Icy Hot

Tara and I recently enjoyed ourselves by lamenting over some of our experiences in classes.  I think I could say that "icy" could describe the way we've been treated sometimes, and "hot" could be the way we felt afterward.

And that's all I'll say about that.

I enjoyed writing an article again just now.  I've been quite burned out for a while, but tonight was kind of fun.  I've been sitting here for close to three hours working on a little article for the communicator.  It's kind of a dinky little thing about an adjunct photojournalism professor who went and presented in another photography class.  Doesn't sound too exciting, does it?  And maybe it's not.  On the outside.  But there is always more to a story and the characters in it.  And I enjoyed trying to frame that tonight.  That is, I'm satisfied with my efforts.  I'm sure part of that is because I'm really tired and ready for bed (I mean, the article may suck, but I'm "drunk" enough with sleepiness to not realize it...), but I guess it's not necessarily the words themselves that are particularly good, but the act of trying to choose the best ones and place them in the best order was somewhat fulfilling after a day of discouragements.  I know I'd never make a good journalist, (I mean, it took me well over three hours total to write this story, not including the reporting time and thinking time) but I hope that I will retain my sense of satisfaction over writing long enough to produce something decent one day.

And that's all I'll say about that.

My calf is meeeeessed up.  It happened during our soccer game last night, but I have no idea what did it. I hadn't slept much the night before and didn't really get a good lunch or supper, so my body wasn't in the best shape for an hour of sprints.  But I had eaten three bananas that day, which made it weird that my calf seemed to have tightened up for no good reason early in the game.  I had heard before that bananas help avoid cramps (which is one of the many reasons they're good for triathlon days!).  So at halftime and during my subbing time, I was stretching that little cow like crazy.  I kept trying to run hard on it the rest of the game, too.  Unfortunately, we lost.  But I didn't like the feelings coming from that calf for the rest of the night.  It was extremely tender, too, and I had to be careful not to hit it even in bed.  Come morning, it was shamelessly sore, stiff and sensitive.   After sitting in classes today, I'd have to stand up for a while and slowly stretch it out before I felt comfortable walking on it.  And when I walked, I couldn't really extend my leg straight all the way because when the knee gets close to being fully extended, it starts to pull on my calf.  So I walked all day with a bent leg.  I think I tore the muscle somehow.  It happened to my biceps in high school, (yes, in weight lifting class I somehow overdid my curls and had swollen, unstraightenable arms for several days.  I know. Me, overdoing it: hard to imagine.) which su-hucked.  Krista gave me her Icy Hot to use tonight.  I rubbed some in before I started working on that article three hours ago, and my calf still feels all cozy.  And so I bring the story to a full circle with the bookend reference to Icy Hot.  It's amazing what you can amuse yourself with at 2:22 in the morning.

And that's all I'll say about that.