9 January 2004

A public service announcement to the residents of Edina: if I am going 65 mph, and the guy in front of me is going 65 mph, and the folks next to him on either side are going 65 mph, you will not get anywhere any faster if you climb my bumper. I realize you have to be Somewhere Very Important to do Something Very Important. May I suggest, however, that that is not my problem.

What Is My Problem: well, right now, I have one. Two. Er, three. Among my chief problems....

Right. First, the chiropractor seems to have made matters somewhat worse in the lower back region. I know the difference between the pain of stuff settling back in and the pain of stuff being out of whack. I've done this before. So -- I've rested a bit and done some stretching, and I think some of the stretching got things back into place. But now I'm not sure whether I want to go back to this chiropractor. Also, she seems to be pushy with the regular visit idea, and possibly also something of a flake. (Chiropracty Cures Everything seems to be the theme around the office. And while it can be really good stuff and having a messed up spinal column is never good...there are all kinds of medical conditions chiropracty won't cure.) So...we'll see. Dr. Bill let me call and make appointments when I felt I needed them and never pushed me to set up a regular schedule. I'm not at all sure of this person, but I'm also not keen on having to dig up another one. Hmm.

Another is that the page proofs for my Challenging Destiny story just showed up. Dave mailed them November 18 or so. Luckily, we discussed this on e-mail and he remailed them to this address Nov. 19, so they've been checked and okayed and all that. But still. Mid-November. Wheeeee. Despite the bundle that arrived Monday, there's apparently stuff still out there. Fabulous.

And another is that I have the list from hell, and while I know that the way to deal with it is to just pick a point and start digging...it's just overwhelming, is what. I'm still making progress, but coming back from the chiropractor and errand-running feeling worse instead of better was not helpful.

And another problem...oh dear. I was thinking about the Letters game, how you write back and forth in character and end up with a collaborative story. And I was thinking how much I'd like to play that. And I'm afraid I started a Letters letter to Karina. She said she wanted to play, but I have the distinct impression of Not Now, and besides, I want to get our current collab finished first. But I fear that this Letter is for the Karina. Does anyone else want to play with me? I would dash things off wittily and not stress about them and whether the story was going to be any good or not. I would be fun. Really I would.

I'm reading Madeleine L'Engle's The Summer of the Great-Grandmother, which is about her mother's mental decline. It's a very gentle book but not an easy one. It's the sort of book that makes me want to poke my mom every few minutes on e-mail: "Are you still there? Yeah, but are you still there?" I'm glad to be reading it, and I'll be glad to move on from it to something else entirely.

And speaking of moving on, on I go to the book, the book, my lovely book....