Ha, is this what we’ve come to? Remember when you wished I’d JUST SHUT UP ALREADY? Ha ha…DREAMS DO COME TRUE.

My child is a giant.

When I last caught y’all up, I was just about to leave to spend Christmas week with Katie in Florida. I ended getting caught up in Southwest’s holiday flight hell, not nearly bad as others, but delays had me sitting in uncomfortable airport and airplane seating far too long. We ended up eating our wonderful Christmas Eve dinner she’d worked so hard on after midnight (I was supposed to be there like 4pm). Then a week of sitting/sleeping on her (sorry Katie, I love you dearly, but your furniture is the worst) uncomfortable furniture, combined with too many air travel hours, broke me. And I returned to NY…and the chiropractor…a cripple.

Christmas Ever dinner first course: seared scallops and spinach stuffed oysters

I’ve been going to this guy for at least 10 years and he is MAGIC. I have some discs out of whack and have had some very bad bouts of sciatica over the years…and he always fixes me when I break. Do I have a little crush on my chiropractor? Oh yes. But so does EVERYONE. He’s just that guy. The office is always crowded and bustling and he’s like the mayor, being friendly and charming to everyone. I’m pretty sure every woman (and probably men too) are just a little in love with him, ha ha.

We went to the Barnum & Bailey Museum, this was their house

He referred me to an orthopedic surgeon (I’m going to rename this blog “Old Person Complaining About Old Person Things”) because I’ve been suffering from hip pain for about 10 years, but it has been getting progressively worse and recently I’ve hit the “I’d rather not do that fun thing I really want to do because it’s just going to be so hard to walk” stage. Both my father and sister had hip replacements for painful hips so I figured my time had come.

This was their chair

Surprisingly, the x-rays came out pretty clean. The ortho said, “I’d take those hips at 62!” Ha ha. So, structurally, I’m sound (the horse person of my youth is coming out). I do have some bursitis in both hips and a touch of arthritis. I got cortisone shots in both hips (OH THE RELIEF) and am seeing a physical therapist at the same place as my chiropractor.

PT = OUCH. Ha. There’s the hands-on table time where he “manipulates” my hips…then presses way too hard on parts of my body that should not be pressed hard on…and then I have hip/core strengthening exercises that I do on my own at home. The day after session one, my quads were SCREAMING. Wow. I REALLY haven’t moved much in the past two years. I have a more active lifestyle ahead of me so I really need to pull things together.

We went to the Salvador Dali Museum and there was an exhibit called Dreams. This was an interactive thingie where you typed details from a dream you’d had into a thing and it created an image based on that. This was a dream I had last year where my workplace was actually in World War II Paris with bombed out buildings and bread lines and the whole place surrounded by barbed wire. And exploding toilets. And elephants being used as decoys to draw attention away from the man burying landmines in the pathway. Good times.

Moving away from physical pain to emotional, I started teaching the ESL class in January. THAT’S been a roller coaster! The week leading up to the first class I got so worked up in a state of high anxiety I thought I was just going to….I don’t know. Not make it. My biggest fear was not the TEACHING. Or being in a room full of strangers. It was…not knowing exactly how to handle the first class as far as…my group is “low beginner,” which means little to no English. The textbook is great, there’s a teacher version that explains each step…but still…I was envisioning me in a classroom and people coming in, sitting down, and staring at me. I would speak – HELLO or WELCOME or whatever – and they would just continue staring at me, wide-eyed, not understanding a word I said. How would we even get to Step One in the book? Ha ha. The book didn’t exactly cover THAT.

Russell kindly gave us money to go out for Christmas dinner.

I was a sweaty, dripping, out of breath mess the first class…but I made it through. The class is small, just 4 people, and they’re all lovely…only one really has NO english, but sadly, I think she has dropped out. I feel sorry about her. I know the feeling of being in a group and realizing that everyone else is ahead of you and feeling like you’ll never be able to catch up…so you just give up. I have done that many times myself (I’m looking at YOU, professional video-editing class and jr high track team). If I had an extra minute ANYWHERE, I would offer to work with her one-on-one if they’d allow that, but…right now, I’m just barely keeping up with the things I HAVE to do.

More scan sliding. My parents in Los Angeles late 60s.

Several things have come up with different students…I shouldn’t share in a public forum…but suffice it to say the past few classes have had their WHOA, WAIT, WHAT?!? moments. Oh the ESL Drama 🙂 Sorry to say “there’s a story, but I can’t tell you,” but….

This past week was Class 4 (of 12) and we’re moving along nicely. I have some Valentine’s Day things planned for this week.

Fridge door today

So my weeks right now are just work, Korean assignments, preparing for class, teaching the class, PT and/or chiro appointments, listing and packing things for ebay, and weekly trips to the donation center with a car filled with stuff I’m not keeping. A friend came to help me last week and she noticed (or was at least kind enough to pretend she noticed) the place looked a little emptier. My camera only gets picked up to take more ebay photos. I’ve been reading the same book for about 6 weeks. I haven’t done laundry since 2022 ha ha.

I look forward to a time that’s not filled 100% with Getting Ready for the Future. I look forward to having ONE JOB.

I’ll see Katie again briefly when she comes up in two weeks for a friend’s wedding (we’re both going). I always love any time I get to spend with her.

And that’s pretty much it for me right now.