more permanent solution is at hand. seems as though there are some recommendations, mostly involving short-term rest, chiropractic manipulation, and motrin, and long-term strengthening exercises. also something called prolotherapy, which involves long needles and is Not Gonna Happen™. but none of it is a guarantee. (oh, also, my insurance doesn't cover chiropractic work, although it does cover physical therapy.)

trying to be pragmatic, but i'm feeling a little pessimistic right now.