serinde

Last year, I had an arm injury over the fall/winter, and did not want to cope with The Full Thanksgiving Monty; so I declared it Cheesegiving, got a pre-made ham, and invited people to bring cheese or cheese-related/adjacent articles. This proved very successful, so I reprised it this year. And again, I think it worked well (except me rolling a botch on the details of one guest's specific food sensitivities - not catastrophic, but inhospitable and I felt very bad about it), but in spite of the supposed idea being "a lot less work", somehow I was quite exhausted in both the run-up and the wind-up. We did have my sister and new brother-in-law staying over for two nights; not that they are difficult house guests, far from it, but since it was the first time they have visited us here, it may be I was frelling about it more than was necessary.

However, both S. and I started feeling a bit crook Saturday, and as of today it is clear that we are both suffering a full-blown cold. It would seem that the host-gift was piping-hot Bostonian germs, oh boy. (Does not appear to be COVID, flu, or any of the other more concerning viruses, at least.) Once again, I do not really have time for this - bad enough that my weekend's housework plans are derailed, but my job between now and the Christmas break is going to be deeply intense & stressful, and I need all of the energy and brains I can muster.

I have laid in much soup and herbal tea.

I rushed home from work early (dissing the COO) to take Ranger to the vet; he had been peeing outside the box a few times in the last few weeks, and I wanted to know if it was physically triggered or just I'm Old, Damn Ya, Get Off My Lawn.

Background: All of the events, except one, have been while I'm home. He paces around yelling at me (as is usual if I am not in one of the Duly Appointed Places), and then his yowl takes on a slightly different note, and then I see he's blessing some random part of the apartment with his wee. (Once I figured out what was going on and carried him to the box before it started, and he was all "OH HEY BOX" and happily peed there instead.) He is using the box the rest of the time just fine. The box has been kept clean. He is eating and drinking and eliminating in usual quantities. So, I had been assuming this was some kind of new power play for attention; but then he did it Tuesday before I got home from work, and on the spot where he had been sleeping by preference, so I thought that this ought be looked at.

They check his weight and temperature and all; fine. They ask me questions which I have chiefly answered above. They ask if there is blood in his urine, or any diarrhea or vomiting or [etc]; no and no and no. The doctor recommends a blood test since his kidney levels were all very poor last time, and I agree heartily. Her guess is that he might have some kind of UTI starting up.

Ensues some hilarity as they try in both of his legs, and can't get his veins to disgorge enough blood for testing. (And the blood they do get looks rather thin and pale, so they figure he's anemic, too.) They take him away to get blood from his neck (I guess it takes deeper magic than you can do in the exam room? or it freaks out the owner?) and are gone for about ten minutes, whilst I look up kidney-disease-in-cats on the interwebs.

Finally they come back having gotten blood and a urine sample, which they show me and are all "There's blood! In the urine! Look at the pink urine!" and I am all WELL THERE WASN'T ON TUESDAY AND I KNOW THIS BECAUSE HE PISSED ON MY PRISTINE WHITE WORK BLOUSES RAWR and they are all "oh oh no no we believe you truly we do but there certainly is blood now". So they gave him an antibiotic shot, and gave me oral antibiotics which I need to give him daily for three weeks, because of course I am going away for two of those three weeks, and aaaaaaaaaaaa, and they will call me tomorrow with the blood test results.

Went to my primary care physician today in re: my Probably Sciatica; not because I thought he could do anything about it, he being an internal medicine dude, but to start the referral wagon in motion. I was expressing how this particular pain was different from my other injuries on that leg, and he said "how many had you had?" and I started recollecting them as best I could, but I thought I missed some. So here's me trying to get them all down. I might be missing some.

Winter, 1997: Both knees: Fell on 'em, hard, while ice skating. For the next year and change, when kneeling down, there would be a point of excruciating pain at one point in the bend, and then it would be okay on the other side of that point...at least until I stood up again. Eventually it went away, but my left knee remains occasionally arthritic.

January, 2003: Left groin muscle, torn at aikido. By someone's pants. Don't ask. Got better after 4-6 weeks, but never really recovered full flexibility.

Burning Man, 2004: Pinky toe: Smashed at Fight Club. I forget which foot it was, though, so maybe doesn't count.

Spring, 2006: Left knee: bursitis, or that's the best guess. Out for a couple weeks.

- strained both rotator cuffs in summer 2006, just to switch it up a little -
- late 2007, switched jobs; stopped going to aikido -
- early 2008, started running for exercise -

June 2008: Left knee, bone spur from running. Stopped hurting after a month or two of not running.

July 2009: Left foot, plantar fasciitis from running. Went away after a month or two of not running + ice + dork sock.

Spring 2010: Left ankle: chronic sprain from aikido injury + mosh pit + not letting it heal. Got better in about 10 weeks of dork boot + proper shoes.

Feb. 2011: Left pinky toe: broken on a cruise ship deck chair. Healed after about two months of dork boot, because wearing any shoe on that foot was excruciating.

And then there's the current whee, that seems to be of two parts comprised: something that feels muscular that started around January, and then the Maybe Sciatica which started after the Stanford trip last month but before I got my new bike.

Jeebus.

I have come down with nedlnthred's lurgy (with really shit-arse timing, I may add), and crawled home from work at 2pm suffering from total enervation, a tetchy throat, and a head packed with pressure. No actual symptoms elsewise, but still deeply miserable. In the hopes of effecting a swift cure, or at least keeping it from getting much worse, I spawned the following procedure:

0. Set up P&P on your televisionary device.
1. Take ye a smallish chicken. Seethe it with carrots, onion, salt, pepper, and whatever other stockish stuff you have lying around, for about 3 hours.
2. Meantime, roast two heads of garlic in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.
3. Strain the broth, reserving the chicken meat and fending off an importunate cat.
4. Chop up most of an onion and saute in olive oil, adding thyme ynogh.
5. After the onion is well along, throw in an additional handful of raw garlic cloves.
6. Let that fry while you squeeze out all the roasted garlic cloves. Throw those in the pot, with about 3.5 cups of broth.
7. Let that cook together for 15-30 minutes, or until the raw cloves are soft.
8. Immersion blender the snot out of it.
9. Stir in 1/2 cup of whatever combination of cream or half-and-half you have to hand.
10. Add the chicken meat and salt & pepper to taste. Let it cook for about 5-10 minutes, but obviously watch out for curdling dairy.
11. Consume while lolling on the couch watching P&P and feeling terribly sorry for yourself.

It's got a really nice flavor and is most kind to the throat and head. It could actually be more garlicky, I think, though maybe my sinus weasels are deadening my smell/taste somewhat.

I tend to view flexible spending accounts as rather like gym memberships: they are viable based on the indolence of the 85% of consumers who pay a lot in advance and then never take real advantage. If you're one of the remaining 15%, and put in the effort, they're sure worth it, but for everyone else the vendor is snickering up its sleeve at you.

Since my glasses start at $500, however, I thought it might be Relevant to my Interests, so I joined when my benefits kicked in on July 1. I didn't think about it until December hit, at which point I was all "oh er better get on that". Fine, no worries. Step 1: find out how much I have accumulated, so I know how many pairs I can buy. Looking through the Folder o' Paperwork, I see that we are through Cigna (even though our health insurance is Oxford; don't ask me, I just work here), so onward to the Cigna web site for online account whee.

The web site wots not of me. A chill runs down my spine.

I phone them yesterday. After navigating the voicemail and waiting in a queue for 20 minutes, I get a recorded message saying "Our facility is temporarily closed right now, please call back later." WELL THAT'S REASSURING

Today, I phone. I am phoning the number listed on the form one uses to get reimbursed for FSA expenses, so I presume it is the right number. I navigate through voicemail, wait in a queue for 15 minutes, get a human. She's never heard of me, and transfers to another who "specializes in FSAs". She's never heard of me, and transfers me to another who "knows more about FSAs". She's never heard of me or of Barnard College.

I phone the Benefits Coordinator in HR. I confirm that we are with Cigna for this service, and I'm enrolled in it.

Your humble correspondent: "But they say they have no record--"
She cuts me off: "You phoned the wrong number."
YHC: "It's the number on--"
She cuts me off: "You phoned the wrong number. You called the medical insurance line, not the FSA line."
YHC: "But the person I talked to--"
She cuts me off: "The number you need to dial is 1-800-XXX-YYYY"
YHC, thoroughly irritated: "THAT IS THE NUMBER I CALLED."
Her: "...Oh. Well. You're definitely enrolled and so you shouldn't have a problem."
YHC: "..."
Her: "..."
YHC: "...So, how do I get Cigna to acknowledge that?"
Her: "I'll call our representative."
YHC: "OK, you'll touch base with me then just so I know what's going on?"
Her: "YES."
YHC: "Great, thanks, bye." *click* @($*!##@!

All I wanted was a pair of glasses. Just one Goddamn pair of glasses.

It's a busy week: the students are moving back into the dorms, the faculty is returning to their offices, everyone's working double tides to make sure everything's right and tight for the start of classes next Tuesday.

Therefore, of course, I've come down sick.

I seem to have fought off most of the symptoms--it's chiefly manifesting as total soul-sucking lassitude and enervation, though with a bit of tetchy throat and sinus headache--but even couch + laptop forces me to set it aside and close my eyes every 40 minutes or so. I OBJECT. STRENUOUSLY.

For once, however, I am being smart and actually staying home instead of trying to power through it; and I'm actually getting some stuff done in my moments of lucidity, which I would not if I had dragged my sorry ass in. The other major goal is to shake it before I have to troop off on a family trip Friday night.

So, a few developments for those who are not living in my brain.

1) I have a new job. My last day at Hunter was Friday, and I'm starting at Barnard on May 10th, where I will be Director of User Services (shut up). This is a big promotion-like thing, and I have moments of shrieking panic, but in my more rational moments I feel tolerably sure I can handle it. I also had the smart of giving myself some time between jobs, which I didn't really have last time 'round; I intended to spend it frolicking around in spring weather, except...

2) So that thing where I hurt my ankle at aikido and then some more in a mosh pit? It was feeling mostly better, so I kept going to class, and I kept going to yoga, and then it started to hurt somewhat when I walked, and then started hurting a lot when I walked, and I did the HMO referrals dance, and the referring ortho couldn't see me til July, and I went back and bibbled at Callen-Lorde's referral dept., and they sent me to the NYU walk-in clinic on Friday who tell me I have a chronic sprain because I haven't just let the stupid thing heal. So I have an air cast and crutches, and I'm supposed to keep off it as much as possible, and wear the (extremely ill-fitting) air cast when walking, and etc. I am coping with this with my usual grace and serenity: which is to say, hanging on by the skin of my teeth and being a whiny little bitch. I seem to have an enforced staycation, except the part where I still seem to be running around a lot. But I'm taking the bus whenever I can, and that's something, yes? In spite of the fact that some of the M66 drivers are rotten fucking people, to the point where one actually closed the doors in my face as I was about to put my foot on the step. (Some of the others are really nice, though, so I guess this evens out.)

3) I still have not hung my curtains. I faithfully swear that I shall call the landlady tomorrow and ask if we have a ladder. I have to change a light bulb anyways. Watch, I'll get them finally up and then hate how they look.

4) As far as I'm aware, we're all still supposed to put our plastic/glass recycling in clear plastic trash bags. So why do none of the stores around me sell 'em?

5) I'm having mental hysterics off-and-on that the progress I'd been making on the weight loss front will now be utterly destroyed by enforced inactivity. Because what can you do without a leg to stand on?

6) I went and asked a boy out, for a number of reasons, not least of which was to confirm that I was capable of doing so. I was ready for "yes", I was ready for "no"; I was not prepared for utter silence. The entire situation has led to numerous reflexions, including that my dating brain appears to be stuck at age 16.

7) I have Rock Band again, which makes me happy, except I really want to drum, but it's my right foot I hit the kick drum with, and that will just not do; and I prefer bass over guitar, but you can't have a solo career as a bassist (tell that to Lemmy, jerkweeds).

8) In spite of all of these bees, I'm doing pretty okay.

We have some several small-form-factor PCs which we were testing for use in the student terminal 2.0 roll-out. One such is a Dell Optiplex 760, which was way too big for the job at hand; and since trying to run Windows in a VM on my desktop iMac eats all my computrons, on spride's advice I snarfed it to stick under my desk and remote into when I have the need to be plunged into the warm gelatinous mass of Redmond.

While I'm at it, why not see if it will PXE boot and talk to our management console? So I hook it up at our testing bench and turn it on.

1. No BIOS, it just
2. goes directly to a crippled XP configuration screen
3. THAT PLAYS REPETITIVE HORRIBLE MUSIC REALLY REALLY LOUD THAT YOU CANNOT TURN OFF UNTIL YOU GO THROUGH IT ALL

Ensued then a Three Stooges-like routine involving me frantically searching it for a volume control (there isn't one), or an "off" tickybox on the screen (there isn't one), or a physical control on the machine itself (there isn't one), or failing that A PILLOW TO STICK IT UNDER (none of those either) so as not to disturb the fifteen other people in earshot.

Eventually it booted to XP proper, and hopefully this will not recur on the next reboot; but I have procured a heavy coat to throw over it just in case.

I submit Yet Another bug report to Payroll about their precious new web app, which is once again puking unindicative server errors at me. The response, in its entirety:

"You need to find out first if you filled out it, please call me to go throu. x 12345"

I returned this evening from the podiatrist, who judges that I have plantar fasciitis. Short form if you are suffering TL;DR: the connective stuff on the bottom of my (left) foot? It's inflamed and sad. This happens if you run, if you're overweight, if you're female, if you lug heavy stuff around, and if you wear high-heels or flip-flops (any shoes without arch support, basically). OH GOSH WELL I DON'T DO ANY OF THAT

So. I am to take ibuprofen for a week, and I am to ice the sad bit 2 or 3 times per day. I am to do stretching exercises[1]. I am not to run. I am to try and keep off it, and not do things that bother it. And I am to wear sensible shoes with arch support. IN SUMMER. kill stab hate kill

I am feeling whiny and oppressed; and also, if packing extra poundage contributes, how am I gonna lose it if I have to keep off my feet?! (The college pool is open, but I find laps so unspeakably tedious I can't stick to them... On sweh's advice I am looking into waterproof MP3 players, which would tidily solve my problem, but they seem to be much expense for low functionality.)

[1] One of the primary causes is tightness in the Achilles tendon and hamstrings. Yoga for almost a year? And I still have tightness there? what does it take