Wednesday, December 19, 2007

a pinch of holiday cheer

pinched nerves do not a happy blogger make.

in other words, my absence is mostly due to a pinched nerve in my elbow, as confirmed by 2 doctors in the last 2 weeks. plan of action: wait it out (and continue letting a physical therapist torture me). this wispy treatment plan is irrationally more disheartening than having a shiny new cast or hearing the "s" word. so for an indeterminate amount of time, i will be sleeping with a padded tube sock (also known as a "heel-bow") around my arm and sporting a wrist splint, as needed.

in other news, coffeeshopgirl is officially a Certified Octane Barista (COB). this is no push button operation my friends. we're talking a 3 part certification, including a proficiency test, a written exam (do you know where Huehuetenango is?), and the cou de gras: a mock competition that required an original signature drink. i witnessed the competiton section of the ordeal last night, and it was so stressful that i had to bring a book to keep from pacing the counter culture training center.

tomorrow we're headed up to DC for a week of house hopping fun. first stop: coffeeshopgirls' parents, where there will be a wall-faced kitten, lots of good-natured yelling, and shabbat dinner. then we're headed to eastern maryland to have a gentile time with my mom and her husband (read: eating cookie dough and watching Friends on DVD). after that it will be back to civilization to spend christmas with my dad and his wife. ah, the joys of family holidays with jigsaw families.

time to finish packing and don my arm sock (maybe i'll draw a smiley face on it and call it Elliot the elbow puppet).

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

minor implosion

the problem with smashing things in the confines of your own apartment is that you then have to clean up the mess. vacuuming makes the echo of flying splinters recede faster than i'd like. as you may have guessed, i had a self-provoked moment of insanity and took a baseball bat to a plate. abusing dishes (of the hard plastic variety) will hopefully not make me an ogre in your eyes. i promise you, i felt remorse and i handled the remains with the utmost compassion (and by that i mean i tried not to cut myself as i cleaned up my temper tantrum). maybe chocolate fixes chemical imbalances.

at the very least, a good book can usually distract me from a visit to the Imperial Castle of Unstable (ICU). this past weekend's project was stephen king's book On Writing. i highly recommend it, if for no other reason than you get to take a walk down memory lane with a man who has scared the piss out of millions (perhaps billions?) of people. his writing advice is heavily based on intuition and repetition, so it won't help someone looking for 20 fast and easy steps to becoming the next j.k. rowling, but his tone is optimistic and it left me in the mood to practice.

on the agenda for the next few days:

- the botanical gardens (trip #2 to finish the photos for a calendar i'm making my grandmother)
- the opening for the staff art show at octane
- ann patchett's newest book Run