Hungry For Something

So the investors have sent in a “team psychologist” to talk to each of us separately tomorrow about our “concerns” … my biggest concern at this point is how much longer the company is going to be around, because when they start bringing in the “team psychologists,” it’s never a good sign.

But there may be hope on the horizon, at least for me. I can’t say anything specific now but I’ve been practicing getting up earlier…

Yeah, it’s broken. It’s called a Mallet Finger (aka Baseball Finger!) and if you wanna get grossed out click on the link and scroll down to the photos. The second pic (the x-ray) is pretty close to what mine looks like.

Blue Cross just happened to approve my policy the very day I got the injury, so I’ve been taking advantage of actually being insured to get it properly cared for. The GP sent me in for XRays and then referred me to a hand specialist, who gave me two custom splints, which I have to wear 24/7 for the next 4-6 weeks while the tendon and bone reattach. My friend Shea recommended Comfrey (aka Kint-Bone) as a homeopathic treatment, because it’s supposed to make the bones heal faster. He is an expert on bone healing - he busted his leg skateboarding in Canada. (Please note - if you are planning to break a leg skateboarding, do it in Canada. It’s cheaper.)

Anyway I’m relearning how to type with a splint on, and hoping I can start playing piano again soon. The swelling has pretty much gone down, and it doesn’t hurt too bad normally but if I stress the other fingers on the hand in certain ways it puts pressure on the tendon, and then it hurts something fierce.

But it looks like my softball season is over, at least until mid-October, if the game is still going by then… Anyone down with some soccer?

I messed up my finger playing softball this afternoon. I’m not sure if it’s broken or sprained but after it happened the first knuckle was bent at a wacky angle and I couldn’t really move it. Bob whittled me a splint and Mel’s Audi came with a First Aid kit so she taped me up and I iced the finger for the rest of the game and managed the pain with Goose Island and Miller High Life. Afterwards I rode over to Walgreens and bought a metal finger cot to brace it up.

One thing I’ve learned from a summer of softball is that it’s stupid to go to the ER for a messed up finger because no matter if it’s jammed, broken or sprained, they make you wait for 8 hours just tell you to not to move it, keep it iced and elevated, and then charge you $800. I’m gonna go get it X-Rayed at a clinic just so I know exactly how messed up it is, but it feels like I can move every knuckle without searing pain so I think I mighta just jammed it good. I’m a little worried about the funky angle the top knuckle adopts when I take off the cot though.

Wanna see how bad I type with a splint on? I won’t correct any more errors in this post, starting right now. OAn Im9ibilized right mring finger onolye reallu interferes with a few oletters on the keyboard and I’m getting pretty good at ouseing it to9 h9it the “o?” key but as yuo can see it kind of likes to go up an d hit the 9 sometimes. AN d the perio9nd is kind 0of hard to get at toooooooo so coding might be an interestin gchaooed ge to9o, Can’t wait!!

ANyways I’m done with softball for at oleast a few weekends untipool. thjis thing jfcan grip a ball again, also wasshing the dishes is go9nna be a bit ocf a chaollednge…

I’m not hhandicapped I’mj handicapabole.

Item: I just bought my first $30 tank of gas. Here’s a tip for when you want to find the cheap gas — look for taxicabs. Every time I drive by the Safeway at Damen and Roscoe I notice about 5 cabs fueling up there. That lets me know that $2.99/gallon is the cheapest I’m going to find gas in the city.

Item: There is talk of contract renegotiation at work, which would include non-disclosure and rumored non-compete clauses. I don’t mind agreeing not to give up company secrets to my next employer, but I will not sign anything that limits my future career options by reason that I have learned things from my current employer. They have had no qualms about utilizing knowledge I brought from previous employers, and therefore I view anything that I’ve learned while working for them is an addition to my skills, which belong to me. Anyway I haven’t seen the contract so I’m not passing judgement yet.

Item: If I went on a date with a girl, and then we made plans to go out again this week, and I call her once, and then email her once, and then go 3 days without a response to either, how long do I wait before calling her once more to make sure she didn’t just go on vacation or something? I’m afraid to jump to the conclusion that I’m being blown off even though past experience has usually indicated this is the case. I have a talent for dropping off peoples’ to-do lists … it’s almost like a super power. Maybe she’ll call me tonight and I’ll feel like a doofus for expecting a blow-off. But I feel really unsticky.

Update: Duh. I’m a doofus.

What a week. I don’t even know where to start. Everybody seemed to know that the flooding in New Orleans would be a catastrophe of epic proportions but somehow the Bush people think they can spin it out of existence. It’s horrible, I am watching probably 3-4 hours of coverage a day until I can’t stand it anymore, and in the time when I’m not watching TV I’m trying to have fun celebrating my birthday.

After donating $200 to the American Red Cross (please donate WHATEVER you can!), I bought myself a new digital camera for my birthday because my old one is too large to fit in a pocket so I never used it. In order to give myself plenty of subjects to shoot, I planned a 2-day “Birthdaystravaganza” as listed earlier in this space. I changed the plans from a one-evening to a two-evening event with the regular Saturday softball game inbetween, and documented all the fun on my new camera.

The evidence is available on my Flickr photostream:

Wednesday: Grizzlies and Rainbo for dinner and drinks.
Friday: The Bunny Hutch for batting cages, miniature golf, and burgers.
Saturday afternoon: Softball Club!!
Saturday evening: Birfday cookouuuut!

Also, somebody broke into my condo on Saturday while I was out playing softball. At first I didn’t think they had managed to gain entry because even though the door had been pried at, nothing seemed to be missing. I had 2 laptops sitting out in full view and all kinds of synthesizers and stereo equipment sitting around. But I noticed a plastic case that contains ADAT tapes had been moved from where I normally kept it, and that seemed suspicous. This morning I was lying in bed wondering why somebody would break into my house and just move a plastic case and not steal computers, and then it struck me that maybe they were looking for power tools. Sure enough, I went back into the studio and found both my electric drills had been taken. I guess their nice cases make them easy to carry when you’re trying to high-tail it out of somebody’s condo. So now I have to get a burglar alarm and a locking doorknob for the studio because I would guess that having seen my studio and computers, they will try again.

Part of the reason they were able to gain entry to my condo was that the deadbolt on my back door didn’t engage properly when locked from the outside. Ironically, the damage that they did to the strike-plate of the doorknob now allows the door to close more securely and the deadbolt fully engages. Anyway, even though I feel kind of violated by having some icky crack-head root through my place and pet my cats while I wasn’t home, I feel SO LUCKY that all I lost was a couple of power drills (one of which is broken) when so many people have lost so much more in the past week.