I haven’t posted in a couple of days, bad me. For 24 hours I’ve been trying to ignore really bad back pain, so bad I can’t hardly move. Last night I couldn’t even scratch my nose without it hurting, from moving my arm or whatever. Heating pads, extra sleeping, painkillers, etc. It’s driving me insane, I can’t focus on my homework - I’m supposed to be doing reading for Sex & Gender class tomorrow. I will have to catch a ride tomorrow because I can’t imagine driving like this. It’s insane.

Today we flew home. That’s pretty much all we did. Except I woke up this morning officially sick instead of just feeling poorly. I made it home fine, except for the descent into Washington. I think a combination of the October 2006 scuba accident and being congested from the cold combined into a terrible situation in my left ear, and I thought I was going to die. It wouldn’t pop no matter what tricks I tried. I was literally in tears from the pain. I thought for sure my eardrum was going to rupture again. Fortunately a flight attendant talked me through the “pinch nose and blow” trick, which I had tried and not succeeded with…she said the trick is to do it very slowly. The pain when my ear popped was intense but it quickly subsided after that.

So yeah, I feel pretty crappy today. I am planning to spend most of tomorrow in bed, but I do want to run over to our house - we’re still house-sitting - and get the mail and whatnot. I miss California already, and not just for the weather. A has wanted to move back there for years, and I’m considering the possibility after I’m done with school. In fact, I kind of want to pick up and go now, but Gallaudet is the only place to get the experience I want.

For the past - two? three? - days, I’ve been dealing with a bit of soreness from my helix piercing. I got it done back in April, and it healed up perfectly fine; I’ve changed the ring twice and had no problems with it.

Recently, I got some really cool skull earrings. My conch is still healing, so I can’t change that one yet, but I changed out my helix immediately. It was fine for three or four days, and then a couple of days ago it started to hurt.

I asked about this on a piercing forum on BME, suggesting that perhaps the skull weighed more than a plain bead, and I got a few different responses. The first person pointed out that the metal was 316L steel, which is a lower grade than the 316LVM reputable piercers will give you when you first get pierced; he suggested I was having a reaction to that. But I checked out the star ring I’d gotten from the same company, and it’s also 316L, and I had no problems with it. Someone else suggested the ring might have surface damage because “no quality jewelry makers have skull beads.” I asked if surface damage was visible to the eye, detectable by a finger, and could be gotten used to. The guy said you “might or might not” be able to see/feel it, and called me foolish for thinking I could just get used to a damaged ring.

So I’m left with a few ideas on what’s wrong, and only one person suggested a solution: have a piercer adjust a 316LVM ring to fit the skull bead. Not a bad idea, but I’m thinking I’ll just leave it alone for now and see if it gets better. My conch is doing nicely meanwhile; I’ve gotten used to it and I like it now, even if it’s not the industrial I had wanted.

This is going to be about pee. Read on or not, the choice is yours.
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I really, seriously, truly need to lose weight. A few reasons why.

• I am surrounded by skinny people. Natural ectomorphs, hardcore swimmers, and teens who are too young to have gotten fat yet. (I was that size when I was in college too.)
• My pants do not freaking fit. Seriously, I have like one pair of slacks and one pair of jeans that fit comfortably, and another couple of jeans that fit uncomfortably.
• I weigh as much now as I have ever in my life, and that’s just kind of sad to me.

I don’t need to be a stick figure. I would be happy with - well, at this point I’d be happy with 155-160. I think my real goal would be 135-140…I could be happy being in that range long-term. It’s the doing part of losing weight that is getting me down…I can’t seem to do it.

Note to self: if you are having a very bad day and you forget to take your meds in the morning, it will turn into an even worse day when your hives sneak up on you. Also, if you are on steroids that make you hungry, and then hang out with people who are doing certain things that give you the munchies, you will want to eat the entire universe. I really hope the doctor I’m seeing July 26th will have a solution besides steroids, because I am finding it impossible to drop the weight I gained on the cruise a month ago.

Ugh, I am just so tired today and tonight. I woke up with hives and swollen eyes this morning. In fact, I basically fit Cute Overload’s Rule #21 - eye capsules - but in a kind of gross way.

Yesterday I interpreted at Kings Dominion, at the guest services office. It was actually kind of interesting - all the complaints they have to put up with! Only a couple of deaf people showed up and they didn’t want anything really hard, so I didn’t have a lot to do. I did get to go on some rides with sajego - we even got in the front seat for Hurler and the back seat for Rebel Yell. I didn’t get to add anything to my Coaster Track Record this time, but it was fun going on coasters with somebody who knows more about them than I do!

I just want to vent about my feet.
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I don’t know why, but I like to watch the show “Intervention” on A&E. On this show, addicts are told they are being filmed for a documentary about addiction, while their families are filmed telling how their loved one’s addiction has affected their lives. At the end of the hour, the addict is brought into an intervention with a professional intervention specialist and their entire family, and they are always asked if they are ready to go to a rehab center right now. Most of them say yes, but I have seen a couple of episodes where they refused.

What I wonder about the show is who pays the fees. The intensive therapy required for inpatient service at drug treatment centers (the show features other addictions too, but usually it’s pills, alcohol, drugs, etc) is very expensive, no matter where you go, but the places featured on Intervention are frequently rather posh. While they undoubtedly do great work, and there are plenty of rich people who need help too, I still wonder about all the lower-class people who are addicted to drugs and simply can’t afford to get help or attention from a national television show.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but I’m starting a swimming class! This actually began when I found a very pretty swimsuit, and I wanted an excuse to buy it and wear it. I looked into water aerobics classes at my local recreation center, but they were over $200 so I figured I would just do my own laps to get some exercise. I really do need to exercise, but I don’t like using the elliptical machine or the exercise bike we already have, because both are hard on my knees. (I have symptoms of arthritis in most of my joints, but my knees are especially bad.) So I figured that swimming would be a very good no-impact workout.

My wife convinced me that $80 was too much to pay for a swimsuit, and the swimsuit I ended up getting was just $15! I got this style, but the accent color is magenta rather than orange. Then I was checking out the website for my local rec center, and I thought I’d look again at the class offerings. It turned out they have a four-week “Lap Swimming” class for $75, so I signed up for that immediately. They will teach us how to create a proper workout, how to use the pace clock, and probably things like turns and etiquette too. The first class is tonight and I am really looking forward to it - even if we don’t do a whole lot of swimming, it will be a good start.