It's summer, and the living is easy

I have gotten so much knitting done, it's not even funny. Well, maybe it is. Honestly, I really like how I relax while knitting...between it and swimming, my stress levels are down in the basement.

I'm fascinated by some things that have come up in my life recently. There's a pretty cliche idea about how you should learn from your mistakes, but no one talks about how to avoid making mistakes in the first place. Don't get me wrong, there's some good reason to make mistakes, since sometimes it takes standing in the coals to figure out how (or how not) to do something. I'm pretty much the poster child of learning the hard way. Remember how your parents always told you not to stick things in the electrical sockets? Yeah, I still stuck bobby pins in and ended up having my mom pull me off because I couldn't let go. Trust me, I never made that mistake again, but obviously, that could have been avoided.

So, here's the idea: try learning from your friends and family's mistakes. Another example on how I'm going to try this out comes from just some day to day stuff. I was working the other day, and decided to go and practice for an hour. A friend I haven't seen in forever texts me, asking if I'm up to anything because they're in town and has some time to go get coffee. Since I was bike-commuting, I requested that they come to me because it would be faster, meanwhile putting my horn away (I got a warm up in first, so not a total loss) and running up to get on my bike to get to the coffee place. I get in, order my drink, then sit down at a nice table. They keep updating me with calls and texts, and I'm told that the Fremont bridge had gone up, delaying them for a while. Then, fifteen minutes later, I get a call and my friend tells me that they really need to run back and pick up their friend that they were hanging out with, drop them off somewhere, then they'll come back to have coffee. Another half-hour passes and I start to get frustrated because it feels like I'm being blown off. I call up James to tell him what's up, and just to find someone to talk to since there wasn't much to do in the shop anyway. Then I get the text:

Hey, it's just not going to work out today. Sorry.

Oh, I was so angry...I can't even describe how angry I was. James got to hear the lovely rant I had, mostly about how sick I was of people just taking my time and wasting it because all they could think about was their own schedule, their own lives, and not having consideration for the others around them.

Life lessons from this situation: be punctual...or call if you're not being punctual. The other person could use your lateness to get stuff done rather than just sitting around waiting.

Next, don't try to just stick someone into your schedule. I think that was the most hurtful part of this situation. I was just smashed into an apparently full schedule, so therefore I was the first thing to go when the schedule was starting to fall apart.

Third, don't tell someone you're not going to show up by text. By God, you had better at least call. Texting is super convenient, and a fast way to tell someone some information, but if you're standing them up, it's so un-kosher, it's not even funny.

So, all three of these things are going to be pieces of information that I keep in mind so that none of my friends will deal with the same stuff I have (or hopefully they won't). I'm not trying to be self-righteous, I know I'm going to screw up...I already have so much with my friends. But if I start working to learn not just from my mistakes, but also from others', then maybe I'll end up being a better friend than if I just concentrated on my own mistakes.

Moving into the update part of my blog (since I figure that's why most of you are here), Baxter hates his splint, so my day is full of amusing him so that he stops chewing it off. Baxter's a dog, for those of you who just thought that I'm friends with one very odd child.

I finally got scheduled to have a lesson tomorrow, which is exciting. Hopefully I'll keep moving forward in my playing. I know that an hour a day isn't where I was during the school year, but I can still see improvement happening, and this actually is the first summer where I'm actively practicing.

Swimming and biking is continuing, and I can feel my body getting whipped into shape, which is a very different feeling than my usually soft muscles. I can't wait to see how my arms and legs look at the end of this summer :D

I hope everyone is having a great summer and goes out to enjoy some sun (take sunscreen!) :)

Allie

A quick update, nearly a month later...

Here we are, a month after my last update, and life is awesome! The last month has been up and down, but mostly moving in the upward direction (what other direction can you go when you've just completed another 8 months of full-time school?). I finished spring quarter with a cumulative 3.4 GPA. It's down just a tiny bit from last quarter, but I can't really complain after how much stuff happened near the end.

Just before finals week, I was nearly done with all of my packing when, while sleeping, I apparently clenched my teeth together for something like 6-8 hours straight out of stress. Obviously, my jaw did not appreciate this, and I was in a serious amount of pain. James, being the sweet guy he is, decided he wanted to help, and brought me ibuprofen and took me up to a sports store to get an athletic guard (the dentists say they're just as good as a night guard made in an office). The vibrations were awful, and I'll admit to crying most of the way there and back. *Side note, James made a quip about how I'm not allowed to have children with this kind of pain tolerance :D* The night guard was a good idea, but I was in so much pain, I couldn't handle the idea of trying to make it. Since clenching was what caused my pain, I didn't really want to do any more clenching, even if it was only a minute of it to help make something that might help. I'll admit, this was probably stupid decision number 2 (number 1 was not having a night guard weeks earlier when the dentist told me to go get one).

By the end of the weekend, I was mostly moved into my new place, and in just as much pain as ever, if not more. I probably was still grinding my teeth at night, the pain just causing more stress, causing more grinding, causing more pain, etc. By either Monday or Tuesday, I went into the school medical office and saw a nurse practitioner. She prescribed me muscle relaxants for the nighttime, and Vicodin for the pain. Story's over, right? Wrong :/

The Vicodin did absolutely nothing. I was in even worse pain, the muscle relaxants helped some, but they weren't controlling any pain either (for good reason, that's not their job). I don't think I made it another two days before James came over to my new place (which is my aunt and uncle's house, by the way) and found me curled up in a ball crying in one of the armchairs, with a very concerned one-year-old golden retriever trying to figure out what was wrong. I had a final that afternoon, but I knew I wouldn't make it, so I called my professor's office phone. I kind of pulled myself together before the call, but clearly it was obvious that I was in pain because he asked me if I needed to be calling 911 instead. Oh, and he was totally fine with me missing the final and making it up later.

After hearing from someone other than James that I seemingly needed to go to the hospital, I finally agreed, and the two of us headed over to the ER nearby to see what was wrong. I didn't get a new diagnosis; the doctors in the ER agreed that I just was in a lot of pain, that it would go away eventually, and the point was to control it now. They also informed me that part of the reason the Vicodin wasn't working was because it was not an anti-inflammatory, therefore ibuprofen would be more efficient in this case. So, they sent me off, with a stronger muscle relaxant, instructions on how much ibuprofen to take, as well as Percocet.

Never, EVER try to have a normal existence while taking Percocet. Even though I felt somewhat sane, there were many moments where I felt like I was floating around the ceiling, and apparently my friends had a heck of a time trying to understand me, since my speech was rather impaired (apparently...I only knew that I was having issues finding words a lot more than usual).

So...the point is, the pain went down enough that I was willing to make a night guard, which also coincided with the completion of all my finals, and the end of my sophomore year of college. Suddenly I slept way better and soon after, I was able to reduce down to just ibuprofen. Thank God.

Meanwhile, since then I have puppy-sat for my wonderful hosts, started working regularly in the library, knit up a storm, and went to a friend's wonderful wedding. I bike everywhere, swim nearly every weekday morning, and eat tons (yes, my friends, Allie is eating three good meals a day! What exercise will do for a person!). I can come and go at will, I go to work when I want to, work as long as I want, and leave whenever I'm ready. I practice before and after work (sort of convenient when you work in the music department) and knit in all the rest of my free time. Life is good! (and low-stress, which is exactly what I needed)

Tomorrow brings the beginning of a new lace project, some more swimming and work, but I really do look forward to each day now! Oh, and I've discovered Seattle's public library system...what have I been doing all these years without it?! So many knitting books I can have access to!!!

Until the next interesting thing happens (probably my birthday in T-minus 11 days),

Allie