Anxiety, hope and music

It's been a rough few days. We had a seminar on post-traumatic stress disorder and complex trauma on Tuesday and since then, I've just felt exhausted and emotional. I'm suddenly very, very aware of how much I have to do by June and it's suddenly made me very anxious. I need to prepare 2 presentations, write a seminar paper and make major corrections to my Research Masters dissertation. By last night, I was so anxious that I ended up taking some medication to help me sleep. I've felt a bit better as today has progressed and finishing class at 11:30 today really helped! I'm just taking it one thing at a time and hoping to stay as calm as possible. And listening to happy music helps, so here's the song that's got be through today.

Monday silliness

I've noticed that the standard response when you ask someone how they are is "Good!". Having spent 4 months with my MACC class and a fair amount of time with the other psychology Masters classes, I know how much pressure we're all under (some more than others). As a result, I'm pretty sure that none of us are, in fact, "good".

I tested this theory today with one of the Clinical Psychology students. I ran into him in the foyer of the building where our offices are this morning, and asked him how he was. The conversation went something like this:

Clin: Hey! How are you?
Me: Good. How are you?
Clin: Okay.

I don't know what possessed me, but I suddenly asked him if he really was "okay", or if he was just saying that because it was the standard response between all of us at the moment. It sadly didn't lead to a deep philosophical conversation, or any sort of meaningful interaction. Maybe it was too early in the morning. I just confused him and he disappeared into the safety of the bathroom.

I found the whole incident strangely funny. Maybe it was because it was Monday morning. I raced up to my office in giggles, and told the rest of the class what had happened. I then proceeded to do my strange, hyper dancing to music in my head thing, which tends to worry people. It all somehow reminded me of this awesome scene from "Garden State".

"Come on. What are you, shy? This is your one opportunity to do something that no one has ever done before and that no one will copy again throughout human existence. And if nothing else, you will be remembered as the one guy who ever did this. This one thing." -Sam

Procrastination - and things that make me happy :)

I've got a seminar paper to write and a presentation to do, but I've been feeling weird all weekend and now have a gigantic headache. All the time that I've been spending in front of the computer (procrastinating, rather than actually writing) has given me nasty neck ache, which has triggered a horrible headache this morning.

As a result, I'm distracting myself (from the work as much as the headache) with random things. One of these is the collection of pictures which I've downloaded from various websites and blogs over the last few years. There's quite an assortment of things - although cute cats seem to dominate. So, just for fun, here are a few pictures from the collection.

I'm alive! (but only just...)

It has been a shockingly long time since I've posted anything on my blog. My MA degree (yes, a second one) has taken over my life in every way possible! I'm doing a Masters in Community-based Counselling Psychology and slowly losing my mind and life in the process. My clinical supervisor has told me to start keeping a journal - mostly because I'm apparently not in touch with my emotions. I can probably do it - between 3 and 4 in the morning! As a result, I'm trying to get back into blogging, because it's as close to a journal as I can manage!

The degree is ridiculously demanding in terms of coursework. We are on campus 5 days a week, and are usually there for most of the day. We tend to have lectures in the mornings and then have to see clients and have supervision in the afternoons. It is exhausting and there's just so much to do! I have 5 seminars to present throughout the year, and 4 of them require me to write seminar papers (of about 30 pages). And my research project also needs to be done at some point. And I have to present a client in a case conference. And... There is just SO much!

My neck and shoulders are a mess at the moment. I'm supposed to be writing a seminar paper on schizophrenia and doing a presentation for one of my other courses. And procrastination has hit - big time! All I want to do is go for a drive to Emmarentia and take photos of the autumn trees! I am resorting to bribing myself - if I can do some work, I'll reward myself by going for a run later. In the meantime, I leave you with my motto for the day.

The light at the end of the tunnel

I'm handing in my MA on Thursday. The end is near! Hurray!

Monday Morning Madness

I am still alive - albeit barely! Things have been mad, but it's actually been quite fun. In retrospect. Basically, 2 months ago, the morning receptionist at work broke her ankle while she was in Durban. Ankles are funny things, and never seem to result in simple breaks, and so she had to stay in Durban, have surgery and then get her husband to drive her back to Jo'burg. As a result, I was thrown in the deep end of having to work morning shifts in addition to my afternoon shifts, and I had to train our new afternoon receptionist to do mornings as well. Naturally, this would all happen as I was trying to finish my MA draft.

It was not a pleasant 6 weeks. I would wake up at 5:30 and go for a run (or work on my MA), have breakfast, go to work at 7:15, get back from work at about 11:30, work on the MA some more (or have a power nap out of desperation), go back to work for my afternoon shift and then come home and work on the MA again. I would usually have some afternoons off, but all of this coincided with the afternoon receptionist's Unisa exams, so I ended up working a lot of her afternoon shifts as well.

Somehow, however, through all of this, I have managed to produce a semblance of a draft of my MA, which has gone off to my supervisor and which has now come back to me for more corrections. So far (I'm only on page 4), it doesn't seem too bad. I'm hoping to get it done this week and then send it back to her for further inspection. I'd quite like the entire MA thing to be done and dusted by December, if only because I start MA number 2 (Masters in Community and Counselling Psychology) in the 3rd week of January. And somewhere along the line, I'd quite like to have an MA-free week or 2!

The "to do" list for this week is thus:

1. finish MA corrections


2. bake red velvet cake for my mom's birthday


3. start some MA #2 reading


4. go running


5. survive the heat wave that seems to have swept Jo'burg

I hope to have good news soon!

At last!

After 3 years of applying, and 2 years of being on the waiting-list (and living in hope and then not-hope), I've finally been accepted into the Masters in Community-based Counselling Psychology degree! Woop woop! Myself and 11 other psychoanalytic souls will be selling our sanity to the academic gods for a year. I'm excited! And terrified. And uncertain. Because of the uncertainty, I've applied for Clinical Psychology Masters as well. I'm busy going through the interviews this week. I've fluctuated between feeling very confident and very guilty, and both feelings are related to the fact that I've already been accepted for a degree. I'm risking angering the MACC crowd by applying, but I've also noticed that 2 other people are doing exactly the same thing. My reason for applying is basically that I know more about clinical theory than I do about community stuff, and so I'm really just making my life easier. Hopefully. This didn't stop me receiving a very dirty look and a "What on earth are you doing?" from one of the MACC lecturers when he saw me standing outside the office, waiting for my clinical interview. I'm waiting to by lynched - either by one of the lecturers or one of my fellow applicants.

This basically sums up how I feel right now:

And in other news, I really want one of these:
http://www.bandstores.co.uk/shop/freddieforaday/proddetail.php?prod=32860703

Of Bears

As someone who did a degree in English Literature, I do occasionally struggle with the fact that my boyfriend (HOMSI) is dyslexic. He's worked really hard to improve his reading, and he and I have similarly extensive book collections. That said, his spelling is often interesting to say the least. Which makes for some fun, like today's SMS conversation:

Candice: I haven't heard from you in a while. Are you still alive?

HOMSI: Bearly.

Candice: Panda or grizzly?

HOMSI: Grizzzlly.

Candice: Breathe. Connect with your inner koala.

HOMSI: I have a panda.

I now realise that koalas aren't bears, but marsupials. Sorry. They are terribly cute though. Observe below:

C'mon, c'mon...

When I heard that Kylie Minogue was coming to perform in South Africa, I really couldn't have cared less. Unfortunately, because the concert is this weekend, the radio stations have been playing her music as if there's no tomorrow. Because of this song being played repeatedly, I am now forced to admit that some small part of me may want to be in a crowd full of people, singing along, when she performs this on stage. Oh, the shame!

Male broodiness

For what it's worth, I'm not sure if men get broody, but if they do, then HOMSI definitely has a case of male broodiness.

It all started on Sunday, when his neighbour's tabby cat came to visit us. This cat (which I've named Charlie, simply because it's a suitably gender-neutral name and I can't for the life of me figure out if said cat is male or female) is ridiculously friendly and probably falls into the category of "aggressively affectionate". It was sitting on the outside windowsill of HOMSI's place, but as soon as we opened the window, it came inside. What followed was about 20 minutes of head-scratching on our part, and lots of purring from Charlie, who also decided to purr all over HOMSI's couch and stairs, as if to claim them as his/her own. I eventually coaxed Charlie back outside (I was slightly worried that some neighbourhood dispute might arise if HOMSI's neighbours thought we'd stolen Charlie), and he rolled happily in the grass (and then attacked my hand when I tried to tickle his tummy).

Later that evening, when HOMSI was driving me home, we had the following (strange) conversation:

• HOMSI: I nearly bought a guinea pig today.



• Me: Why?



• H: They had them at the Lifestyle Garden Centre and they were cute.



• M: (containing laughter) Oh. Okay.



• H: I'm seriously considering getting a cat.



• M: Why? (while barely able to contain excitement and amusement)



• H: I don't like coming home to an empty house in the evenings.



• M: Do you want me to move that ugly cactus that your mom gave you back inside?
  

The "I don't like coming home to an empty house" part is apparently seriously indicative of broodiness (according to Kath). Since HOMSI has given up trying to get me to move in with him (it would be a ridiculous commute to work), I'm quite excited about the prospect of him getting a cat. HOMSI's garden is quite small, and so he would have to get a small dog. Unfortunately, no "manly" small dogs exist - and the men who own small dogs generally have life partners. HOMSI likes big dogs, like Great Danes and St. Bernards and so toy poms, yorkies and sausage dogs are not an option. And his garden is far too small for a Jack Russell. So, he has opted for a cat. A giant cat. Yes, my boyfriend has fallen in love with Maine Coons. They can weigh up to 11kg, are huge and fluffly, have manes and are pretty much like owning a tiger.

The only problem is that HOMSI would quite like a rescue cat. Where we would find a homeless Maine Coon is our first problem - the second being how much Sinutab HOMSI will have to consume to be able to breathe, since he's mildly allergic to cats. Maybe the guinea pig is a good idea after all.

Questioning things

The point at which I really started wondering whether things would work out with us was about 400km into our 600km roadtrip.

I changed the CD. Somehow, of the 10 tracks on it, the one he loves the most is the 1 track that I want to skip.

A quick note

I've come to realise that writing up my epic MA (and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting) has made me blog a lot less. I actually can't even remember when I last posted anything. *Bad Candice. Very bad Candice. No biscuits for you.*

So, instead of never getting around to writing proper posts, I'm going to be trying something new by posting bits and pieces on my blog to get me back into the swing of things. Sound good? Kthanxbye. :)

House hunting and nervous breakdowns

I vaguely suspect that I may be losing my mind. After much debate, I decided to go see my therapist on Thursday. Most people dealing with their father being terminally ill, losing 4 pets in 1 year, having their bank card cloned, having a very dodgy knee and writing up a Masters would probably have gone to see a psychologist about 4 months ago. Given that the knee/ankle/back/low blood pressure has been quite a costly process and that my medical aid limit was exceeded by about September, I put off therapy for a while. After the way I have been feeling for the past couple of weeks though, I knew it was time to talk to someone.

I had forgotten how nervous therapy makes me. Despite wanting to be a psychologist, the process of laying all my issues on the table is somewhat frightening. The session itself went well and I felt a lot better for it - although I felt weirdly exposed and vulnerable afterwards, and a lot of "stuff" that I need to deal with surfaced. It was good though, and has made me realise that I need to start looking after my own interests a lot more and put myself first a little more often.

The post-therapy weekend was thus somewhat weird. Friday was quite nice, as I worked the morning shift at the vet and then had the afternoon off (I haven't had a proper Friday afternoon to myself in ages!). Sarah and I took her cat, Cassidy, to the vet for it's vaccinations - I went with to help carry the cat while Sarah held Joshua (who is really cute!). Cassidy was far from impressed with the whole thing, but Joshua seemed to relish every second of the outing! The strangest part of the afternoon was Cassidy sitting on my lap and purring - something that she's probably never done to a visitor before, as she used to be extremely shy! I suspect that she was trying to befriend me, so that I wouldn't take her to the vet ever again!

Saturday was a serious emotional rollercoaster. I went for a walk in the morning and found an injured dove which I took to the vet. On the way there, I just started sobbing about the poor dove (and all my other pets who I lost this year), and then had a long sob when I got home. HOMSI and I went out for lunch, and there was more sobbing in the afternoon. Then, all the post-crying endorphins kicked in and the rest of the afternoon was great! We played miniature golf, got pizza and went to see "Spud". I cried in that too, but I'm going to argue that it was a moving story and that crying was acceptable.

I was in a much better mood yesterday. HOMSI and I went to go look at townhouses and apartments, because he wants to buy a place and move off the Sand of Death (i.e. the evil dirt road to his current place, which may have somehow caused the 5 strokes he had this year). We found a really amazing place with 2 bedrooms and a loft area (games room, anyone?) and a thatched double-volume ceiling. The only thing that is making HOMSI think twice about it is that the complex apparently doesn't allow pets (weird because we saw someone walking a dog in the complex). We also saw a really beautiful 1 bedroom place, which had a gorgeous seaside cottage feel to it. I kind of went weak at the knees - everything was grey and white and light and airy and happy. I'm definitely inspired on the decor front - although not sure how I'll deal with white duvets and cats!

In any case, I'm feeling good today and hope that it continues (mostly because the serious mood seesawing is exhausting). Happy Monday!

There will be days like this

Life really is a box of chocolates. I started off last week in a really bad mood, and have somehow ended up at the other end of the spectrum about 7 days later.

Last week was just incredibly tough for me. The cabin fever at home was just getting worse, and I was starting to panic about my research (or lack thereof). There was also a misunderstanding between myself and the morning receptionist about December leave, which meant that I ended up being asked to work the last 2 weeks of December, which was a little more than I had bargained for. My mom and I had a fight about the dishes, I got mild gastro and I was just tired, upset and hopeless about everything.

I have no idea what changed everything. I suspect that having a good sob and mini-therapy session at Kirstan's place on Tuesday helped. Playing with her Boston Terrier puppy probably helped too. Either way, I started feeling better and actually managed to get some work done, even though I had to work 2 extra shifts at the vet. And the vet and I just dissolved into insanity on Friday afternoon, which saw us trying to calculate the bill for my cat (who was in a fight with another cat) using a pair of red and black Wine Gums. It is probably best not to ask!

The weekend was utterly insane. As I'm working so much in December, I decided to try to get as much of my Chrismukkah shopping done as soon as possible. It also means I can avoid the huge crowds in December (at least that's the theory). So, I dragged HOMSI off to Eastgate on Saturday. This may sound cruel. but I was hoping to get him to start his shopping, because he usually does it on the 24th of December, amidst the last-minute panic. My efforts were unsuccessful though, as he only bought 1 thing the whole day. I was pretty successful though, and only need to buy gifts for the other receptionists at work now! Win!

Sunday was filled with food and people and more food. My work Christmas function was a breakfast buffet at 10:00, and I then raced off to HOMSI's mom's place for family lunch. After that, it was off to a braai at a friend's house. I got home after 19:00, having eaten dessert twice.

This week has been pretty mad so far. I worked both shifts at the vet yesterday, and my 15 year old dog had to be put down, which was really sad. And my car nearly got stolen - something that I've been strangely calm about. As the saying goes though, there will be days like this.

Another crazy weekend

After last week's general inactivity, I was hoping for a calm weekend and some time to get my research in order. I don't know what it was about last week, but I was just overwhelmingly unproductive. I level some of the blame at John van der Ruit's book, "Spud", which I started reading last Sunday and which was so brilliant that everything in my life basically came to a standstill. Eventually, I gave in and decided to just finish the book so that I could get around to doing other stuff once it was done. My knee was also really bothering me last week. I think it had something to do with the cold, rainy weather. It just ached for about 3 days and made concentrating on things difficult. And in the midst of all this, I started going a bit mad from being at home with my parents all week. By the time I got to work on Thursday, I was rather glad to be out of the house and even printing accounts became strangely fun!

I woke up at 6:00 on Saturday morning and read for a bit before having breakfast. I wasn't in too much of a rush to do anything, especially since I had a terrible headache. Luckily, my headache disappeared, because I ended up rushing to work, because the other receptionist was sick and couldn't come in. I spent the morning at the vet, which was quiet because it's the middle of the month, and then rushed home to get changed before lunch with HOMSI. We had lunch at Sandton (mmmm.... Wraps...) and then spent most of the afternoon wandering around the mall and looking at the camping shops. We should probably start our Christmas shopping, but that just seems a little too scary right now! I have got some ideas for gifts for HOMSI at least (I'm now paying attention to what he eyes in the camping shops). After this, we headed off to his place and spent the rest of the evening looking through the property guide.

Sunday was completely frantic. HOMSI fetched me at 9:30, having navigated his way past the 94.7 Cycle Challenge. The race is fairly problematic for him, as it starts and finishes near where he lives, in Kyalami Estates. We manage to make our way to the Lifestyle Garden Centre to do some shopping though, and then some general wandering around, followed by the most amazing chocolate cake at the coffee shop in the nursery. It had Lindt chocolate icing. Need I say more?

We were reluctant to try to get back to his place in Kyalami, so we decided to go to Cresta to see a movie. This didn't really work out, because the power went off in the centre as we arrived. We then decided to go to Brightwater Commons to see what movies were showing there, and by that time I was in need of lunch. After a toasted sandwich at a coffee shop, we gave up because it was so hot and drove back to Kyalami. We were quite lucky that we did go back to his place, because something strange had happened to the washing machine, which just kept filling with water - water which then ended up all over the kitchen floor. So, a large part of the afternoon was spent sweeping water out of the kitchen. After that, we went for a walk around HOMSI's area. Most of the land consists of equestrian estates, so we walked down to the lake at the bottom of a hill near where he lives and watched the birds which live in the reeds.

I'm now frantically busy with my research and really hoping to make some progress. And wishing that I could get it all done so that I could go on holiday, which is looking increasingly unlikely. Oh well... Happy Monday!

Procrastination and insanity

I'm back - from a neuro assignment, 2 exam equivalents, marking 50 tests and 50 essays, a 5 day hike and a semi-comatose post-hike sleep.

The end of October and the beginning of November were utterly mad. I had to write a critical analysis of a journal article for my neuropsychology course and ended up being 27% over the word limit and unable to edit anything out. Eventually I just handed it in out of sheer desperation - and was quite relieved when my lecturer took mercy on me and gave me a first, despite my blatant disregard for the word limit of the assignment. While doing the assignment, I also had to mark first year tests and essays, which resulted in quite a bit of insanity. This had a lot to do with a student who had written her essay as a story ("in 1999, lots of people knew about HIV..."), the complete lack of referencing, my inability to give students a first for writing a comprehensible essay and not suspect that the whole thing was plagiarised and the bizarre mention of people being used as "excape goats" in 1 test that I marked. HOMSI found the whole thing hilarious and really enjoyed reading some of the tests (or trying to, given the general bad handwriting trend). I also use him as a testing mechanism for spelling - i.e. if my dyslexic boyfriend can correctly spell a word used in an essay, when a student using MS Word and a spellchecker cannot, I feel entitled to make a comment about spelling in said essay.

After the marking it was onto my 2 exam equivalents. 1 was a mini research project. Luckily, I only needed to make minor corrections from my first draft and handed in a few days early. the neuro exam equivalent was far from friendly, however, and I ended up reading tons of journal articles until my mind was filled with information on the neuropsychological effects of HIV. Somehow, all the articles seemed to cite one another and it felt like I was going around and around in circles. I finished the exam at 10:25 on Friday, 5 November, and HOMSI arrived at 10:30 to repack my backpack and pick me up for the hike.

The hike itself was awesome and deserving of its own post, which will follow shortly, along with some of the 300 photos that I took. After 6 days away, it was bizarre to be back in Johannesburg and general civilisation and I've been having serious withdrawal from not being on top of a mountain or walking through a forest. I also ended up invigilating a 3 hour exam the day after we got back from the hike. After 5 days of walking, my feet were far from impressed about having to walk for another 3 hours!

The past few days have been fairly uneventful. HOMSI and I went to the zoo with Sarah, Graham and baby Joshua on Sunday, which was lovely, and then we had lunch with my parents for my mom's birthday. My work ethic seems to have died a slow and painful death, mostly thanks to John van de Ruit's book "Spud". In desperation, I stopped nagging myself about working and finished the book last night, just so that I'd no longer have any excuses about not working! I'm holding off buying the other books until my MA is done!

And now I'm off to sort out some stuff for my research, which really, really, really needs to get going! Happy Thursday!

Wanted: Dog

"If your dog is overweight, you're not getting enough exercise!"

This was the rather amusing quote on my biokineticist's noticeboard last week. It has, however, been on my mind since then. I'm currently not allowed to run, because the knee is still a little dodgy. It hasn't dislocated itself again (thank goodness!), but it has felt a little tender and unstable, and I'm not willing to risk running until it's properly healed. The problem, however, is that I'm doing a 5 day hike between the 6th and 11th of November, and I'm rather worried about being horribly unfit. I also need to strengthen my legs, because that will stop the dislocation happening again. So, instead of running, I've resorted to walking 5km every day, and doing it at pace. It's been going well and the knee is feeling better (increased blood flow from the walking is obviously helping). Plus, I'm not feeling depressed and helpless anymore, which is great, because I was really upset that all my hard work to get fit had gone out the window because of my knee.

There's just 1 small problem. I really love running - the pace and feeling of the movement. So, I'm finding having to walk (despite walking as fast as I can), a little dull. I usually look at what it going on around me, say hello to people and look for interesting houses, but it's still a bit boring. Hence, I have concluded that I need a dog to walk. Unfortunately, my dog, Pixie, is a) antisocial and likely to try to eat people and b) very arthritic, so that option is out. I am seriously considering seeing whether anyone I know needs their dog walked - as long as the dog isn't enormous and likely to drag me along the ground (which will probably be bad for more than just my knees)! Weird, I know, but maybe it'll help keep me amused during my walk. Failing that, I might need to start looking for a human walking-buddy! In the meantime, if you have a dog that needs walking, let me know!

Tea for Two

Following all the drama last week with my knee, I needed a bit of a break, especially from all the essays and tests that I was busy marking, so HOMSI and I headed off to the Hyatt Hotel in Rosebank for high tea on Saturday afternoon. I had gone to the morning tea which the hotel had hosted for Mother's Day a couple of months ago, and had won a gift voucher for 2 for tea. I hadn't really had a chance to go in the last few months, and I was debating whether to take my mom or HOMSI. The decision was kind of made for me in the last few weeks, as my dad has been ill and my mom is reluctant to leave him at home by himself.

So, on Saturday afternoon, at about 2:30, we arrived at the Hyatt. I had dressed up a little (smart pants, a pretty top and a pair of flat sandals which could accommodate the cankle that I'd ended up with from the knee incident - I had clearly bandaged the knee so tightly that my calf, ankle and foot had all swollen up enormously) and (much to my amazement), HOMSI had forgone his usual shorts+t-shirt+running shoes outfit for his nice jeans (the ones that don't have ink stains on from work) and a smartish shirt. Okay, I will admit that I threatened him before he arrived and told him that I would be very upset if he wore shorts!

We were seated inside, with a view of the patio and fountains, and ordered our drinks - tea for me and pineapple juice for HOMSI. We were just about the only people there, and sat and watched the buffet table being set up outside while we started on our drinks. My tea situation proved to be a little more challenging than the average cup of tea - this being high tea, there were tea leaves in the teapot which I had to strain out using a little strainer and then had to add more hot water as well. It was a bit like a science experiment! The buffet table was almost fully completed by this time, but we were a little too shy to be the first people to approach it (which is a problem when you're really the only people there!). We sat and watched, however, as a very naughty sparrow inched its way towards the table, broke off a piece of quiche, flew about 2m and then sat under the table to eat its prize. The elderly couple who were sitting nearby were just as amused by this. We did decide though that we should probably go and investigate the food because any more birds got any ideas! The pastry chef, Bastian, met us at the table and told us what each of the dishes were (Bastian is from Germany and very enthusiastic about his food - and should be, because it's all utterly delicious! My mom and I have been to 2 other events that he's catered, and if it's possible to be fans of a chef, we are!). There was the quiche, sandwiches, bruschetta, fruit kebabs, a blueberry and custard tart, homemade marshmallows, chocolate and fudge brownies, a strawberry and custard tart, creme brulee, biscuits, chocolate mousse squares, strawberry smoothies and a cheesecake. And, if you were still hungry, Bastian could make you a waffle! HOMSI and I just kind of stared in shock at all this food and wondered how we would ever be able to taste everything! We started with the chocolate mousse squares, the brownies and the strawberry tart (which HOMSI fell in love with). I tried a spoonful of HOMSI's creme brulee, which was about all I could manage after all that sweet stuff, and then we moved onto the savouries. Everything was absolutely delicious and perfectly made. We didn't even almost manage to try everything, and very much wished that we could go for a walk around Rosebank and then come back for seconds. Through all of this, the cellist from the JPO was playing in the background and it was just a beautiful setting.

My favourite part (aside from not having to pay for anything because of the gift voucher) was HOMSI, because as soon as his pineapple juice arrived and the cellist started playing, he immediately said "We should do this again sometime!". I always wondered if my mom and I made too big a fuss about the amazing food and that HOMSI would suffer through the whole thing, but he has clearly been converted to posh high tea - if only because we still have another 40% of the buffet table to try!

PS - the only downside to the whole experience was having tea and toast with cheesespread on for tea on Sunday and thinking about all the amazing food that was sitting on that table. Yes, I'm having trouble adjusting to non-hotel food.

Things not to do: kneecap dislocation

As you may know, my boyfriend's nickname is He of Many Sports Injuries (HOMSI for short). This is pretty appropriate, since the first time that he and I spoke, he spent 2 hours recounting all his sports injuries to me (I was a captive audience at the time, having torn all the ligaments in my ankle and I was pretty drugged up and thus unable to escape - or walk, for that matter). He's dislocated both shoulders, broken his ankle, leg and arm (not simultaneously, thankfully) and spent a couple of weeks in traction for 3 slipped discs... Oh, and he also had 5 strokes at the beginning of the year, which seem to have been from a neck injury.

He and I are looking like a pretty good couple at the moment, since I'm currently recovering from having dislocated my kneecap in my sleep. Yes, in my sleep! I was fast asleep on Wednesday morning when I rolled onto my side and felt a pain in my right knee that was so intense that I woke up. I tried to straighten my leg and nearly screamed, as my knee was extremely unwilling to move. It felt like a really intense spasm at the back of my knee. I tried to straighten it again, and burst into tears from the pain. It was about 5:30 in the morning, and I was rather reluctant to wake up my mom, but I was somewhat stuck because I couldn't get out of bed. She actually heard me though - I think I swore as I tried to move my leg again - and she came to see what was going on. What followed was about 90 minutes of putting hot water bottles on it, calling my GP who thought it was a blood clot, me crying every time I tried to straighten or even move the leg, and my mom eventually calling an ambulance because she couldn't move me into the car (and my dad couldn't help, since he's in a wheelchair). In the midst of all of this, I was smsing HOMSI, who suggested that I see the biokineticists (problematic as I couldn't get out of bed), or stretch it (more problematic, as that was f&*king painful!). As we were waiting for the ambulance to arrive, I sat up and the pain suddenly lifted. I don't know what I did, since I'd sat up at least twice before, but it moved something and I could feel what had been out of place pop back into where it was supposed to be in my knee!

I went to go see the biokineticist that morning, since I had an appointment anyway. And I drove myself there, since my knee was feeling much better and since I thought it had just been a spasm. As it turns out, we discovered that my patella (i.e. the kneecap) has somehow slid off the knee and that was what the initial pain was from. The patella had somehow managed to make its way back into position though, which was clearly what had happened when it popped back into place. How I managed to subluxate (i.e dislocate) my kneecap in my sleep is a complete mystery though!

So, the last few days have been spent not running, putting ice on my knee, strapping it and taking anti-inflammatories. And getting increasingly annoyed by my lack of mobility. Grumble, grumble... Apparently it can happen again, which is why I'm being super careful, since the prospect of going through that pain again makes me feel sick. I can safely say that patella subluxation is not a good idea at all! And I'm clearly doing kung fu or something in my sleep, because I don't know how I managed to do this!

Transcribing Woes

I should not be typing this post. In fact, I shouldn't be on the Internet at all. I have about a billion things to do for varsity, and most of them are due for the end of October. This cartoon reflects my sentiments perfectly.




I'm busy transcribing interviews for my research project. Firstly, allow me to reveal that the interviews were, more or less, a flop. I was aiming for about 30 to 40 minutes with each of the 6 students and instead all my interviews (of which there were only 5) were between 5 minutes and 16 minutes. Epic fail. Transcribing is so painful though. It takes about an hour to do 10 minutes of audio, and I'm battling low blood pressure, tiredness and the heat. And boredom. Mostly boredom. It's so bad that I had to make a deal with HOMSI - we can only go out to dinner on Tuesday night if I have finished transcribing. HOMSI has been extremely supportive about all of this though - he treats my transcribing as free entertainment. He sits on the couch and looks through the property section and laughs when I get annoyed with not being able to hear exactly what my participant was saying in the interview or when I subvocalise when I'm trying to remember what to transcribe. Apparently I talk to myself a lot.

In favour of not having to make myself a toasted cheese tomorrow night - and instead being treated to a toasted cheese made by Nino's or Mugg 'n Bean - I will end this post and go back to transcribing. Begrudgingly.