Here I sit, on Halloween, in a gorgeous hotel room at Walt Disney World. Luxury to me is the little touches, and this place has 'em. I'm listening to my iPod Touch, which is docked in the iHome alarm clock. (Incidentally, my iPod on shuffle is bizarre--Rasputina's If Your Kisses Can't Hold the Man You Love followed by Handel's And With His Stripes We Are Healed.) I'm eating a delicious giant sugar cookies from Gasparilla's Grill, where I had dinner: grilled salmon and smashed potatoes and asparagus on a paper plate. (Dinner reservations at the Grand Floridian Cafe, where I had lunch, would've been at 8:45 pm)

Had the easiest/best flight ever. Nonstop is the way to go, and rare, it seems. Southwest is excellent. The stewards and stewardesses are generally quite amusing. Case in point: while giving the oxygen mask spiel, the steward said, "If you're seated with a child, put the mask on yourself first and then on the child. If you're with more than one child, put it on the one who shows the most promise." I about fell out of my seat laughing. I don't think the guy beside me was paying attention. The flight wasn't full either, which made it wonderful. When I say "guy beside me," I mean there was a seat between us. Ah, luxury again.

I suppose I "should" have looked into getting tickets to some Disney thing, but I am so happy right now, just relaxing and not following any "shoulds" that pop into my head. I took a nap this afternoon. I wore my sling for traveling, and it was hot and really tired me out. Really glad I wore it, though.

Last night brought it home to me that my shoulder is still not healed. Thomas and I went to Spooks in the Stacks, the second annual celebration of the University of Montevallo's ghosts, sponsored by the Carmichael Library. The weather was perfect--drizzly and windy. Three stations were set up at King House, King Cemetery and Main Hall where people in costume told stories of the ghosts there. In the basement of the library, Birmingham Paranormal Society did a presentation. I was disappointed by that; we had to wait about 45 minutes, when the presentations were supposed to be 15-20minutes long. I think the group before us got wild with questions. Ours was barely 10 minutes. They are recruiting, however. Would love to join them. But we heard about Condi Cunningham, the ghost who haunts Main, a young woman who ran screaming after she set herself on fire while making fudge on an illegal chafing dish in her room. We also saw "THE door," the famed one on which her face keeps appearing. It doesn't look very old to me. At the Cemetery, students made up as zombies leaped from trees and behind walls. A man in civilian Civil War attire told about the massacre in Reynolds Hall, a hospital during the Civil War days. Quite tame, but fun and diverting.

Tomorrow I get together with my brother and his lovely wife! Hope we can get reservations...

Ektron Synergy events start tomorrow night.

Tags: ektron, travel
Current Location: Orlando, Florida
Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: So They Say, from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Soundtrack

Amid all the crazy of the past months attendant on the launch of the new home page and the CMS issues, on August 21 I fell in the highly polished marble lobby of my building on the way in to work at the insanely early hour of 6:15 a.m. Flat on my face, with my right arm stretched straight out. Now, according to the rules, the first 10 feet of falling incurs 1d6 nonlethal damage, which is what I guess I took. Yikes. My shoulder popped out of its socket, much like happened about 12 years ago with my other shoulder. Serious pain, but my only thought as I sat there on the floor was, I have GOT to get up and get to work. Later, my therapist said I should've called 911 and gotten an ambulance. Farthest thing from my mind.

It hurt. A lot. I reported it as a worker's comp claim, but I waited a week to actually go to the doctor. Too much going on! When I finally did go, no doctors were available for some bizarre reason and I had to come back the next day, although I did get an X-ray. The next day, the Occupational Health Center doctor put me in a sling, wrote on the form I could resume my duties with no restrictions, here's a prescription for naproxin sodium and a muscle relaxer, get thee back to work.

So it popped out of socket three more times. After several weeks, I went back to the doctor, who scheduled me for an MRI. Had it done at ImageSouth Shelby, a facility I highly recommend, btw. Then I got a phone call at work. "You don't have a rotator cuff injury," the voice tells me. "Good," say I. "You have a fractured shoulder. You have an appointment to see Dr. Jeff Davis at St. Vincent's at this time and day."

Wow, I was freaked out. Fractured shoulder? I'd been walking around with a fractured bone for about a month and a half.

So I asked Thomas to go with me and we went to the crazy-huge complex that is St. Vincent's, to the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center, where I got another X-ray. When I saw the doctor and was relating once again the story of what happened, I got to the part about having an MRI the previous Thursday (this was on Tuesday). He looked at me funny. "An MRI?" He shuffles through my chart. "You have the films?" "No," I answered, with a rising sense of frustration. "They just called me on the phone and told me I had a fractured shoulder and to come see you." "I don't have your films. I can't diagnose you if I don't have your films."

He arranged to get my films sent to him. His assistant told me to be sure to call if I hadn't heard from them in 5 days, since I would no longer be in their appointment system.

Yeah, I called in 5 days, and was assured he'd get back to me. Ten days later (2 weeks, as the crow flies) I emailed the campus worker's comp coordinator and was told that they were working on scheduling a CT scan for me. Yesterday, October 15, I had the scan and Tuesday I will have my appointment with Dr. Davis, to decide if I need surgery or therapy on my fractured shoulder.

Today is 8 weeks since the accident.

I'm sorta frustrated by the whole experience. If it hadn't been worker's comp, I'm sure I'd have been taken care of 7 weeks ago.

Tags: injury
Current Location: home!
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: birds outside, kitties cavorting

Yikes! I didn't post at all during the month of August. Probably because the month of August was a month of Insanely Busy! I fought the CMS and the CMS nearly won, but we held a Come to Jesus meeting and the CMS Powers That Be sent an Ektron Savior who helped us in our time of need and now we are Good to Go.* We launched a new home page to great acclaim after an incredible number of hours spent working on it. I fell in the lobby of my building and popped my shoulder out the Friday before we were supposed to go live on Monday. We played Fruit Basket Turnover with offices--my team and I all reside within polite calling distance of each other on the 4th floor, which is a truly wonderful thing. And we have a meeting space. My bestest bud had liver surgery (!), but it was not the Big Scary we feared and he is recovering at a mutant healing rate.

I'm still playing catch up, so this is brief. The best news is--we resumed gaming this past weekend! A new campaign with two new players. I'm running "The Winds of Change" homebrew, yoinking from Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes and using the new Pathfinder RPG rules and setting. How long has it been since we've actually played with 4 players?? Should be fun.


*In English: We had extensive troubles with our content management system, Ektron. My division Vice-President and the campus Chief Information Officer and various directors had a phone conference with Ektron chiefs about it. They sent a technical support engineer to our campus for two days, at their expense, who determined what the problems were and fixed them.

Tags: ektron, roleplaying, surgery
Current Location: United States, Alabama, Birmingham
Current Mood: good
Current Music: Annette Hanshaw, "Mean to Me" (Radio Dismuke)

Monday I found myself thinking of my day in terms of unfinished quests. Yes, I've played way too much World of Warcraft, apparently. But given what I do for a living, it makes sense. All of the websites I have to convert to Ektron can be thought of as quests. I've collected the requests, but I can't seem to complete them. Now they're stacking up, taking up room in my inventory, to the point that I really need to turn some in before I can accept any more.

My goal for the week is to see at least ONE yellow question mark. Is that too much to ask?

Tags: world of warcraft
Current Location: work
Current Mood: headachy

I'm a few weeks behind on my comics reading. This morning I read Detective Comics #854. Ahhhh. How delicious it was. Art by the incomparable J. H. Williams III. That sample doesn't do it justice. I don't know how I could have forgotten his wonderful work on Promethea--one of the main reasons I bought it. Well, that and its Alan Moore bizarre-freaky-fantastic-wonderment. The drawing is superb, and the colors by Dave Stewart and lush and vibrant. The contrasts in the last pages between Batwoman and her nemesis, all in pastels, are striking.

Oh, interesting storyline, too. :)

Tags: batwoman, comics, j. h. williams iii
Current Location: work
Current Mood: good
Current Music: "Carmelita" by Warren Zevon

This is so funny to me. T and I played Warcraft last night with the friend I talked about in the last entry. He finally got his headphones to work, so we actually spoke with him--which amazes me. I know, I know. VOIP is an established thing. Still amazing.

We found out he's 14.

And now I'm not as keen to play with him. We're old enough to be his parents. Or, as Thomas helpfully pointed out, possibly even his grandparents. (That's a stretch.) We never actually told him our ages, but T asked questions like, "Do your parents mind you playing", etc. Obviously "old man" questions.

So funny. He was so much like my nephew was at that age, down to the really lame joke he told.

I kinda don't think this is what my therapist had in mind when she wanted me to broaden my circle of friends.

Tags: gaming, world of warcraft
Current Location: home, my aerie
Current Mood: awake

Last night I actually interacted at length with a real person while playing World of Warcraft. Seriously! Thomas and I have played with a coworker of his, but this was someone I've never met IRL before. I met him Monday night when I was getting killed about 8 times by ravagers, but I was barely civil, because, um, GETTING KILLED ABOUT 8 TIMES BY FREAKIN' RAVAGERS. Plus it was getting late and I was trying to wrap it up. Thomas had started over as a night elf and was leveling up to meet me somewhere.

So last night, Thomas was adventuring with two people he'd met (and whom I'm joining tonight, because they need a healer--I'm an 11th level draenei shaman). This guy messages me again, asking me if I'm still getting killed. I was in the midst of cleaning out a cave full of wrathscale nagas, and having a pretty easy job of it, so I was able to chat some. He's a couple of levels above me, also a draenei shaman, and has played for a couple of years. He ended up helping me find a jewelcrafter trainer in the Exodar so I could gain that profession, and gave me some scrolls.

I was proud of myself for interacting, but it's more stressful than just playing. T said the same thing when he came upstairs to check on me. All in all, I think my therapist might approve.

Hey, it's not like I'm Codex.

Tags: gaming, world of warcraft
Current Location: work
Current Mood: good
Current Music: Special Cases by Massive Attack (on Pandora)

Here's the program for the Spring Concert, Montevallo Chorale, Sunday, May 10, 2009, 3:00 p.m., University of Montevallo, LeBaron Recital Hall. Gary Packwood, conductor. Matthew Rose, accompanist.

Morning Has Broken - Text by Eleanor Farjeon, Music by Shawn Kirchner
The Lord is My Shepherd - Psalm 23, Paraphrase A.P., Music by Allen Pote
Basket, from Four Pastorales - Text by Thomas Hornsby Ferril, Music by Cecil Effinger
Sure on This Shining Night - Text by James Agee, Music by Samuel Barber
A Red, Red Rose - Text by Robert Burns, Music by Z. Randall Stroope
America, the Beautiful - Text by Katherine Lee Bates, Music by Samuel A. Ward, Arranged by Rollo Dilworth
I Want Jesus to Walk with Me - Music by Rollo Dilworth
I'll Never Say Goodbye, from The Promise - Text by Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman, Music by David Shire, Arranged by Mac Huff
Like a Mighty Stream - Arranged by Moses Hogan

Tags: montevallo chorale, singing
Current Location: work
Current Mood: good

Life is about coping with life.

Okay, maybe that's not terribly profound. It's something that occurred to me this morning. I've just had a bad week, emotionally, for no apparent reason, other than coping with change.

I always feel compelled to add caveats when I make flat statements, in the interest of full disclosure, I guess. Life is about more than just coping, but it's a basic element. If you can't cope, you can't do much else. As my therapist says, if you keep out all the bad stuff, you also keep out the good stuff.

My best friend is coping with a whole host of new life changes: he has a child at an advanced age (not THAT advanced, but after becoming somewhat set in his ways), dealing with several personal losses, being the head of his extended family, mundane and spiritual worries...It's difficult. It's also difficult for me, trying to understand what he's going through, wanting to help, not knowing what to do, coping with my own fears.

My wise pastor said yesterday in the sermon that you never know what is going to happen to you in life. He's said before that you choose how you're going to react to what happens to you.

I like the word "intentional." Coping is intentional. Making choices. It is SO hard when you're in the middle of a depression episode to see any way out. Like being inside a deep valley that's dark and you can't see up above the hills surrounding you to know that somewhere the sun is actually out and it isn't night anymore. The "valley of the shadow of death," I guess.

Coping is an action verb, though. I guess "hide more" is too, but that's not a constructive option. It didn't help me any last week.

Not sure I have any answers, really. Cope. Reach out. Keep choosing.

Sometimes day by day is way too hard. Sometimes it's hour by hour. You can't eat an elephant all at once.

Tags: coping, life
Current Location: work
Current Mood: contemplative

The Blogalyser reveals...

Your blog/web page text has an overall readability index of 16.

This suggests that your writing style is intellectual
(to communicate well you should aim for a figure between 10 and 20).Your blog has 32 sentences per entry, which suggests your general message is distinguished by verbosity
(writing for the web should be concise).
 

CHARACTER MATRIX

male		female
self		world
past		future

 

Your text shows characteristics which are 58% male and 42% female
(for more information see the Gender Genie).
Looking at pronoun indicators, you write mainly about yourself, then the world in general and finally your social circle. Also, your writing focuses primarily on the present, next the past and lastly the future.

Find out what your blogging style is like!
 

Tags: surveys, writing
Current Location: home, my aerie
Current Mood: okay