My boss is really quite good at making me feel incompetent.  He leaves me feeling as if he doesn't quite trust me to do things right, even though I haven't made any devastating mistakes in the past four months.  Yesterday I actually found something I do quite well--laying out VCT flooring.  I spent several hours working out the flooring designs for the children's museum, in the art area, the program room, the party room, and three bathrooms.  My boss looked at them and said, "I like this!" which would have been a compliment, had not his voiced dripped with incredulousness.

Yeah, I know I could be less surly and more social, but I'm trying to make some big decisions here, and I don't want to risk getting good advice from friends that might interfere with my god-given right to fuck up my life all by lonesome. And really, if you could see the things happening in my inbox right now, you wouldn't blame me for ignoring everyone around me. Just be glad you're not Catherine, she doesn't get ignored, she gets snarled at.

My best advice: don't go to a rock concert--even a relatively sedate one--on crutches. Drunk people are drunk people, and they'll run you over on the way to the parking lot after the concert w/out so much as a backward glance.

Man, I haven't seen so much alcohol since the last NHL game I attended, and I'm not sure that even hockey fans put away so much over-priced beer. Before I could even get out of the car, the people who had pulled up next to us were out of there car, had the trunk popped, the cooler open, and were already drinking. I know I'm moving slowly right now, but it was amazing how quickly they had the beer open and distributed. Our view was obstructed through a lot of the concert because people kept getting up to get more beer, and the woman behind Catherine during the concert was so drunk I was afraid she was going to fall over on top of us every time she leaned forward to gush something in Catherine's ear. And this lesbian a few rows in front of us was so drunk she was letting a total stranger--a middle-aged man--slobber all over her (after his wife walked away in disgust, of course).

Anyway, Deer Creek is too far to go for a concert. We've been exactly once in the seven years we've been here, and that should do it for us. Here's to a quiet rest-of-the-weekend.

The good thing about being on crutches is that you get to use the wheelchair when you go to the grocery store. And not the lame, electric wheelchair, either, but the cool one you push yourself. No one can stop you from skidding around corners because, hey, you're in a wheelchair.

Of course, if you're in a wheelchair, you're pretty much restricted to the bottom two shelves for shopping, so you really need to like all the storebrand foods, because that's what you're going to get. But the wheelies make it all worth it.

Go ahead, ask me how I spent my morning.

Long story cut short, I'm on crutches w/a torn calf muscle. And you know what? I'm not very happy about it.

So, I totally lost it at the mall this afternoon. 
 
You know, Hallmark is all about "a card for every occasion," but they don't have one that says "It is so FUCKING UNFAIR that you're not going to get well soon."  And you know, the woman at the checkout completely missed her chance to empty my checking account, because she was all "would be interested in contributing to the fund to send cards to our troops overseas," and I was all "you can do whatever the hell you want with my debit card, just hurry the fuck up and run it through because we're about to have a scene here, and neither you nor I want that, okay?"  Completely missed her chance.

I think I'm losing my mind.  I actually had to call the wife at work this morning to ask her what our home phone number was.  After thinking about it for five minutes, I managed to come up w/the last four digits, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember the exchange.  I'm not sure if I should be worried or amused.

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."

So says Eleanor Roosevelt.

http://aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=17944

Getting an e-mail from a famous person isn't necessarily cool--fame doesn't guarantee intelligence, quick-wittedness, or kindness. In fact, sometimes I've wondered if fame doesn't cultivate the exact opposite personality traits.

However, getting an e-mail from a famous person that you've admired for a long time, an e-mail that suggests the author is exactly as intelligent, insightful and warm as you'd hoped she'd be, *is* cool, and being able to follow it up with a phone call...well, then you get into something that is so far beyond cool that I can't even think of the appropriate words to describe it.

It's not entirely true that all I do is work, but it does seem like it by the end of the week.

Other things I'm doing besides working: a hell of a lot of training. My CV and strength-training schedule is plotted out through November (although I reserve the right to edit it between now and then). 5 training days, 2 days rest. That breaks out into 3 running days, two cross-training days, two days rest. 2 of the running days finish up w/lower-body strength training, the 2 cross-training days conclude w/upper-body strength training. 1 of the running days is reserved for the long run (distance increase starts in a week), so no strength-training.

Other things I'm doing besides training: I spend 45 minutes every Saturday w/Bobby, working out drum exercises I can use to strengthen my shoulder. So far I'm limited to about 10 minutes of drumming at a time. That's okay, because once I fully recover, I'll have to seriously thing about a new drum kit, and I can't afford it. I'm really at the point where I'm not going to be able to improve my playing much more w/out a more robust kit, so I've got to give this some serious thought.

Other things I'm doing besides drumming: I finally got to take the woodworking class I've been putting off for a year because of my shoulder. It's a class on dove-tailed joints, and although my first attempt truly and totally sucks, I've got the concept down, and it can only improve from such a dismal beginning.

Doesn't it seem like all I do is work?

I'm not sure what Catherine did when we got home this afternoon, but I read the paper then went to bed for the next three hours. We're both exhausted for some reason. I guess we did a lot of driving, and I do feel a little dehydrated, but I'm not sure why we feel so worn out.

Saturday we drove to Columbus, and arrived early enough to spend some time at the Franklin Park Conservatory. It was crowded and hot, and looking back, I would guess my dehydration started right there. Anyway, the butterflies were very nice, as was the garden train set. It was the last weekend of the Chihuly exhibit, thus explaining the dense crowds, ordinarily we don't have much competition when we go to look at plants. The Chihuly glass was nice, but I think this makes my 3rd Chihuly exhibit, so it didn't knock my socks off. Also, some of the pieces I'd definitely seen before--what I want is a "here's what Dale is doing RIGHT NOW" exhibit, not a collection of his older pieces.

Stopped off at the increasingly derelict Wexner Center on our way north through town. I don't think they're ever going to re-open that place. Went to see a movie in the evening--F9/11, like good internet liberals. It was either that or pay $20.00 to see Harry Potter on the IMAX screen.

Sunday we got up early and went for a run at Highbanks Metro Park. Excellent decision. After we showered, we drove up to Bucyrus to do some looking around for my dad. Spent a lot of time at the Oakwood Cemetery looking for family plots, and wandered around a lot downtown, photographing several late 19th/early 20th c. buildings contracted by one of his relatives. I was sick a lot, and it was quite hot out, and it was really a long day, but we got a lot done. On our way back to Columbus, we stopped at the Ohio Wesleyan University in Delware to photograph another building contracted by the same relative who worked in Bucyrus.

Stopped back at Highbanks Park on the way back to the hotel, watched some groundhogs for awhile. Thought about going to another movie, but decided we were too tired, so after dinner we went to a nearby park to sit and read read. Only we didn't read, we spent the evening watching skaters at the skate park in the Olentangy Parklands in Worthington. Almost all the skaters were adults, one guy was even skating in a pair of tailored dockers, he looked like a banker. Only one woman, maybe my age, and one little girl who had very groovy tiger-striped knee and elbow pads that matched her skate shoes.

A good but oh-so-unhealthy muffin at Tim's this morning (maybe *that's* why I feel so rotten), then we drove home. We made really good time considering I wasn't even speeding. And now I'm ready to go to bed and sleep for a week, but I suppose I really must get up and go into work tomorrow.

I didn't get home from work last night until 9:00 p.m.