I guess I could go for a hobble

Alas, a horrible fate has befallen me on this day. Since I've moved, every day I've been out and about doing stuff in some form or other. Biking around, taking walks, running errands sans vehicle, going to play in Frick. I've even been doing a touch of running, which comes as a great surprise to everyone including myself due to my long history of stress fractures and bad knees. (I can't explain it--it's like living here has infused me with some magic strength that has reinforced my shins or something. But just wait for the post where my legs have snapped in two.)

Well, over the weekend I was camping down in Cinci, and at some point (I think during a romp through the woods with four other people on a single ATV, but I'm not sure) I bummed my foot out pretty good. I can still get around, but I pulled most of the muscles and tendons on the bottom and outside of my right foot. So pedestrian exercise is out for me for a little bit. But, I still have my bike--I can ignore whatever aggravation of the injury happens when I pedal. No biggie, my outdoor and exercise addictions are still sated.

Sadly, today my bike got sick and had to go to the bike doctor. Which means tomorrow I have to drive to work. And drive home. And there isn't a whole lot I can do as far as getting in my daily fix for out-and-about-ness unless my foot makes a dramatic recovery. The two-wheeled bumblebee is supposed to be fixed by Friday, but you never know sometimes.

I've been in this apartment just long enough to realize that my dream of constant outdoors and exercise truly is everything I ever thought it could be...only to have it mercilessly ripped away! For a day or two anyhow. But what if it's two?? Or worse yet.....THREE??? If worst comes to worst, I still have my old crutches.

I am sad and disgusted

I generally don't put the same post on both of my blogs, but seeing this story has broken my heart, and I just have to.

Words cannot express the dismay and sadness. This girl was not just abused by her father, she was apparently abandoned by an entire neighborhood. All these people are coming out of the woodwork with stories of how terrible the situation was, how widespread knowledge of the abuse was. Where were they when they could have done some good?

One person could have opened their mouth and saved this girl. Instead they did nothing. They knew what was going on, and did nothing. They heard her screams, and they did nothing.

Now she stands held as an adult, for taking the only option she could see available to end her terrible pain. Unless the authorities rethink this one, she will be victimized yet again.

My heart is broken. My heart is crying and broken for this poor girl.

Please, read about this and take this story to heart. I hope nobody has to be confronted with such a situation, but if you ever find yourself in the same place as these people, I beg you, have the courage to do what is right. Too many children are helpless victims to the people who are supposed to care for them and protect them. You may think it's none of your business, or be afraid of getting mixed up in something. But you can be that child's hero. If the people with the knowledge and ability to save them don't, then no one will.

The Best Cartoon Ever

Clicky clicky.

Word.

Don't Encourage Me

I'm on the phone with my friend MG who read about my office supply plight. A recent JD victim...er...recipient, she's been providing constant input for my plans to return to the hallowed halls of learning next year and chase down my own. So, it's a little bit ahead of time, but she set me up with a nice office supply shopping list for next fall:

Highlighters
Highlighters
Highlighters

...and...

maybe some highlighters.

What is that I hear? Is that my Office Depot membership card crying out from lack of use? I've been ignoring the poor thing...

My Paper Clip Crisis

In order to save some space at my new digs I've decided to forego an actual desk; for now I have an old PC that I can work from my couch thanks to the miracle of wireless crap, and eventually I'm getting a new laptop. On the one hand I really like it because the apartment just isn't that big so it frees up more space, and it also eliminates one of those typical places where clutter and crap builds up easily.

On the other hand, I've found that I'm having an existential desk crisis. The cause: A deeply-rooted obsession with office supplies.

Yes, office supplies.

I love them. I admit it. I get jealous when my friends go to Office Depot, OfficeMax, or Staples without me. I love wandering around looking at all the clever organizational gizmos. There are few things I hold onto more tightly than a really good pen. Ah...composition books, thick markers, label makers, filing cabinets, binders, and of course paper. Oh, the aisles of paper. And don't even get me started on calendars. If you've been to my place you know my dirty secret about calendars.

Well, in losing my desk, I'm losing my home base for questionable purchases of frivolous office supplies. It becomes a lot harder to justify buying stuff when you've lost the obvious place to keep it. I still get stuff of course, but not as much, and it has to live in a bookcase which is just not as much fun.

Sometimes I think, why lose the desk? Do I really need that table? Can't I just stack my clothes in laundry baskets? Would a bunch of pillows really be less comfortable than the couch? Ultimately sanity returns and I realize the desk was the right choice to go, but my heart cries a little.

My Poor Buccos

Dejan Kovacevic passed along the following video...if you're a Pirate fan, you won't know whether to laugh or cry. If you're not a Pirate fan, just laugh. But the next time you come across one of the Bucco faithful, remember it and be kind.

Yes, the last time the Bucs had a winning season, Christopher Reeve was still walking; apartheid was still in place in South Africa, and 23 current teams in the four major sports leagues either did not exist or existed in a different incarnation, 10 in the NHL alone. But, I won't spoil it all for you--see for yourself!

And that's just what they were able to fit into the length of the song. Let's see...what else has happened since my boys last won? David Beckham made his first start in the English Premier League; Martin Luther King Day was officially observed in all 50 states; the Branch Davidian complex in Waco was sieged and burned; the US Marines entered Somalia; Arthur Ashe, River Phoenix and Richard Nixon died; the Brady Bill became law; the following movies were released: Schindler's List, Philadelphia, The Lion King, The Crying Game; the following shows all began and ended their original runs: Absolutely Fabulous (began and ended twice), The X-Files, Beavis and Butthead, the Power Rangers, and NYPD Blue; the Chunnel opened between England and France....

Oh, I could go on.

Surreality

It's weird to look around at what have been the artifacts of your life for several years, and know that they will no longer be. The apartment and the things in it will continue to be part of someone else's life, someone who I will always know and love very well, but no longer mine. If anything, knowing those people so well makes it even weirder. These objects which I once thought would be an integral part of the rest of my life--silly collected items, photos, gadgets, toys, decorations--are relegated to the periphery. They will still be present to me, but now distant and unknown in a certain way.

So in case you couldn't tell, I've moved, and the final packing and stuff-dividing was very strange. Certainly, the things that were hers before we met continue to be hers, but I had also come to know them as part of the setting of my life, which they no longer are. Stranger is the division of the myriad items acquired during the course of three shared years, reminders of happier times and strong emotion. What is more sad, when she wants something and you lose that physical reminder of happy memories, or when she doesn't care about something and you wonder if the meaning was as strong as you thought?

I don't want anyone to get the idea from this post that I am very materialistic, that I'm blown away by the loss of things. Little could be farther from the truth. But I guess for me, the removal of those physical objects represents that final, complete separation. Of course, I also don't want anyone to get the idea that I wish the relationship was still intact. Since we split, the separation was always there, always good, and always undeniable. Now it is just final. And man, when you spent that long assuming your life was following a certain path, the final erasure of that path is weird, no matter how good and necessary it is.