abracanabra | Last Week, in Summary (Reply)

There was work all week, full-time. Blech. But have finally paid off the credit card debt incurred by buying a car on the credit card, so yay! And important Xmas gifts are bought (family). We may pick up some random things for friends, but that is as the Fates dictate, and not a major expense.

Last week we were slammed by Snowpocalypse 2007. Must have gotten about 8 inches over the course of the week. The worst of it was the first day, when traffic slowed to gridlock in downtown. I waited at my bus stop for twenty minutes, then (observing that people were being sufficiently stupid at the intersection to keep traffic from moving forward at all) started walking back along the bus route. I climbed aboard my bus seven blocks back (and 1/2 hr. late). I got the last seat. Score! Of course, I could always whine about having a bad knee and get a seat, but I'd prefer not to. And it's less convincing now that I'm not wearing a knee brace anymore. What usually takes 1/2 hr. ended up taking 1 1/2 hrs. All because of stupid drivers going into intersections when there wasn't clearance on the other side, and getting stuck there when the lights changed.

I have been making very good progress in physical therapy for the knee. It's (still) a little swollen, but I've got almost normal flexibility back. My physical therapy guy said if surgery was being considered, I should talk with the surgeon now. So I've got an appointment to have that discussion on Tuesday. I'm more than a little nervous about it. Really, I want to curl up under the blankets and hide until this all goes away--unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Physical therapy is getting crazy--I'm doing exercises on a machine called The Rehabilitator, swooping my legs up and down. I balance on a little platform and bounce a huge ball back and forth with the guy at the same time. A cuff with electrodes on it is hooked up to my leg to tell me how strongly I'm clenching my thigh muscles. Not being able to do martial arts isn't gaining me any extra free time--it's all going into physical therapy exercises. Which are not as satisfying, though last session I actually broke a sweat.

Went to see Enchanted with

fayde. Very small crowd at a matinée showing, which is just perfect. It was cute. Fairytale dropped into modern life, complete with cute talking chipmunk. Very old-fashioned values, with a last-minute twist attempting to salvage some feminist acceptability. It's a musical, with one incredibly Bollywood-esque ten-minute dance number. Overall, I'd say it was fun and entertaining, romantic, but not something I'd necessarily recommend to others--and I wouldn't show it to impressionable adolescent girls, who might carry the whole housewife/princess thing too far. The plot was flimsy, to say the least, but it supported a number of highly entertaining scenes and strong performances from the main characters.

Today was writing up Xmas letter, going into work to finish up QC on a project that absolutely must be done before first thing Monday morning. Then we went over to The Independent for happy hour. It was happy. And now home and relaxing for a little bit, before it begins all over again.