After waking up at the crack of dawn yesterday and sort of zombie-ing through my morning, I decided that I MUST get to bed early last night. Yet despite my best efforts, I didn’t make it to my bed until around 11. Alarm starts chirping just a few short hours later, and I’m NOT a happy camper. I think I snoozed for like 35 minutes before finally giving in to the little voice in my head telling me I need to get up, leave my warm bed, and face the day. Ugh. Fine.

Again, eyes don’t wanna open. It’s cold. I don’t wanna leave my house. So I throw on some jeans (and not exactly my nicest pair either lol), running shoes (the physical therapist wants to check them out), a shirt, and a sweatshirt. It’s not the nicest of outfits, but it works OK for work, and it’s comfy. I then quickly throw my hair up in a pile on top of my head, and really it’s not too polished looking, but I simply couldn’t care less at this point. Obviously I’m also wearing my glasses. Let’s be honest – if my eyes don’t even want to open, jamming contacts into them just isn’t a choice. I figured I’ll just clean up a bit after physical therapy when I’m more awake.

Thankfully I made a pot of coffee this morning. A strong pot of coffee. Started chugging that before I even got into my car lol. It was kinda sorta maybe kicking in a little bit the more I drank. I’m about halfway to PT at this point, and starting to feel a little better. Got some good music playing…it might end up being a good morning after all.

Then the morning gets interesting.

About 3 cars in front of me I see this truck kinda sway/drift over to the right. He compensates my cutting to the left. Only he over compensates. Big time over compensates – dude spins out. So I see a spinning truck, hella cars slamming on brakes, people swerving in all kinds of directions (think parting of the red sea but with vehicles), the car in front of me (also slamming on brakes, clearly) is quickly approaching. FOOT ON BRAKE ON FLOOR…PLEASE LET ME STOP! Check the rearview mirror, yep car behind me is quickly approaching, fuck I’m about to get sandwiched here. FUCK PLEASE STOP CAR.FUCK FUCK FUCK. I’m gonna hit this SUV. Goddamnit I was JUST in a sandwich accident, please don’t let this happen AGAIN.

I stop.

Wait – I didn’t hit the car?!? SCORE!

CRASH!

OK the car behind me hit me. But not very hard.

Quickly assess the situation: Truck facing the wrong way almost next to me, crashed car up ahead a little, car in front of me that I didn’t hit accelerating away, cars starting to clear out. OK I should pull over – I guess to the center divide?

Yep, pull over to the center divide. There’s no shoulder so I’m definitely  parked in the carpool lane with my hazard lights on. Before even getting out of the car I knew 9-1-1 had to be dialed. At minimum we need a tow truck and we are absolutely blocking traffic. Hopefully no one is hurt!

I get out of the car and am greeted by the really nice Asian guy who hit me. We somehow instantly become friends. Ask if anyone is hurt. No. 911 wants to know how many cars. 4. No injuries, just send a tow truck please. They say they’ll do that, and hang up. About a minute later Asian guy and I see a cop BLAZING down the freeway in the other direction, lights and sirens in full effect. We look at each other and laugh. Is that for us? LOL probably. A minute goes by. A firetruck, also lights and sirens, comes blazing down the other side of the freeway. Asian guy and I look at each other and really start laughing. A firetruck!?! Wow… we are those people. The ones that you rubberneck at to see wtf happened.

While we’re waiting for these emergency vehicles, I suggest we exchange info. As I’m walking to my car to get mine + a pen and paper, the guy in the truck comes up to me and he’s like “OK well if no one is hurt I’m gonna take off. I have to get to work.” Without hesitation I was like “UM no. You can’t leave.” “Why not?” “Well, for starters, it’s illegal to leave the scene of an accident.” “Oh.”

Sensing the man who caused the accident was an impending flight risk, I quickly wrote down his license plate. I then asked if he had insurance. He said, “Wow you’re like the police.”

Um, no. No I’m not like the police. I’m just trying to be proactive and get this shit together so I can go on my way, and you caused this so I’m gonna do everything in my power to ensure that you don’t leave. Since this really alerted me that something was up with this dude. I asked if he had insurance. He said yes, but didn’t make any moves to get it out of his car. Thinking he probably didn’t have insurance, and for that matter was possibly not even legal, I asked his name. Jose. OK Jose do you have a last name? “Yes”. lol

I was going to try and pursue the issue further, when I see flashing lights. Cars started parting so it could get through. Yep ladies and gentlemen, a firetruck had arrived. Asian guy and I again start chuckling. There is simply NO need for a firetruck to be here.

Three (quite attractive) men get out of the truck. Remember when I described how I looked this morning? Yeah, definitely wishing I had put in more effort before I left. I was one hot mess! And these were three attractive firefighters. Damn. So they assess for injuries. No one is hurt. “So really – no one has any neck pain? Back pain? No one wants us to take a look at them?” Um, sir you should rephrase that. I don’t NEED you to look at me, but I definitely might WANT you to. LOL.

As they’re assessing the situation, another firetruck rolls in. Asian guy and I are about to die at this point. We don’t even need one firetruck, much less two. Firetruck 1 waves them away. As the highway patrol arrives, so does a THIRD firetruck. Seriously? I mean I guess I told the 911 operator that there were 4 cars involved, but I also specified there were 0 injuries. You would think they would get the hint and not send out three totally unnecessary firetrucks. Not that I’m complaining though – it was nice to look at!

Then the highway patrol decides to take over the situation. They tell us all to go stand by our own cars so they can visualize who has what, etc. I obey. As they’re going to the Asian’s car to take his statement, one of the officers has a brilliant idea that if no one is hurt, why not pull the cars out of the lane and over to the shoulder. I hear this and think to myself – um across 4 other lanes of traffic? Are you joking, sir? No he’s not joking. I ask what the plan is – should I follow you? No. We’ll block traffic. I was skeptical, but got in my car. Looked over my shoulder only to see not a single car coming. Not even one. Yep, there are 3 highway patrol officers standing in the freeway, one in almost each lane, with a line of cars at a dead halt in front of them. I guess that’s my cue to go! So I mosy over to the shoulder, get out and talk to an officer who takes all of my information. Apparently we’re treating this as 2 accidents: I was rear-ended and there is no damage, and these other 2 fools were in a major accident with tons of damage. I guess I”m on the better side of that sheet of paper! After informing me that he would not file a report, the officer told me I was free to go. Really? That seems too easy.

I said OK well I definitely think the truck is to blame, but I have a feeling he’s not going to take responsibility. I also don’t think he has insurance, and I kinda feel bad for the driver of the other car (which is likely totaled) cuz that dude was on his way to the immigration office and is now freaking out that he’s gonna get deported. The officer kinda smiled and was like “yeah there’s a situation over there. Neither of those drivers have licenses or insurance. But that’s pretty common on this particular stretch of highway. We’ll give you a call if we need any witness statements. For now, you can leave.”

So I got in my car, put all my crap away, and looked up. The officer was standing in traffic again, clearing a path for me to get back on the freeway. What service!!

At this point I realized that my heart is definitely pounding, my eyes are WIDE OPEN, and I am ALERT. Coffee has most definitely kicked in at this point and I am PUMPED and ready to face the day. Nothing like a big pile up on the freeway and a little coffee to kick start your morning! Thanks Jose!

About a week and a half ago I went in for my consult and evaluation. It was kinda odd, but based on past physical therapy sessions for other problems, I was expecting odd. She needed to observe and measure all kinds of things related to my foot, so I took off both shoes and socks. She looked at my feet while I just stood there. She had me raise up to my toes while standing on both feet. She had me stand on one foot at a time so she could look at something else. Then she made me walk up and back the room so she could see stuff when I walked. Then I laid down.

Here’s where it got really sad: she measured my calf/Achilles flexibility. When you’re laying back and you pull your toes up to a 90 degree angle (toes to the sky), that 90 degree angle is considered “0″. Pull your toes in toward your shin more, and every degree beyond 90 is +1. So you want the 80 degree angle: +10 on their scale. Ok so when I first got measured a week and a half ago, I was at -5. MINUS 5. So that’s 15 degrees of flexibility that I’m lacking. OK people, it turns out this isn’t bad; it’s ABYSMAL. Apparently the average elderly person has more flexibility in their calf/Achilles. Heck even my “good” foot is only at a +5. OK fine, my ankle and calf aren’t flexible. Whatever — fix me!!

Since the evaluation took up most of our session (we also chatted about pain, history, symptoms, etc), there wasn’t much time for anything else. She rubbed my foot a little, which sounds nice but let’s face it – Marla is a beast and doesn’t like anything. So while it was nice to have the lotion applied to my foot, this wasn’t exactly pleasurable. Next I flipped over onto my stomach. OK when you’re in physical therapy, never let them get you into this position. It’s the position they use to inflict cruel and unusual punishment. She told me she was going to ice my foot. Again, sounds nice right? NO. NO, NOT RIGHT AT ALL. She took an ice cube, and rubbed it DIRECTLY on my arch for 3 minutes. If this doesn’t sound like hell to you, go ahead and try it yourself. She warned me that it would hurt at first, then it would burn, but that by about 90 seconds to 2 minutes into this “therapy” my foot would become numb and I wouldn’t feel it anymore.

Are you joking? I am all for icing a wound, but sweet Jesus this is insane!

After what seemed like an eternity, three minutes ended. Nice and numb, I was shown a calf stretch and told to do it 3-5 times a day. Then I was sent home. Fantastic.

Did I stretch 3-5 times per day? Hell no. It’s not that I don’t want to do it. It’s that I’m busy and it’s not convenient to do it. For instance, I share the office at my new job with like 10 other people. Am I just supposed to get up and start stretching in the middle of the room in the middle of the workday? And not just one time, but repeatedly? I dunno about that. I probably only did an average of 2 stretch sessions per day, which I figure is better than nothing.

Last week I had 2 more sessions. These were full-length. She started by using the Ultra-Sound machine on my foot. It’s pretty cool, totally painless, and takes up a solid 7-8 minutes of the session. If only it were longer. Basically they just put some jelly on the controller, turn the machine on, and rub your foot down. It’s not the same machine they use at the hospital to like look at babies or other things inside of you, but rather is just a little microphone-looking thing that shows no image and just gets rubbed around. I asked how in the heck this is “therapeutic” and was told the ultra-sound waves are thought to send vibrations throughout the area that signal to the chemicals causing the inflammation that they should go away now. Less inflammation = less pain. Sweet.

I thought that given the pain-free start to the session, this was a sure sign that the torture from the time before would not be repeated. Oh how I was wrong!! When I said that I was tortured before, that was only the start of evil things to come. Massages on my arch? Pain. In some places it feels nice. In other places it makes me want to cry. But let’s talk about massages on my calf. Again, sounds nice right? Again, FALSE.

They put your foot in a flexed position, perhaps a 90 degree angle. Remember when I said I was initially at -5, that’s a 95 degree angle. So already, my calf is being stretched 5 degrees. Apparently it’s painful to massage a stretched muscle. No, it’s not painful. That’s not the right word. It’s like she had some sort of ability to shove her hand into my muscle and rip pieces of it out, in these nice slow stroke motions. Teeth clenching. Fingers grasping tightly at the pillow I lay on. Telling her I’m in pain and asking if it should hurt that bad. None of it made the pain go away, and none of it made her stop or even ease up. I cannot say with any certainty how long this persisted, but dear god it felt like forever. And then it ended. HOORAY! Oh wait, now that we’re done here you need to ice my foot again? Seriously? At least she gave me an ice pack (wrapped in a towel thankfully) for my calf. Whew that was tough.

Repeat that again, then fast forward to today with the substitute.

She didn’t just want to blindly look at the notes and continue with therapy, so she did some new measurements and observations before she started. And unlike the other therapist, she didn’t keep her thoughts to herself. In fact, she didn’t hold anything back either. Talk about brutally honest! “Your feet really should belong to two different people. The right one has a normal arch that lowers when you step, the way it should. Your left foot has a high arch and doesn’t even move a little when you step. This is terrible. You should have had this fixed years ago.”

OK thanks lady. I didn’t get it fixed years ago, but I’m here now. Fix it. First, more measurements. She didn’t measure my right foot, but measured the angle of the left. I’m now at a 0. Awesome dude! I increased my flexibility by 33% of what it needs to be. I improved so much in a week and a half. YAY!!

Apparently this was not cause for celebration. In fact, it was time to be brutally honest and burst my bubble. “0 isn’t good. It’s still really really terrible. I can’t believe that you’re only at a 0.” Oh and while she was saying this, she was kinda laughing at me. She also raised her voice a little as she told me that I wasn’t making progress and was going to have to increase my stretching to 8 or more times per day if I ever wanted to get better.

Alright: 1. FUCK YOU. 2. Don’t rain on my parade. I made an improvement. This is a small victory for me, so let me relish it for half a minute before you berate me, my efforts, and my damaged foot. 3. Obviously you know know nothing about motivation, because this would have been the perfect time to say something along the lines of “well +5 is a great start. Now if you keep doing your stretches, maybe increasing them to 8 per day, you’ll speed up your rehab and be pain free sooner. Keep up the good work.” But no, she laughed at me and minimized what I considered a gain. Oh and then she beat the shit out of my calf. I almost started crying. The only bonus to having her as opposed to the other lady was that she was SUPER nice to Marla and Marla genuinely feels OK right now. Also, she taped my arch for extra support, and showed me how I can do this on my own.

I’m definitely ready for an ice pack on my calf, but I’m going to do 8 sets of stretches today. We’ll see how that goes. Torture resumes on Thursday

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the meantime, enjoy this:

Click here to view the embedded video.

We’ve been looking at bookcases and talking about getting one for quite some time now, but haven’t gotten around to it. One issue is that if we’re going to get another standard bookcase, it needs to perfectly match the one we already have. It’s really big and bulky, and I don’t know that we have enough stuff to fill an entire second one. So we decided to get something that was less traditional.

We originally fell in love with the Brosna Bookcase at Scandinavian Designs. The picture they have on their website is actually 3 of these items put right next to each other; the bookcase by itself is actually pretty narrow, with shelves coming off either side of a center stand. We liked it cuz it was different, but would fit our needs well.

Of course this weekend when we went to Scandinavian Designs we had to look at ALL of the bookcases before choosing one. Yep, we are indecisive like that! After about half an hour wandering around the store, checking out bookcases, couches, bedroom sets, etc., we finally decided on our bookcase: the Capri (wide).

We love it because it’s not your standard bookcase, the shelves are all fully adjustable, and it has really interesting storage space options. For instance, we can fit a Rock Band Guitar in one of the cubbies, then a picture frame in another one.

We’re picking it up this week and I’m so excited. Like maybe pathologically excited lol. I’m even skipping the gym today so I can go home and SCRUB the house. Everything will be put in its place, and most importantly, that area where it will live is going to get cleared out and vacuumed. I’m going to get all my puzzles and games out of the closet so they can be more accessible, and heck that will even give me more room in my tiny hall closet!

I’m totally stoked. Maybe I’ll even throw a little get together to show it off

Seriously?

So yeah, you can pay $20 to have this game and make virtual ice cream concoctions. Or you could get a job a Coldstone, work 3 hours, and have similar satisfaction plus $20 in your pocket.

I just don’t get it.

http://twitter.com/coco_sprinkles

-He’s not that good looking. OK before you lynch me hear me out. There’s something about Edward that draws me in. Obviously it’s just the character in the movie, cuz his real life performance just was NOT doing it for me. Whatever – it’s less competition for all you over-the-top Twilight fans.

-I knew the man was British, but I had NO idea he had THAT thick of a British accent. More power to him as an actor, cuz he does a really good job covering it up on screen. However, accents = sexy, so +1 back to him for that.

-I wanna see Remember me. Again, for the character he plays. Something about the on-screen Robert Pattinson – wtf is it?!? Either way, I’ll probably see this movie during opening week. Hooray for braving the crowds of Edward fans.

Ok that’s all I discovered. Not too much, but in my defense it was only a 7 minute interview. For those of you who missed it, enjoy!

Robert Pattinson

Chocolateysprinkles is too long

Cocosprinkles and Chocosprinkles are both taken

Caro is taken

WTF else am I supposed to use? Certainly not my first and last name LOL

(click the image to see the rest of it)

Ah yes, taking control of your own life. What a novel idea!