Whiplash & Hiplash

What makes for better blog fodder than personal injury stories, especially ones that involve epic air? Not much, I say!

So yesterday evening, I'm taking out the trash, and when I get to the bottom of the back stairs, the neighbor's adorable black lab puppy (though she's really more of a burly, if exuberant, teenager these days) rushes me. As she has done this before, I am prepared for her, and wait for her to reach the end of her staked tether and calm down (as much as she can) before I pet her. I'm in the middle of my "Gentle, gentle, good dog"s when I hear someone say, "Hello!"

It's my other downstairs neighbor, to whom I refer as my Hermit Neighbor, as I've talked to him maybe twice since he moved in at the end of last summer. He's leaning on his back railing, enjoying the beautiful evening, and I laughingly explain that as Rose had mauled (really just muddied) me the last time I came out with the trash, I now try to take appropriate precautions. Rose wanders to the far corner of the yard as we talk about what a nice spring it's been and how it's fun to have a puppy around, especially since we don't have to actually take care of her.

As we're chatting, we notice the chubby orange tabby that's been hanging around the neighborhood recently (and has actually tried, on more than one occasion, to follow David or me into the apartment). The cat comes up to me, and my neighbor mentions how friendly she is. I, seeing the cat looking at Rose, maybe five yards away, am in the middle of remarking how fearless she is, when it all falls apart.

I don't know whether Rose or the cat bolts first, but suddenly they're both making a headlong dash for the far corner of the yard, Rose in hot pursuit of the tabby. Rose, however, as you might remember, is tethered to a stake in the middle of the yard, and the kitty makes an easy escape.

I, unfortunately, am standing between the stake and the dashing puppy.

I'm not sure precisely what happens next, except that Rose presumably clothelines herself as she reaches the end of her tether, and I am flying through the air, swept off my feet. Okay, I'm not sure how much I actually flew. I did land on my back, rather hard, but mercifully on the soft dirt of the lawn and not on the sidewalk behind me. I hear John shout, "Are you okay?" and as I'm slowly picking myself up, see that he's run to Rose and is calming her. I am a bit disoriented, quite shaken, and becoming sore all over, but manage to laugh and ask him if it looked epic. He assures me that I did get some impressive air.

I really wish I could have seen it, especially since I can't quite figure out how I acquired all my injuries: while the head-neck-shoulder pain is fairly intuitive from whiplash, and the scraped elbows/forearms were acquired upon landing, why do both of my hips hurt? Not, presumably, from the landing, as a slightly bruised bum indicates that I thankfully managed to land not only on the softest part of the yard, but on my own best-padded region. My current theory is "hiplash"--that my legs got flung like my head did! And my head did apparently get soundly flung; when I got up, my hair, which had been pinned up, was significantly dislodged (and my brain still hurts a little).

When David got home about 20 minutes later, I told him I thought I was probably concussed, and he said that if I started throwing up, he would drive me to the hospital. Some sympathy!

Thankfully, there was no vomiting, although today I'm even sorer than yesterday and have continued to pop ibuprofen. I mostly feel lucky, for things like being young and fit enough to take that sort of epic fall in stride, for not hitting the sidewalk, for having someone witness my sweet air, etc.

I do kind of wish the witnessing neighbor hadn't been the hermit-inclined one, though; this is the kind of story for which one wishes a gregarious collaborator for the retelling!

Pansy

Here is another comic that recently made me smile:
Today there was no parking on my block so that the street sweepers could come through. Ordinarily this happens a week or two after the snow melts. As we didn't have any snow at all last month, it was kind of odd to realize that the streets had been dry--and, I suppose, unswept--for so long.

I've lived here long enough to know that one more snowfall isn't entirely out of the question, but it does feel an awful lot like spring. Glorious, shiny-sheets-on-the-bed, windows-open, eating-on-the-patio, planting-seedlings, garden-fantasizing, running-in-shorts, spring!

Vegetarian American

After our run yesterday, my running buddy and I met our menfolk for brunch at Maria's, which I love for its delicious and inexpensive food, but to which I hadn't been in many months. My chocolate chip pancake was so stunningly good that my fellow brunchers couldn't stop sneaking bites (which I gladly shared, as the pancake was the size of the plate). So delicious.

While there, we saw this comic,* which made me laugh out loud, repeatedly--the first time I'd done so at a newspaper funny of any sort in a long time.
"Weed Eater": so classic.

This morning I did 90 minutes of hot yoga. Between that and yesterday's run, pretty much all I feel like doing is eating. Back to it!

*Apparently the local paper runs Sunday comics on Saturday?

Three Things

• Remember when Ellen posted this? I got to see, and play, one in Tokyo, as part of the CyberArts Tokyo exhibit I visited for my research. It was amazing.
• I am quoted in this newspaper article. The reporter found David via Foursquare; she contacted him by Facebook and he forwarded her request to me, since he has only "checked in" at the MegaBus stop, not ridden it himself. I thought I gave her some better material than what she ended up using, but that's okay. I also could have told her, had she asked, that on the last two trips I took, the WiFi she mentions wasn't actually functioning (though the outlets were).
• Today a friend and I got pedicures. My toenails are A Oui Bit of Red, and hers are Cajun Shrimp.

String Lamp 2.0

This weekend, David helped me make another string lamp, this one for the living room. Here, in what is becoming classic Disaster Kitchen style, is a sped-up video of its creation:

Woo-hoo!

The awesome apron was a gift from Ellen. That shiny thing in the background is David's new TV/HTPC.

Spanish

Tonight David and I had our first class of Spanish 1, courtesy of Mpls Community Education! We meet every Tuesday night through the first of June. I've never studied Spanish, so I'm very excited about it--especially because although my Italian allows me to understand a fair amount of Spanish, I can't speak it at all (yet!).

It was fun, too, to be in a class of adults (almost all of them close to my age) learning like children, with worksheets and games. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but I guess I thought it would involve more old people... or young ones... or something. Anyway. It's a fun group; my pareja for most of the activities was a bike-riding medical student a bit younger than me who was wanting to brush up on her Spanish, mostly for clinicals. I think it will be good times.

Spring

Ohhhh, I am tired. Like, random moaning tired.

Tonight, I signed up for my free trial week at Core Power Yoga and went to two classes with my friend the black belt: a C1 and Yoga Sculpt. The C1 was a nice warm up. The Sculpt kicked my butt and--in 95° plus humidity--made me sweat more than I have ever sweat in my life. Like, sweat puddling above my clavicles and rolling down my shins. I spent part of the class just sitting, or lying on my back, while the rest of the class continued their squats with weights and insane crunches, but the rest of the time I tried to keep up. It was an amazing workout. Tomorrow, we do Hot Power Fusion. Woo!

Yesterday, David and I machine-washed, line-dried, ironed, and reinstalled the couch cushion covers. I feel like I have a new couch! I also scrubbed the tub so that I could hand-wash my electric blanket and then dry it on the line with the cushion covers.

And there are leaves--tiny leaves!--on the trees. We didn't have any snow in March, generally one of our snowier months, for the first time since records have been kept. I'm not ruling out the possibility of an April snowstorm, but I think that spring may actually be here.

More Japan: Monday

Monday, the guys had to return to work, but we ladies took advantage of the beautiful weather to explore the area at the heart of Tokyo, the Imperial Palace Gardens and their surroundings. Sadly, I hadn't charged my camera battery, and it bit it after barely an hour. Sniff. April kindly offered me the use of her camera, but I don't have those pictures yet.

We explored the outer gardens, got a snack in the incredible, massive, deli/food court/market/bazaar hidden under one of the tall office buildings, explored the Imperial Palace East Gardens, and had a lovely (vending machine) tea time on the lawn. After that, we headed over to Akihabara, the tech district, which was a sensory overload onslaught of flashing lights, electronic music, and crushing crowds. We sought refuge in a seven story technology and entertainment store that was something like what you might get if you mashed together a Radio Shack, Best Buy, maybe a Sharper Image (remember those?), a comic book/game store, and a street fair. Despite being crowded with an overwhelming array of gadgets and associated paraphernalia, and a jingle that repeated constantly on all the floors and made us wonder how anyone could endure working there, it really was a relatively quiet respite from the bustle outside. (Which was fascinating, if one could find a patch of sidewalk from which to watch at a bit of a remove; I saw a couple of Bo Peeps and a few other confection-like pastel costumes, as well as a dude in tails and a top hat.)

In the evening, we took a long train ride out to Yokosuka, where the guys work, to meet them for dinner at a fantastic little Thai place. Yokosuka, which is the site of the Navy base, housed quite a few more Americans than we'd been used to seeing, as well as such institutions as a T.G.I.Friday's. I asked for the yellow curry, requesting "no meat, no fish," and was thrilled that it arrived with fried tofu, which I hadn't even seen on the menu. It was AMAZING.

(Early this year, far before I even knew I'd be heading over there, I'd been talking to a professor at the U about her time in Japan, and her difficulty as a vegetarian. "No one is vegetarian there," she told me. "Everyone eats fish. True vegetarianism just doesn't exist." We did see a very few places that were billed as vegetarian, and even at dinner at one of them, Saturday night, I found one tiny shirasu amongst my noodles. [You can Google that, but I can't say I'd really recommend it.] In my real life, I'm a pretty strict vegetarian, so I did miss out on eating most authentic Japanese cuisine, which I'm sure is to my detriment. Etc.)

The pictures I took Monday before my battery died (album here):