Today is a day that all of us can work in our rooms and get things ready to go.  Most of my stuff is cleaned up and ready to go, and I’m waiting on the master calendar before I can start prepping for lessons and whatnot.  I have a couple of things to ask the principal regarding what his expectations are for me, compared to what expectations were last year.

I’m feeling… not great today.  I wasn’t feeling great yesterday either.  I have a headache, a slightly sore throat, I’m tired, and I have a stomach ache.  I’m hoping that I’m not coming down with strep, although it’d be a real possibility with Jake so sick.  I have no time to get sick though, so I’m just not entertaining that thought.

A real positive for me has been that several of my coworkers have told me they can “really tell” that I’ve lost weight.  That lifts my spirits and really motivates me to continue on.   

Off to do some things.  It’s good to be back to work.

His sense of adventure is staggering.

Tomorrow is the start of the school year for all the staff.  I large part of me is looking forward to this; I know that our new principal is really fantastic and I’m very excited about working with him.  There are so many people I didn’t get a chance to see all summer, and I’ve missed them greatly.  I’m also a little sad to see the summer fade away.  I feel like I haven’t accomplished nearly as much as I wanted to, or relaxed as much as I could have.  I suppose the best laid plans usually go astray.

This week is all teacher work days.  We have orientation on Thursday evening, which should be a nice night.  It’ll be good to see parents and students again.  Then school starts on the 25th.  Next week is shaping up to be busy.  I return to work, I have my first group riding lesson (which I’m quite nervous about), and it’s looking likely that I’ll be able to go see SARK at a book store in Durham.  I don’t want to get my hopes up about that yet, but I have wanted to hear her speak for quite a long time and it’s quite possible that I’ll get to do that.   Keeping fingers crossed.

I had planned on taking him to urgent care, but when I saw him I knew that plan was changed.  He was clearly in a great deal of pain.  He had a fever.  He looked awful.  I had never seen him looking so terrible.  When I asked if the emergency room was OK he responded with, “Whatever’s closest.” Yet another clue that the ER was likely the best choice.

They got him back and in a room very quickly thanks to the acute pain in his back.  I’ve never seen him in so much pain, and I hope I never will again.  It took two shots of pain medicine, but eventually he was knocked unconscious.  That part was kinda fun.  He was in and out of it, one minute asleep the next minute saying random stuff.  He was finally comfortable, which was all I cared about.  His fever broke too.

After tons of tests we were told he has a bad case of strep throat, complete with a white blood cell count of 18,000.  When he gets sick, he does it well.  They didn’t do too much investigation on his back, but gave us a prescription for pain medicine and a note to see a back doctor if the pain persists.  He has antibiotics and all sorts of lovely things to take.

On the way home last night he requested a “strawbrerry” shake and a cheeseburger, and I was inclined to oblige him.  I was just glad he was feeling hungry, as he’d been so sick earlier that the thought of food made him queasy.  It was torrential downpour last night, and driving was terrifying.  We decided to wait on picking up his medicine until today because of it.  I’ll be picking those up on my way back from my WW meeting this morning.  I’m only going to weigh in today, because I don’t want Jake to be alone for too long.

I can’t begin to explain how relieved I am that it’s only a case of strep.  I was incredibly worried seeing him that way.  It’s not like I didn’t know how much I love him, but seeing him sick had my heart in my throat.  I told him that now we’ve both had to go to the emergency room and we’ve seen each other at our absolute worst… so we’re even.  No more of that.  He agreed.

I will share a couple pictures here though.  Before anyone asks- yes I was wearing sunscreen.

This is the first real sunburn I’ve ever had.  Usually I tan with no issue.  Needless to say, I’m miserable.

An upside?  No pain from my riding lesson on Tuesday.  I guess everything’s a trade off

I kept on writing after the Cotey Stories were complete.  I wrote every spare second of every day.  I journaled.  I wrote poetry.  I wrote stories.  I wrote anything I could possible get out on to paper.  I shared my poetry with one friend… and when I got my notebook back she had had her mother correct my grammar and verses!  I was horrified.  I never shared it with anyone again, because I worried that it wasn’t worthy of anyone else’s eyes.  I worried it was flawed or imperfect.  I worried people would judge it.  Then I made a magical discovery: SARK.

My close friend introduced me to SARK by asking me if I’d ever read the book Succulent Wild Woman or Eat Mangoes Naked.  My first response was, “My parents don’t like me to read that type of book.” The titles sounded racy, and I was certain she was trying to corrupt my fragile sensibilities.  Then she showed me the books.  The first thing that jumped out at me was the color; they were so bright and so… fun.  I thumbed through and was absolutely astonished.  This amazing author had handwritten the books.  There was color.  There were mistakes.  It wasn’t “perfect”.  SARK’s words were miraculous, her message exactly what my heart and soul had been aching for: live juicy and celebrate how succulent you and your ideas are.

I devoured all of SARK’s books.  After I borrowed those first two from my friend, I went out and bought those books as well as everything else that had been released.  My favorite was the Journal and Playbook… I began scribbling and creating art and simply allowing my own creativity to burst forth.  And burst it did.  I shared my writing with anyone who wanted to see it.  I let words spew on to pages without worrying about grammar or spelling… or anything else.  I wrote ideas down that I had been scared to let loose.  I sought out people who supported my creative mission, and found such freedom and joy in sharing my voice.

Since high school I have been an avid follower of SARK.  Any time I’m feeling at a dead end or as if I’m bogged down in finding the “right” words, I pull out one of her books.  I read a favorite chapter, or I read the whole thing over again.  I find in her words the comforting notion that my words are the right ones, simply because I’m saying them.  There’s no better inspiration for a writer than that.

I’m excited that SARK’s newest book Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper was released this week.  I haven’t purchased it yet, simply because my educator salary makes me have to prioritize between groceries and inspiration.  I so look forward to reading this book though.  I know I have my annual NaNoWriMo participation to prepare for, and I’m certain that SARK’s words will once again inspire me to dig deep in my heart and find my special words that need to be shared this year.  If you need inspiration, find one of SARK’s books… either her newest or one of the older ones.  I guarantee you will find places in your heart and soul you weren’t aware existed.  Your words will be set free, and you will unleash them on paper you’ve had eagerly awaiting your voice.

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Please note how neatly his paws are crossed.

He takes great pride in his manners.  At least when nobody else is around.

I was worried that I would have more pain in the groin muscle area, and I dreaded it.  On the drive home it was my right knee and thigh that were bothering me.  Then I woke up Saturday and even before I tried to put weight on it, I knew something was off with my left leg.  Rolling over was agonizing.  Then I stood up and as I limped to the bathroom it nearly gave out on me twice.  I began icing, elevating and resting it immediately.  Unfortunately there has been very little positive change in it.

Today Jake got me ace bandages so I could wrap it.  As suspected, compressing it hurt like an SOB.  I looked up muscle tears on line and it said that compressing is suggested, and that if it’s a 2nd degree tear it’s likely to hurt quite a lot when you do… and then ease up a little as it stays wrapped.  That’s what happened.  I left it wrapped for several hours, icing it, and then unwrapped and iced some more.  Now it’s just elevated.

I don’t have time to have any sort of significant injury in my leg.  I need to be able to work out, because I’m sick of having disappointing weeks at WW.  I need to be able to ride on Wednesday, as it is my last chance to try and get into shape before group lessons start.

I will say this: I’ve been riding since I was eleven.  There have been several times when I’ve had to take time off and had pain getting back into the saddle.  Even after I took nearly three years off after college, and that was probably the worst groin muscle strain I’ve ever had.  This pain is different.  It is an unexpected side effect, one that I’ve never had before.

So we’ll see.  Right now I’m just hoping for improvement by tomorrow morning.

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