Argh! I was supposed to see Keane tonight and I can’t make it. I was really looking forward to it!!! It was a special, super-small gig at the Roxy I was LUCKY to get tickets for. Now my friends are going and I can’t. Boo! They have a new album out soon, so I’m sure they’ll tour soon to support it. So disappointed though, I saw one of these shows at the Roxy for Under the Iron Sea and it was amazing.

Not much I can do about it though.

Next time!!!

I went out with an acquaintance I haven't seen in a while this past weekend. We used to be very close friends, but I felt that wasn't such a good idea any more, so I'd stepped back. This was kind of a test to see if I'd made the right decision...I had. We had a good time driving up the coast to do some outlet shopping. They live at the beach (Right across the street from it!) so it made more sense to take Ocean and head-up PCH, rather than drive to the Valley and take the always crowded 101. We had a decent time. Not spectacular by any means, but it was okay. Not terrible though. Maybe one day we'll be back to how we were. It will take a lot though. Good news is I didn't find anything to buy, other than a blouse for work, so at least I saved some money!


Progress!!! I think Facebook may have finally figured out, after 9+ years of never really using it (I don't remember setting up the account!) that it’s not worth it for them to send me the usual daily barrage of emails about “updates” of friends. It’s been so nice not having my inbox clogged with their status emails!!! Am I out of the loop on the happenings of my friends? Yeah, but that’s okay. Actually, I’m not even sure if I have any “friends” on there any more! It’s been forever since I checked. Maybe I don’t get the notices because they’ve all ditched me?


Yes, I’m THAT person! The one that you find in every group that doesn’t use social media on any kind of regular basis. Maybe once a year I’ll respond to birthday wishes or I’ll accidentally click on something that will take me to Facebook (and I close it immediately when I see it has done so), but that’s it. I can’t tell you the last time I was on Twitter, I don’t have an Instagram and I don’t shop on business websites if that website is through Facebook. I’m not sure why I have such an aversion to them, to be honest. I used to LOVE Twitter! I was on it all the time!!! Myspace was cool too. I dunno. I guess I don’t trust that my information is safe, the news is real and that they are truly friendly places to express yourself.

Someone I know (or used to know), who is the gentlest of souls, got EXCORIATED by trolls on facebook for writing their opinion. On their own page!! It was so bad, they shut down the page (I thought they’d unfriended me when I went on and saw they weren’t there...I sent them a sad email, I’m sure they thought and still think I’m crazy for being so sensitive and out of touch!). The hate people spew when you happen to have beliefs and opinions that are different to theirs is out of control. There is no such thing as a friendly discussion and an exchange of ideas and opinions any more. You either agree or you are a piece of shit that needs to be yelled at, insulted and threatened. I’m not cut out for that environment! I was horrified that this person had to go through that. My heart was sick at how people treated them. No wonder they shut down the page for a while!!

Do people still enjoy social media? The nastiness, fraud, doctored news, scams, the addiction to checking your phone.... Maybe it’s just me. I guess I must be a sad, isolated person and I need something in my life that will spark an interest and make me want to be a part of that? Who knows? I'm probably too closed off for it.

Have you been on a date or out with a friend and they had their phone on the table and checked it every few minutes? I have. It was odd. Enjoy the time! Be present in your experiences. You don’t always have to document everything in real time. Me? I put my phone in my bag and look at it when I get home (or if my companion leaves the table). I want the folks I'm with to know I'm invested in our time spent together.

I guess I’m just weird!!! (No comments from the peanut gallery thankyouverymuch!)

I DO enjoy scrolling through Pinterest though, that’s fun!

Social media commentary over!!!

For those who are interested, the gash to my finger has all but healed. It’s now just a pink scar that you only see if I flex it. My back is almost 100% better and I’m healing nicely from the surgery. You gotta love all that! I've even taken the grandma pillows off the drivers seat in my car! Yesterday was the first pillow-free commute! Awesome!!!

I’ve got a concert at the Roxy coming up early next week that I’m supposed to go to and, barring anything extraordinary, it’s looking like I’ll be able to make it. On a work night no less!

Yikes! I hope I’m not crabby at the office the next day!!

GAH, Gotham is yelling, I'd better see what it's about.

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!!

I’m happy to report that I had a good day today. My back barely hurt when I got into the car to drive to work and I only had to use ONE old lady throw pillow as support!!! Plus, as far as healing goes, my finger is looking good and the scar should be barely noticeable in the end, PLUS my surgery incisions are healing really well and I’m hopeful the scar tape I’m using will do it’s job and the scars will be flat and blend into my skin. In addition to all that, I had a really good day at work and even though there was a bad accident on the FWY on my way home, I only had a few minutes added on to my normal commute time! Now it’s time to relax!

A good day by any measure! Even the unbearable heat can’t dampen my mood!

I bought some grenadine this past weekend (I don’t know what happened to mine), so I think I may make a Shirley Temple or a Roy Rogers to drink before dinner. It’s too hot for cocktails (drinking a measly drop of alcohol will result in a hangover when it’s this warm... it’s currently 100F here). Plus I don’t usually drink alcohol Monday through Thursday, so I’m looking forward to something other than boring flavored water, iced tea or diet coke. Yay!

I've come to the realization that I am an old, broken down mess.

Healing after surgery is a lot slower than I expected. I had the weird experience of having about 7 internal stitches decide that they wanted to work their way up through my skin. Luckily, I had my 3-week post op appointment this week and my surgeon took care of them. Other than that, I made good strides this past week, but hit a hurdle two weeks ago with something else.

I was getting ready to change clothes and run errands a couple Saturdays ago and stopped to yawn and stretch. Apparently, my recent lack of mobility fucked with my muscles because I pulled my "Rhomboid Major" muscle group. The pain was so bad I hit the floor! Breathing, walking, laying down....everything was the worst pain I have felt in decades, including my recent surgery. I couldn't even go to work. Luckily, I'm normally super healthy so I have WEEKS of sick time accrued. Driving was impossible that first week, so on the days I tried to go into the office, a gal from work picked me up and brought me home. It's taking so long to heal! I can do short bursts of things, but then my back starts to burn and I have to lay down.

Which leads me to the dumb thing I did earlier today.

One of the platforms on my cats HUGE cat condo was wobbly, so I thought I'd try and fix it. Easy, right? I can do that sitting down! I was able to unscrew the post and take the small unit to the couch. Separating the platform from the post was more difficult (this was the part that wobbled). It took a while, but I did it. Thing is, I'm not sure they were supposed to be taken apart. It kinda looked like I broke it.

In order to get a better look, I grabbed some reading glasses and got some tools. Bad idea. I'm not quite sure how I managed it, but the hand holding a pair of pliers slipped and I sliced the top of my middle finger, right below the knuckle On a sharp jagged metal edge of the post. Deep. I've never seen the inside of my finger before this morning. It was so gross and gushing blood. I'd also gotten a small cut on my index finger, not a bad one, but it contributed to the blood flow mess. I rushed to the bathroom and ran cold water over my fingers and tried to get toilet paper to apply pressure without bleeding all over the place (I failed). I had to sit on the floor to try and get bandages on it, but they kept getting soaked through and making a mess. I actually got scared (very rare for me) and figured I needed to get into clothes meant for leaving the house (if I had to go to the E/R), so I had to try and get dressed and put on/tie shoes while trying to hold my hand in the air above my head (except when doing a poor job tying the shoes, using all but the gashed fingers), blood streaming down my arm. I finally called a guy I work with whose wife is in medicine to see what I should do. They were out of town, but walked me through some steps. It took a while, but the bleeding finally stopped. They said I should be okay without going to urgent care, which made me feel less scared.

My hand really hurts, my back really hurts and my incisions from my surgery hurt.

Again, I'm an old, broken down mess.

Tomorrow will be different though, I'm gonna feel great and get shit done!!

This is a short one. Made it through surgery. Was more complicated than they expected, so it was about 5 1/2 hours instead of 3 1/2 and I had a really hard time in recovery and with pain at home later (I decided not to take the pain meds). Very grateful to my mom for coming down to help me. I had my 1-week post op appt yesterday and I believe everything is okay. Another appt in 2 weeks.

Home office visit in FL beforehand was neat. Will discuss later.

Today was my first day back at work, luckily my boss let me go home a bit early. I’m exhausted. In fact, I was exhausted after getting dressed this morning.

Off to rest...

Well, I had another birthday. It was okay. I didn’t feel too good on the day, so I didn’t go out. I did celebrate with friends on other days, which was nice.

Work has been really very busy! We opened a new office within walking distance of my apartment, which worked out well for me as my boss asked me to go there and help train and transition the business. I wouldn’t want to work that close to my home long-term, but it’s nice walking to work sometimes. If the weather is nice (it’s too hot now).

The only snag I’ve encountered was the day that I got a bloody nose JUST as I was walking in to Starbucks to pick-up my mobile order. Not having any tissues on me, I grabbed some of their brown napkins and kept going on my way to the office. Once I got to the building, I realized it wasn’t open yet (it was 6am) and I didn’t have an access card. Fortunately, a security guard came through the door and I asked if he could let me come in and also unlock the elevator. He stared at me for a few beats and said “Ma’am, are you okay? Do you need anything?”. At that point I realized how odd it must have been for a stranger, dressed in business attire, holding a bunched up bloody Starbucks napkin to their face while asking to be let in to the secure building must have looked! He was nice though and let me up.

I had my two week pre-op appointments. Yikes! Things sure have changed in the 12 years it’s been since the last time I had this done! So much to do and so much I can’t do. I’m still getting my place ready for my mom to come visit. Watch, she’ll show-up, walk through the door and proclaim it’s too hot and we’re going to a hotel.

Next up- Maybe a few more short visits to the office by my house, then I have to head to FL to work for a few days and after that I’m off work for a bit for my surgery.

I hope the weather cools down a little!

It’s the start of a nice, 3-day holiday weekend!

How will I be spending it? Trying to put my closets back in order!! I volunteered at the Downtown Women’s Center on Skid Row last weekend and, as always, I brought huge bags of donations. In order to get stuff together to donate, I thrashed through my stuff and threw everything all over the place. The entire last week, I’ve been unhappily living amongst piles of clothes, shoes, books and stuff. Not acceptable!

Another thing I might take care of is, if I can, I want to try and make the baseboards look better too. The person that painted my apartment before I moved in apparently didn’t clean before painting, so they painted over dirt and it looks grimy. Plus, they didn’t paint over some spackled spots. They just did a shitty job in general.

I also need to move one last set of curtain rods in the living room up closer to the ceiling. I bought a corded drill last weekend now that my old rechargeable one finally died and I’m tired of trying to screw things in above my head by hand. It takes too long and I’m too lazy.

So, apart from Target and maybe Home Depot, I’m hanging out doing domestic stuff.

Living the dream!