Night Off

I'd normally go to the gym on Wednesday night, but I decided to stay home and do some reading. I'm seven pages from the end of R. Salvatore's Homeland (though not this printing). I've heard of this trilogy for years and figured I'd finally check it out. I mean, Tritz based all of his D&D characters off Drzzzt for years, so...

Anyway, I'm going to finish the book when I'm done here.

I talked to Julia earlier tonight and she had some fantastic news. She's taken a bunch of her jewelry to try and sell it to some stores. She spent most of the day walking to stores until she found one where the store's buyer was available and she loved Julia's work. So, she took all of it on consignment and seemed really excited about featuring it in her store -- even pulling another jewelry case out of storage to house it. Pretty cool! And my girl was really happy about it.

I received a nice gift from my mom and dad, a box full of yummies from Harry & David, so I called and talked to Mom for a while and learned some interesting things about when I was a kid. I don't remember any of this, but apparently I got sick pretty regularly as a kid and it continued until I was about five when my mom finally told the doctors to figure out what the hell was wrong we me. They figured out that I'd had a staph infection that settled in my leg -- and I'd had it for about three years. The doctors admitted they should have found it long ago and that it was a good thing they found it now, otherwise I could/would have developed rheumatoid arthritis by the time I turned seven. So, they did whatever to fix me and then told my parents that I had to avoid physical activity for a year.

Now, I don't remember going to see the doctors, I don't remember if there was hospital time, I don't remember not participating in gym class (although I may have a slight memory of that now that I think about it), but I do remember that I had to sit still a lot. I also remember sliding up and down the family room stairs on my butt because I couldn't use my leg. My mom remarked tonight on how unbeleivable it was for the doctors to ask a kid to avoid going outside and playing and running around, but apparently I did it and the infection went away and healed up. (Although I do limp a bit when I'm tired. Seriously.)

There's a couple of things that came of that year: I developed some bad habits, like watching a lot of T.V. and eating food -- and not exercising. So, I went from being the cutest, skinniest little towheaded kid to being a chunko who really wasn't into sports or playing outside. And that persisted throughout my life; I learned some bad habits and they still haunt me today. (Like, say, that 95 pounds I could lose. No joke.)

I tell this story mainly because I think it's interesting. Do I think it's unfortunate? Yes, but I think I'd rather be like I am than be in chronic pain. Seems like an easy choice to me. Still, it would have been interesting to see how I would have turned out differently if they'd caught the infection when I first had it -- but I think I'd be a very different person and I gotta say, I like me the way I am.

I'm gonna go read.

Tomorrow I get to see Julia and that can't come soon enough for me.