Journal Entry: July 28, 2008

It's been almost a week since I wrote last, but not a lot has happened in that time.

Tuesday night went pretty much like I predicted it would. I lay on the floor and we watched TV. Wednesday I went to work all day, then afterward we didn't have our regular Wednesday night dinner because, frankly, we have to eat at home some time. T-- grilled up burgers and dogs, and D-- joined us.

Oh, during the day on Wednesday, T-- had the same problem with the Saturn, and it has happened twice more since then -- if you drive it anywhere, it stops working until it's had about an hour to cool down.

Thursday I took off work, and we took the Saturn up to Wal-Mart to have them check the battery. It was under warranty, so I figured they would make good and certain the battery was bad before fixing it (and if it wasn't bad, they could give us a hint what was wrong). I figured wrong. They replaced it with a new battery, I drove it home, and then out of curiosity I tried starting it up and it wouldn't even turn over. An hour later, though, it started fine.

I also had my doctor's appointment Thursday, which mostly consisted of me sitting in an empty exam room waiting for someone to show up. The doctor looked me over, ruled out some kinda scary things, and mostly agreed that it was probably a pinched nerve in my spine and a pulled muscle in my leg. He sent me for an XRay which, he said, didn't really indicate anything (and he said that was a bad thing), so they scheduled me for an MRI. In the meantime, he said, I shouldn't do anything that could make things worse. Basically, I'm supposed to do as little as possible. Over the weekend, I pretty much obeyed the doctor's orders.

He also gave me prescriptions for a painkiller (Lortab) and a muscle relaxant and anti-inflammatory (Soma). Between the two, they make me feel drunk all the time. Not the good sort of drunk, either. The queasy, light-headed, anxious sort of drunk. Ugh.

Anyway. Thursday was T--'s birthday. I gave her a card Thursday morning, and then stayed home to hang out with her all day (which mostly consisted of sleeping in, going to the doctor, then crashing on the couch when the Lortab kicked in), and then we went out to Texas Roadhouse with D-- and K-- and N-- for dinner. Afterward we got dessert at Maggie Moo's, and took it home to watch the rest of Batteries Not Included. It was fun, and I think everyone had a great time.

Friday morning I woke up early, and felt really weird. It was either the medication or the large ice cream I'd had just before going to bed or (more likely) a combination of the two, but I was sick. I didn't realize how sick until I got to work, though. Oh, and I was driving the Saturn, because T-- had some errands to run during the morning. So I got out of my car, threw up in the parking lot, and then had no way to get home until the car cooled down. Nice.

It was an unpleasant morning at work, then I ran home and crawled into bed. I got up to give T-- a kiss goodbye before she headed to Wichita, then crashed again. Around 5:00 D-- called and woke me up, and I was feeling better by then.

But, yeah, T-- went to Wichita over the weekend to celebrate her birthday with family. I'd meant to go, too, but we decided with my back problems that the five hours of driving and two nights on a crappy bed wouldn't do me any good. T-- was worried about leaving me home alone, though, so she asked D-- to keep an eye on me while she was gone.

So he picked me up around 5:00 on Friday afternoon and we went over to his place to watch some Boston Legal while I played Civ on my laptop and he worked on B--'s dead computer. That was pretty much the model for the weekend. Friday night we also watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which was pretty good in a Big Lebowski or Zero Effect sort of way.

Around 11:00 I went home and went to bed. Then D-- called around 10:00 Saturday morning and woke me up. He brought Taco Bueno for lunch, and while we ate he grabbed some more episodes of Boston Legal and installed Civ on his laptop, then we went over to his place and watched Iron Eagle (which was terrible, in exactly the same way that The Last Starfighter is terrible), and then we watched some Boston Legal while I played Civ on the laptop and D-- worked on B--'s computer.

N-- called sometime in the afternoon and invited us to dinner at Othello's up in Edmond, so we headed that way around 6:45, and after dinner we went over to their place to watch Wargames, which was only left out of our 80's Movies Review because we'd all seen it. It was fun watching it again, though. D-- dropped me off at home afterward, and I stayed up to markup another chapter of Heather's novel before I went to bed.

Then Sunday morning K-- and N-- picked me up for church (remember I was left with the Saturn, and it's misbehaving). Ben Affleck led singing, which was pretty exciting, but other than that it was a normal Sunday service. Afterward they drove me up to Schlotzky's to meet my little sister and her family for lunch, but K-- and N-- couldn't hang around because K--'s mom was coming into town, and they needed to meet her. (D-- didn't join us because he thinks Schlotzky's is "gross.")

So, I had a pleasant lunch with my sister. They just got back from a week in New Mexico, and had lots of stories to tell between the two of them. Jeff also mentioned that he has a lot more experience to offer to help me improve my Sleeping Kings story, which means he's willing to read through it at least one more time, which is a pretty big compliment in itself. I'm grateful for that.

When they dropped me off at home, I called D-- to check in, and he came to pick me up and we went over to his place to, yeah, watch Boston Legal and play Civ. This time he loaded it up too (as B--'s computer was running hours-long diagnostics tests), and we played some multiplayer Civ for the first time in many years. It was incredibly fun, and the next ten hours flew by.

We did watch Strange Brew while we played, and it was awful. Truly, truly terrible. I don't recommend it at all. Then we tried to watch The Beastmaster because I remembered liking it in high school, but...ye gods. All the other movies we watched that weekend shine like beacons of perfect cinematography compared with The Beastmaster. It was wretched. It was filth.

Oh! He had also started The Unforgiven while I was at lunch, so I got to see the second half of it after he picked me up. Yet again, terrible movie. The dialog is atrocious, and the plot is boring. Don't watch it. Yuck.

Still, the movies were all just background, really. D-- played the Germans and I played the Russians and we started out on this catastrophically small island together, but by the end of the day we had two more continents under our dominion and we're about to prosecute a successful war against the allied Incas and Vikings, with the full backing of our good friend Hammurabi.

I could have stayed up all night playing, but T-- called around 9:00 to say she was heading home, and I wanted to be there when she got in, so D-- took me home and I did some dishes and generally cleaned up the place while I waited for her to get in. It was nearly midnight before I got to bed.

Then this morning I slept late, which made me late for work, but I got to play with AB a little because of it, so I'm not too upset. I brought the Saturn to work, but it should have had plenty of time to cool off by now, so I don't expect any problems getting home.

I feel like I've got my medications under control now, and they're definitely helping with the pain. My back is nowhere near as bad as it was a week ago. I have an MRI scheduled for Wednesday at 3:30, so I'll be able to tell you more after that.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.