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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Back to Blogging

So. I haven't kept my blog going as steadily as I had hoped, but I'm going to try and fix that starting now. Here's what I've been up to the past few months:
  • breaking my elbow. Unsurprisingly, breaking an elbow is extremely painful and I don't recommend it. This happened back in August. I tripped on a piece of uneven sidewalk when I was running and fell on my left arm. I didn't brace myself with the arm, it happened really fast and I just happened to come crashing down on that side. I don't even remember the fall. I was running, and then suddenly I was on the ground. I cut the back of my hand deep enough that I've now got a permanent scar. Two doctor visits later I learned I had fractured my elbow. Luckily it was my left arm, so I only had to take a week off from playing violin and just had to be careful with it for the next couple months. I did not have to wear a cast because the doctor said casts are bad for elbow fractures, they just make the joint really stiff. 
  • enjoying (?) unexpected free time. The club downsized for baseball's off season, so I unexpectedly had a few months' worth of free weekends at my disposal. This turned out to be good and bad. The good was that I spent more time reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. The bad: actually having free time made me feel anxious. I think the abruptness was partially to blame for this, but I know I don't do relaxation well. I tried to work on that, but ended up vacillating a lot and got into a couple big projects (see below).
  • downsizing our belongings. I went on a huge cleaning binge and sorted through all of our stuff, ultimately getting rid of about 1/3 of it. Think on that for a minute....imagine one out of every three things you own was suddenly gone. This freed up so much space in our apartment and made it a more relaxing place overall. It's easier to clean and find things because there is so much less clutter. It's also easier to keep stuff organized and put away. Once you become really ruthless and unsentimental about your belongings, it's amazing/scary to see how much money you've wasted on stuff you don't really need. I might write a whole post on this process later, but for now I'll say that I am so, so glad I got rid of stuff. 
  • losing almost 20 pounds. After my arm healed, I got into a decent rhythm and finally managed to lose some stubborn pounds I'd been working on for a while. I'm really excited about that....my sleep has gotten worse though, so I went to see a sleep doctor recently and he wants me to do another sleep study. 
I saved the best for last:

visiting family and friends. Eric and I got to see a a lot of our far-flung networks last year, which was really great. We went to Seattle, Portland, Chicago, and San Jose. His parents came to visit us twice and are probably coming back sometime in the summer or fall. Eric took a solo trip to Vegas to see his friend Brad, and I got to see a bunch of people while traveling for work. We stayed in St. Louis for Christmas and enjoyed a quiet weekend at home. I think I like Christmas better that way. 

Other than that, work has been going well for both of us and the dogs are as cute as ever. I miss them a lot when I'm away. I'm in England now, and after I get back from this trip I'll return to playing at the club every weekend. 

More to come,
RP


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