On Thursday at the Children's Museum, I sat down and watched X-man play in the fire fighter area for the third time that afternoon. I stood up to take a photo only to have a small child run into me while I was standing trying to get X-man to look at me.
The child was probably in second or third grade, and he was in firefighter boots that didn't fit him well. Plus, he was excited to be there, so he wasn't looking where he was going. The impact didn't leave much impression, except that his booted foot stood on the top of my left foot with a decent amount of weight and pressure (enough to cause mild discomfort) as he pushed off of it as he moved to get to the hoses to put out a house fire. Then I turned to go back to my bench and my ankle wobbled. It didn't feel like a sprain, because the discomfort and instability was fine on the second step.
It was one of those things that happens all the time when you work with children. X-man used to drive me insane stepping on my feet all the time when he was 3 and the early part of 4.
I remember feeling a slight twinge as I walked to the car that afternoon as we left the museum, but then didn't think about it again until Friday morning when I put my foot on the floor to go to work and felt pain. I limped to the bathroom and got ready for work. By the time I got X-man to school, it was still tender, but it wasn't as terrible as it was on wake up.
The pain is on the lateral side of my foot and runs from the mid-point of the side of my foot all the way to the joint at the base of my pinky toe (or fifth metatarsal). The pain went from a 7 to a 3 over the course of my morning. But now it's 3:35 a.m., and the pain and stiffness of the foot is back. I had a freaking bad dream about it, which is what woke me up. A trip to the bathroom had me hobbling again. The worst part is that other than 30-minute walks here and there, I haven't had a good workout in a week, due to the upper respiratory virus crap that has taken over my family. X-man and I are about through it, but MacTroll spent Thursday and Friday with fever and chills. But it's not like I can blame it on running or biking or a fitness class. It was just some kid in a hurry.
And now MacTroll's fever is down, but he's still congested with the hacking cough that lasts 4 weeks. And I'm all gimpy, and we're getting on a plane to Toronto in 4 hours. I'm sure customs and immigration will love the sight of us.
The foot is not swollen at all, and there is no pain when resting, just stiffness. But walking or massage does make a shooting pain go down the bone of the toe.
Fun, right? I'm sure it's not related to my endless bad luck about weird stuff like this. You know, like running and training all winter and finally getting up enough courage to sign up to do the Illinois Half Marathon, only to have some weird child step on my toe and fracture it or something 3 days after I finally sign up?
But then again, maybe this will deter my bad luck from applying to the Kindergarten lottery, right? :-) Either way, I'll be in well supportive shoes all weekend, and will just take X-man to the pool a lot. If the pain persists, I'll be heading over to convenient care when we return to get an x-ray.
Showing posts with label that's just crazy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label that's just crazy. Show all posts
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Monday, July 26, 2010
Dear Mel Gibson:
Please hand your phone over to your lawyer, your ex-wife, somebody who can lock it away forever. -- Do it RIGHT NOW.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Milk Money
The other day we needed a gallon of milk. This happens every Tuesday/Wednesday that MacTroll and X-man are home at the same time. MacTroll is a habitual cereal eater. He consumes large quantities each a.m. And X-man consumes loads of milk (usually mixed with the Hershey's syrup Light) when he's growing... and for the last 4-6 weeks he's been drinking it at amazing speeds.
Anyway, I was out and about doing an errand at the dreaded Wally Mart when I went to pick up a gallon of milk. It was over $3. What? Wait. Didn't I just pay $2 per gallon at Meijer in Urbana during Friday's normal grocery shopping? Mmmm. I know it's only like a dollar and some change, but seriously. You're the evil Emperor of big box stores worldwide... can't you do better than that on a gallon of "Great Value" milk?
The most devious part of this is that down the street, I knew Schnuck's, which everyone complains to me is too expensive regardless of the jingle on the radio that insists they're a cost saving store, had milk for $2.40. At this point you're shaking your head. "Is Loosey really so cheap she drove a mile down the road to get milk for under a buck cheaper?"
The answer to this is, of course, yes, because we all know I'm a bit crazy. I loathe Wally Mart with a passion I usually only reserve for deans of my undergraduate university, social fraternities and sororities, rapists, child abusers, people who commit hate crimes, the Miami airport and Port Hope, Ontario.
But it gets more complicated than that. When I was a child, I went grocery shopping with my paternal grandmother in Springhill, Florida. She shopped at the Winn Dixie. She was apparently a Winn Dixie woman (since they had no Jewel), but she was also a veteran stay-at-home Mom with four grown kids, which meant she hated to waste a penny. (Do you see where this is going?) We shopped, got home, put away the groceries and THEN Nana opened the paper. "Get in the car, Sweetheart. We're taking these eggs back."
In my brain, I figured it must have been a couple bucks. I mean, they lived in Florida, and it was Saturday. And there were old people driving crazily through parking lots everywhere (all of them driving tanks like my grandparents' Crown Vic), who in their right minds would want to go out in that -- twice? Twenty minutes later, we walked up to the customer service counter with our eggs and the weekend circular and the shopping receipt. The old man's eyebrows went up as my grandmother explained that the eggs would have cost her less across the street at the Publix (why are grocery stores always right next to each other?) and would Winn Dixie honor the difference in price for a loyal customer or would she have return the eggs and go buy them across the street and think twice about where she shops next week?
The man, who was in his sixties as well, leaned over the circular from Publix, took her receipt and stared at it. His glasses slowly slid down his nose. He was quiet and solemn. "I'm sorry ma'am, let me get the difference for you." He opened the drawer and very gently handed my grandmother a penny.
My mouth dropped open. She'd burned way more than that in her giant car. I mean, I could have been in the pool in the backyard or picking strawberries from the garden or doing something way more fun. This was just weird. But this was Nana. The woman would get on her hands and knees in a pair of yellow rubber gloves and a plastic bin of cleaner to scrub down her baseboards every few weeks. She'd be sitting there wiping away with a Virginia Slim hanging from her lips.
To be fair, I waited until the next day to go to Schnuck's. KTDID was in the car with me and I suddenly got a brainy idea. "Hey, let's just get it from the Schnuck's gas station!"
I ran into the gas station to find a gallon of milk. Only it was the Prairie Farm's brand, not the Schnuck's brand (isn't that a bit weird?) and it was over $4. WTF? I guess you pay an extra $2 for "convenience." I exited the gas station bitching up a storm and then KTDID and I went into the store and found it, finally, for $2.40.
Yeah. So in the long run I have to ask... did I learn this behavior from that whole outing with my grandmother or is it genetic cheapness?
To be fair, I paid $2.29 for a gallon of milk at Meijer this afternoon. The 2 for $4 deal seems to be over. But they did have $1 bags of goldfish, 10 for $10 avocados and 10 for $10 on Coke products (buy 10 Coke products, you even get the 11th free). And, for Quigs, Fiber One bars were on sale for $1.99 a box.
Anyway, I was out and about doing an errand at the dreaded Wally Mart when I went to pick up a gallon of milk. It was over $3. What? Wait. Didn't I just pay $2 per gallon at Meijer in Urbana during Friday's normal grocery shopping? Mmmm. I know it's only like a dollar and some change, but seriously. You're the evil Emperor of big box stores worldwide... can't you do better than that on a gallon of "Great Value" milk?
The most devious part of this is that down the street, I knew Schnuck's, which everyone complains to me is too expensive regardless of the jingle on the radio that insists they're a cost saving store, had milk for $2.40. At this point you're shaking your head. "Is Loosey really so cheap she drove a mile down the road to get milk for under a buck cheaper?"
The answer to this is, of course, yes, because we all know I'm a bit crazy. I loathe Wally Mart with a passion I usually only reserve for deans of my undergraduate university, social fraternities and sororities, rapists, child abusers, people who commit hate crimes, the Miami airport and Port Hope, Ontario.
But it gets more complicated than that. When I was a child, I went grocery shopping with my paternal grandmother in Springhill, Florida. She shopped at the Winn Dixie. She was apparently a Winn Dixie woman (since they had no Jewel), but she was also a veteran stay-at-home Mom with four grown kids, which meant she hated to waste a penny. (Do you see where this is going?) We shopped, got home, put away the groceries and THEN Nana opened the paper. "Get in the car, Sweetheart. We're taking these eggs back."
In my brain, I figured it must have been a couple bucks. I mean, they lived in Florida, and it was Saturday. And there were old people driving crazily through parking lots everywhere (all of them driving tanks like my grandparents' Crown Vic), who in their right minds would want to go out in that -- twice? Twenty minutes later, we walked up to the customer service counter with our eggs and the weekend circular and the shopping receipt. The old man's eyebrows went up as my grandmother explained that the eggs would have cost her less across the street at the Publix (why are grocery stores always right next to each other?) and would Winn Dixie honor the difference in price for a loyal customer or would she have return the eggs and go buy them across the street and think twice about where she shops next week?
The man, who was in his sixties as well, leaned over the circular from Publix, took her receipt and stared at it. His glasses slowly slid down his nose. He was quiet and solemn. "I'm sorry ma'am, let me get the difference for you." He opened the drawer and very gently handed my grandmother a penny.
My mouth dropped open. She'd burned way more than that in her giant car. I mean, I could have been in the pool in the backyard or picking strawberries from the garden or doing something way more fun. This was just weird. But this was Nana. The woman would get on her hands and knees in a pair of yellow rubber gloves and a plastic bin of cleaner to scrub down her baseboards every few weeks. She'd be sitting there wiping away with a Virginia Slim hanging from her lips.
To be fair, I waited until the next day to go to Schnuck's. KTDID was in the car with me and I suddenly got a brainy idea. "Hey, let's just get it from the Schnuck's gas station!"
I ran into the gas station to find a gallon of milk. Only it was the Prairie Farm's brand, not the Schnuck's brand (isn't that a bit weird?) and it was over $4. WTF? I guess you pay an extra $2 for "convenience." I exited the gas station bitching up a storm and then KTDID and I went into the store and found it, finally, for $2.40.
Yeah. So in the long run I have to ask... did I learn this behavior from that whole outing with my grandmother or is it genetic cheapness?
To be fair, I paid $2.29 for a gallon of milk at Meijer this afternoon. The 2 for $4 deal seems to be over. But they did have $1 bags of goldfish, 10 for $10 avocados and 10 for $10 on Coke products (buy 10 Coke products, you even get the 11th free). And, for Quigs, Fiber One bars were on sale for $1.99 a box.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Recovery
36 hours after I started taking the z pack, I feel almost downright human again -- just in time for the weekend!
I knew I was feeling better when I went to an appointment today and was eavesdropping on a woman trying to convey the top 4 reasons why she should change from a hospitality degree at Parkland to becoming a registered dietician. It was fascinating, until she repeated her argument a third time and the man she was with still just looked at her like she hadn't said anything at all.
My favorite was where she talked about how a lot of the courses for hospitality crossed over with the dietician ones. (She listed gen ed requirements like a math and an English 101.) Then she said she thought she'd be able to handle the math in the sciences now as an adult so much better than she could in high school.
That statement hit on a fantasy of mine. I hated math in high school. A long time ago, I thought it might actually be fun to start in a basic algebra class (like the one I took in 8th grade and got a B and then retook in 9th grade after 8 weeks of getting a D in College algebra -- got an A in regular Algebra -- and two years later still got a D in College Algebra).
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to start over again and just work my way through Algebra, Geometry, College Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, etc. Just to see that I can do it. Kind of like losing the weight, it would be proof that I could do something that I thought I'd never be able to do.
And if I could do it -- giant confidence boost.
Of course, I'm not sure where she got her info that it would only take 4 more courses from her hospitality degree to become a registered dietician and that she'd make $90k... I'm sure my health educator at Carle would be completely stoked if she could make $90k as a nutritionist in this area -- and she has a master's degree.
Friday, February 27, 2009
An Ah-ha Moment
I had two moments today when I realized my life is not like the world I lived in when I was in D.C., as a young person in a double income, no kid situation.
One is that a friend of mine got an awesome gig being the "wedding photographer" for an informational presentation by a Yoga clothing company that prides itself on being green called Lululemon. They apparently started in Canada (which of course grabbed my attention) and have created franchises in all the urban sectors of the world. The presentation is for brides, so they can learn the benefits of having a "green" wedding. (Bride = Consumer)
And you know me, I'm all for being nice to Mother Earth. But the whole event made me shift in my seat because even though the event is to do something ecological, the idea of a cupcake party at a yoga clothing company with a collection of women who are looking to spend a lot of their money in a down economy made me call rat. That ain't about Mother Earth. That's called laying a trap. Bait-the-consumer. (Again Bride = Consumer)
So I went to lululemon.com. I clicked on their exercise clothes, and of the four items I clicked on, not one had a price. The hint of money was in the air, like when you sit down in a restaurant in New York or Vegas and there are no prices on the menu. So I googled it. $100 for yoga tops. $100 for pants give or take. People striving to find tops for $74 on Ebay.
I sighed. I don't have $200 for a yoga ensemble, I don't have $40 for a fancy yoga ensemble from Target. Those things aren't in my weekly budget. Um, those things have never been in my weekly budget. I yoga in $7, 7-year-old workout pants with an old ratty t-shirt. But, that might just be a preference, so it made me wonder, who still has that kind of money?
Maybe, maybe double income no kids? If I wasn't married and was still in D.C. and someone said, "cupcake, eco-friendly wedding discussion, rich yuppie (ain't that an oxymoron that turned out true in the 21st century?) yoga clothes = good time" would I jump at the chance to go?
Are the cupcakes vegan and are the ingredients locally grown?
But from where I am, I am so far removed. The whole event is mind boggling. Am I that out of touch? Or is it the other way around?
The second crazy came from The Superficial, so you know, it's grain of salt time. But K-Fed making a line of "reasonably priced clothes" because he's sick of boutique kids clothes that sell a pair of jeans for $200 a pop tells me that rich parents need a seminar. I think I'll bake some cupcakes and host it at my local consignment shop and talk about how green hand-me-down/gently used clothes are. We could take a field trip to the Orpheum's Kids Stuff Sale March 7 and 8th.
Mmm, I see a business plan for reasonable parents everywhere that see more than green as the new black... I think I'll start by sending a registration form to K-Fed, Brad and Angelina, Katie and Tom...
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