I still have the plague. My desk at the office is turning into a mini-pharmacy; I’m taking all kinds of stuff to make me as functional as possible while I’m at work. I think all it’s really doing is making me groggy and uncomfortable, but at least I’m here. I’ve been taking NyQuil at home so I’m getting at least a few hours of sleep a night before it wears off and I wake up coughing, but that’s better than nothing. Really I just need a new immune system, but they don’t sell that at Duane Reade.

I’m re-reading the Swallows and Amazons series, I picked up used copies of the first three books for pretty much nothing. My parents have the whole series in Massachusetts, though, and they were some of my favorites when I was a smaller Emma. They’re still very good to re-read even now, although they make me want to go camping on an island. (I already live on an island, but as it’s covered in apartment buildings I’m not sure it counts.)

Because the whole back thing last week just wasn’t enough, I seem to be getting sick - either a summer cold or sinusitis again, hooray! Funny story: yesterday the congestion and sinus pressure were so bad that I ducked out of the office just after lunch to pick up a decongestant at the Duane Reade downstairs. Only after I’d taken it did I realize that it wasn’t non-drowsy - it warned me that I would, in fact, experience “marked drowsiness” and ought not to drive.

In practice, I ended up half-dozing in my chair for the rest of the afternoon. I felt like I was back at school and trying desperately to stay awake during a lecture. Also, it’s remarkably difficult to write cogent email when you can’t really focus on your monitor. I don’t recommend it.

Our cable was out over the weekend, which was pretty annoying. I called Time Warner and politely asked them what was up, and they said it couldn’t be fixed remotely and they’d send someone out to look at it on Wednesday. Actually, before they said that, they told me the problem was the router, or my computer, or something I did. I think their customer service people are trained in avoiding responsibility for problems more than they’re trained for service, exactly.

Anyway, my politeness didn’t seem to be getting us anywhere in particular, so Chris stepped in and yelled at them, and told them that we pay them over a hundred dollars a month and we are not going without service for three (more) days. They still wouldn’t acknowledge that it might be anything other than our fault, but about an hour later, our connection mysteriously returned. Without anyone coming to the apartment. Funny how that works, huh?

In the meantime, we tried to think of things to do without the Internets. Napping, reading, and playing Warcraft III (single player) turn out to be pretty good options. I’ve been steadily losing interest in WoW for the past few months, but it was fun playing WC3 and killing villagers in Stratholme. It made me want to play WoW again - well, that and my new Core Marksman Rifle.

My back and shoulder are getting better. I can actually turn my head to the left now! It’s amazing! I’m still going to take it pretty easy tomorrow and over the weekend, but it’s nice that the pain is subsiding to endurable levels. I would never have reached this extraordinary level of mobility without Chris providing ice packs for me. And picking things up off the floor when I drop them and am unable to retrieve them.

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So a couple weeks ago, we ordered a huge rag rug from Crate and Barrel. When I got home from work on Monday, the doorman let me know it had arrived. I saw that it was a relatively small box for such a huge rug, but when I tried to pick it up I realized it wasn’t going to happen, so I decided I’d let Chris handle it, which he did. About twenty minutes later, we were unrolling the rug in our apartment and my back exploded, killing me instantly.

Okay, maybe the death part is a little bit exaggerated. But it really was pretty dramatic - out of nowhere, the muscles in my neck, my left shoulder, and the entire left side of my back all started spasming, which was unbelievably painful. I’m assuming it was because I tried to pick up the rug box and probably did so sloppily, but I really don’t know. After a few minutes, things seemed to settle down a little bit, but it still hurt quite a bit and over the course of the night it actually got much worse.

I stopped being able to lie down in any position at about 3am, and spent the next several hours alternating between trying to sit on the couch with a lot of pillows propping me up and trying to lie down on the bed in one position or another. Any time I shifted position I would get this horrible sharp pain through the left side of my back - the kind where you can’t even breathe until it stops. Advil, of course, didn’t do shit, and I didn’t make it into work yesterday.

Today is significantly better than yesterday, but it’s still not a lot of fun. My range of motion is pretty limited; I can’t really turn my head very far or look up at anything, and using my left arm for things is generally a bad idea, as I discovered while trying to hold onto a pole on the subway this morning. I’m still taking ibuprofen and it seems to be helping a little bit now, and I managed to get to work at least.

The general consensus seems to be that I’ve either pinched a nerve or strained a muscle, and that either way I can expect it to continue hurting for about a week, which I’m really looking forward to. Yes, I’m icing it - though not while at work, for obvious reasons. In any case, that’s the last time I try to pick up a fucking rug.

So Chris and I finally got around to seeing Star Wars on Thursday with Mr and Mrs Tails. Chris had really been looking forward to it, but by the end of the first hour his excitement had turned to horror and despair. I think we were all in agreement that, like Sega, Lucas makes murder porn. Now, let’s never speak of it again.

Friday night I met up with some friends for cocktails at Lunasa before Al and I headed over to Sundown. Good music, and it wasn’t too crowded, presumably because all the sheep were out at the VNV show. Al wasn’t drinking, but I think I drank enough for both of us. I certainly had double the hangover on Saturday, so that worked out well.

Adam recommended a whole slew of CDs for me a few weeks ago and I finally got around to ordering a couple of them - namely, this Winterkalte album, this Exclipsect album, and this Bahntier album. They arrived last night and I’ve just finished listening to them - all three are great. The Winterkalte album is probably my favorite, but it’s a very close call.

I went to Starbucks this afternoon, and Creepy Guy didn’t abandon his milk canisters to come and talk to me. Maybe he reads my site! In which case: hey Creepy Guy, thanks for being less creepy today! Keep it up!

The weather is better today too. Today I was even able to smoke outside my building without dying. (Normally I do actually die.)

<emma> it looks good
<rich> thanks. i need to do something with it.
<rich> i was thinking a crap load of animated gifs would help
<emma> you need a horizontal bar with dripping blood
<rich> exactly what i was thinking.
<emma> maybe some bats with flappy wings
<rich> and some laughing skulls and flickering candles i was thinking
<emma> yup
<rich> and something that chases the cursor around.
<rich> that says my name
<emma> definitely
<emma> ideally, you’d also have a tiled background image which is likewise animated
<emma> perhaps a spooky door that opens and closes
<rich> and of course i need the embedded sound
<rich> which runs on an infinite loop
<emma> i was just about to mention that
<rich> preferably a midi file.
<rich> cause those sound so good
<emma> i would suggest the theme from the addams family