Time to shut down the machine for the road trip. Maybe I’ll get out of here by 1 PM. I’m so bad at getting up and leaving at a normal hour. On the other hand, these are MY hours. It’s probably normal for me. It’s no hardship for me to be up all night. It’s normal. It’s just not convenient. My niece tried to argue that since it’s so late, I should just go ahead and stay another day. I suggested that she could call my boss and discuss that with her.

I’ll post from the road as possible. (Cue Willie Nelson song…)

For some reason, I decided to make a fist yesterday. I think it was to throw both hands over my head in a sign of victory because I had gotten the Jeopardy question right. When I did, the carpal tunnel / arthritis / tendinitis / whatever the hell this is went sent pain through my hand that is heretofore unknown.

I believe that it’s tendintis in my middle finger or something that controls my middle finger. It feels like a hopped-up version of what my thumb did when I had tendinitis there. If I bend my finger, I am in much pain. Making a fist or curling my hand to hold something (like bags that you want to load into the car) is impossible without insane pain. So now, in addition to wrist braces, I have my finger taped so that I won’t inadvertently try to bend it too far. I’m not sure that this will wait till the doctor’s appointment on the 19th, but since I’m leaving Virginia in a bit (if I ever get dressed and whatnot), I can’t do anything about it today. Maybe tomorrow or Friday. I’m going to try wearing the braces and tape while I drive.

The carpal tunnel issues seem to be at their worst in November and December when I’m driving back and forth to Virginia. I’m not sure what I do while I’m driving to cause this. OR it may be something that I’m doing while I sleep. I don’t get to sleep in the same position here. In Illinois, I have a pile of pillows that I use to keep my hands slightly elevated at night, and I’m beginning to think that makes a difference. Maybe it’s a combination. I don’t know, but it hurts and I’m not happy.

Now back to getting out of Virginia and on the way to Illinois.

I’ve loaded most of my stuff into the car. Just the laptop and various things that I’ll need in the morning before I go. Now I just have to manage to get out of bed early enough that I get home before 2 AM. I’m not very good at leaving early enough on these driving trips of mine.

In some ways I’m not ready to go yet either. I haven’t looked for the date, though I feel pretty sure that it has to be 2002. I haven’t gotten anything ready to munch on in the car, so I’m going to end up paying way to much to get something at a gas station. And overall, I’m just never sure if leaving is the right thing to do. There’s so much that needs to be taken care of here, and I feel so guilty that I can’t get it all done.

I know that Perci disdains such things, but I have to figure out the diet thing again. I cancelled my Weight Watchers membership, because it was just sucking the monthly fees out of my account and I wasn’t doing a thing with it. I was just wasting money or paying for a dream, if you’d prefer. I really have to do something though because I am bigger than a hippo.

I did a little reading, and I signed up for SparkPeople. It’s free and has online journals just like WW. They count calories and various nutrients, rather than points. In some ways points are easier for me, as I’m not a math whiz; but this is at least not costing anything. I decided that for me, New Year’s Day wasn’t the starting point. I am still in Virginia, and I know I would just fail immediately. I’ll try starting next week, when things are more in my control and there are fewer sugary things around. I just have to do something and soon before I’m unable to move like that mother in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. I feel like I’m already there. I’m just no good at any of it.

So I guess that I should go to bed. My sister is going to call me when she leaves for work in the morning, around 7:30 or so. I’m hoping to get out of bed and get underway well before noon. Given my track record, the odds aren’t good, so no wagering please.

Bizarre Sign

Having realized that there was no way that I could leave here tomorrow in anything like a normal time frame, I called and asked for an extra day off. Tomorrow, however, I really have to get things pulled together. As always, I’m worried about how to get all this stuff in the car. It seems impossible given the two big boxes of dishes (I only expected one box). I’ll try to save that stress for tomorrow.

I’m having a horrible problem with tendinitis and/or carpal tunnel tonight. Everything I do seems to cause shooting pain to the tips of my fingers. I actually noticed this beginning last week. There’s something that I’m doing when I’m cooking that causes it. I’m not quite sure what. Something about using a spatula too eagerly or may it’s the whisk. I don’t know, but it hurts like hell. I’ve iced it most of this evening, and it’s still sore. At least for now I can still type. God help me if I lose the ability to type.

I did get some NCTE work done this evening—cleaned up all the broken links for our content report. I need to send it off tomorrow. I was going to try to get a lesson plan on writing comic strip scripts finished for the report, but I realized that what I really need for its interactive piece is some artwork that’s been embellished with Comic Life. Since I didn’t bring my mac to Virginia, I can’t finish that project. I’m certain that it’s worth waiting. I can create some panes in Comic Life that will illustrate some of the definitions in the handouts for the lesson. I searched for online comics that I could use, but the political cartoons that are out of copyright are so different from the cartoons and comics that students are used to. Beyond that, they really didn’t demonstrate all of the principles that I needed. I’m sure that waiting is the thing to do.

Maybe I can pull off some other lesson plan miracle for tomorrow’s report. Otherwise, it has to go on with no new lessons. Given that we were all out of the office for the last two weeks, it’s acceptable for it to be blank. I’m just a perfectionist, and I hate to leave it like that.

Back to the land of ghosts for some sleep now.