Owie

So I managed to turn my ankle right after I got out of the car in my parking lot at home. This is the same ankle I broke last year. I think I'm okay--it's just a bit sore, as is my knee and hip on that side. My klutziness still rules supreme. I need to be careful--several co-workers have fallen in various places of late, and I don't want to be the next one. I haven't had trouble since the ankle healed with rolling over (I have at tendency to supinate when I walk, which means my weight is borne by the outside edges of my feet.) This is especially true of my right foot, which was turned just a bit when I was born and which I don't pick up as well as my left, so when I do fall or turn my ankle, it's usually that side. But I think the screws in my ankle actually gave me a bit more stability. Still, there's always a chance I'll go over. Of course, my klutziness had nothing to do with the injury last year, as someone ran over my foot while I was crossing the street in the crosswalk, which pinned me briefly and then the car side hit me while my foot was trapped, breaking my ankle. It was very quick, very freaky. I was very lucky it wasn't worse, and that I healed well. I filled an interlibrary loan yesterday of an article about complications with ankle fractures in people with diabetes, and a lot of bad things could have happened that didn't. So I'll be more careful, and hopefully won't break anything else. :)

Something fun before turning in for the night

Thanks to YKWIA for introducing me to the musical Wicked.

Getting ready to try my new CPAP machine and see if I can sleep with it

I did put it together earlier after unpacking it and it's super quiet and the masque fits ever so much better than my old one with the did. The old one required a chin strap to keep it stable, and as a result, moved around when that loosened. This new-fangled machine replaces my fifteen-year-old one, which will now be a back up just in case (and will go to live in the trunk of the car in case I get stranded anywhere over the winter, along with the air mattress and foot pump). Features of this one that are nifty are as follows. It:

1. is smaller than my old one, which rather looked like a 70s hair dryer, but heavy enough not to move around and generally seems well-made
2. has a chip that keeps data on it for some time that can be used by the doctors to determine if it's working well
3. starts at a minimum pressure that my old machine has, but can automatically adjust up to a higher pressure after sensing a need for it, which can help with some of the daytime sleepiness I've had
4. has an internal humidifier that nevertheless can disconnect from the other part of the machine in case I want to run it without the water
5. has a humidifier cartridge that easily comes apart for cleaning, something that was a real problem with the one that attached to my old machine, as the container did not come apart on that one, and so you just had to swish the water around
6. has programmable menus
7. is easy to adjust the dial for the humidifier also acts as a big button to turn on
8. actually senses if you put the masque on and starts it without you having to hit the button
9. has a filter that can be rinsed instead of having to order more
10. has headgear that doesn't need a chin strap, is easily adjustable, and has soft cushions to go over he silicon straps, which hopefully means no more lines on my face in the morning

Thank you, my insurance company, for buying this machine when I would not otherwise be able to afford it. Also, I talked to the specialist at the medical supply company and if, in the future, I do not have health insurance (such as after the library gig is over in a couple of years), there are charity programmes that help patients without insurance get supplies and machines, which is important, as it could very well save a life. I knew someone who died due to sleep apnea, and it was very sad that it might have been preventable. Sleep apnea can cause many problems, from damage to the heart to poor work performance to early death. Hopefully this machine will help me stay healthy.

Awwww....

This is hands down the sweetest thing I've seen on television in years.

What I've been/am/will be up to

Yesterday--
1. Cleaned a friend's house (no game)
2. Watched some 'Law & Order' and MeTV ('The Brady Bunch' and 'The Monkees") with friends
3. Finally watched The Blues Brothers with YKWIA, which was great. One, it had great music and wonderful musicians. Two, it had Carrie Fisher with incendiary weapons. Three, the sheer amount of damage, particularly to cop cars, was staggering. I wonder what sort of budget it had.

Today--
1. You would think I would wake up earlier because it's lighter earlier now that daylight savings time is over. Yes, I did, but I stayed up till 1:30 last night so I was slow to get out of bed.
2. Somehow I hit all the lights just right, and I started my morning commute at 8:30 and clocked in at 8:36, so I was within payroll's window. :) Note it's 3.7 miles, in morning traffic.
3. I got my rent and paid it.
4. I got a call from the medical supply place and set up an appointment tomorrow for a new CPAP machine. Yay! I'm going to go in early tomorrow because there was something I needed to get someone by 8 am for a meeting that I couldn't finish today. So I'm going to go in about 7 am (hopefully) and finish it. Then I should be able to leave early and go to the medical supply place.
5. Quite frankly, I'm going to take a nap.
6. I will ry to get caught up on some things on the DVR.

Tomorrow--
1. Go in to work early.
2. Finish survey project and hand in (I'm the only person in the hospital who knows how to use that software fully, and it corrupted the last file after I made some edits. They weren't able to get it to load it again today, so I have to start over, using an old one as a base. It shouldn't take too long, but it is a little annoying. And it's not just like a word processor; each question is built in a sort of wizard fashion.)
3. Try to get caught up at work.
4. Get my new CPAP and accessories.
5. Watch 'The Originals' and 'Supernatural' with YKWIA.

I rather like this song

And the .mp3 album was only $5.99 on Amazon, so I downloaded it. Kudos to the person who put the video up on YouTube and actually spelled 'losing' correctly; that's rare on the Internet. :)

I'm home after spending some time with friends and catching up on our Wednesday night TV shows that we missed due to the dinner out at Alfalfa's. There's no game tomorrow, so we're going to try to watch The Blues Brothers then. I should really work on game notes tonight. I may. But I may just relax. I've been irritable all day, probably because I had to wait till yesterday to get some meds that keep my moods balanced, now that I'm out of flexible spending money and all. I'm not sure I was really good company today. There were no breakdowns or anything like that, but I did get asked if it were time for my period, so I'm assuming I was acting like I had PMS. Sigh. Well, I'm back on them and my mood should even out within a day or so. But this is why I'm usually so careful to stay on my meds--I've been off them for only three days. Okay, back to taking it easy and having a quiet evening at home. My music should be downloaded now. I may write later, but if not, good night.

Every now and then

even though I really have no business doing so, I go to the Lexington Humane Society's webpage and look at the animals there for adoption. There is one cat that has been there for several months named Nedra. She looks sweet. Granted, she hasn't been adopted in all that time, so maybe she's Satan incarnate, but I really feel for her. I guess it's an emotional reaction from always being the last picked for a team in gym, that sort of thing. Anyway, select cats (who knows, maybe Nedra) are only $5 to adopt right now. She's small and about 3 years old. You can see her profile at: http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/27411444. I'm really not in a position to adopt right now. Maybe someone out there who's reading this is?

Trick-or-Treat was kind of a bust from my point of view

I was actually home through most of it, but not one trick-or-treater came by looking for candy. Granted, I live in an apartment complex, but still. I thought I might get a few, and I always feel bad if I don't have anything at all for them. But, alas, they missed out, and I went on over to my friends' house with about a half an hour to go till the end of the trick-or-treating (it was moved to this evening due to the severe weather of yesterday). Also, apparently the place to go after trick-or-treating is McDonald's, because I went over there right before 'Grimm' to get us some food and it was crazy. There were about 20 cars in the double drive-through, with more waiting to get into the lot. I went on inside and placed my order, and I'm sure I got it long before some of those people did, but it was very busy inside as well. I had no idea what a happening place it would be!

Now I'm home. My upstairs neighbour has lights up for Diwali (actually, there are quite a few light strings throughout the complex, as we have quite a lot of people from India and South Asia here. It's very cheery. So, happy Diwali this weekend.

I think I'm going to listen to some music in the bedroom, maybe read awhile, and just relax, then head on to bed. Hope you had a good week and have a great weekend ahead of you! Good night.

I walked into a comic store for the first time in about 15 years

all because of Neil Gaiman and his new Sandman prequel. It came with two covers. I prefer the one on the left, actually. But yes, I sprang for both. The next one is due out in December.

Sandman is what got me collecting comic books as an adult--it was totally different from the comics I'd read as a kid (primarily Star Wars and Spider-Man. With its literary and historical allusions, interesting plots, and the intriguing Endless, I was hooked. I was very sad when it ended, although I kept up with The Dreaming for quite some time afterwards. I'm glad to see a new story, the story before the story, back. Hopefully it was worth the wait.

I went into the store (Collectibles, Etc.) and the smell hit me, the scent of comic books, and I felt instant nostalgia. I worked at a comic store for a year (The Comic Interlude, back under the former owner) in 1996, doing the ordering, databases, reserve files, and generally helping keep it running. There were times YKWIA and I were there till 4:30 in the morning working on backstock and re-arranging things. It was actually great experience in that I did a lot of things that I later did in the library--work with vendors, catalogue, order items for customers, etc. It actually helped me get my present job. :) I'm looking forward to reading the comic book.

Another benefit of Amazon Prime membership

Free books that haven't been published yet...

Amazon Introduces Kindle First – Highly Anticipated Books Released In Kindle Format A Month Early, Offered For $2 or FREE!

Those without Prime can choose a Kindle book from the picks for $1.99.