Mail

I am disappointed at the moment, I think moreso than the situation really explains.

Today's mail included, in addition to the usual selection of junk and a small check for some freelance work, two packages. One was from elisem, containing my new pendant and cattitude's two new cat earrings.

The other was from Malaysia. I looked at it and thought "What has fivemack sent me?!" A mysterious gift from halfway around the world, in an envelope with stamps showing rice and bananas, yet.

Inside was a nice postcard of the Sukhothai Golden Buddha, on which Tom professed his love for cities, and then said "I don't quite know if the enclosed is remotely [?] appropriate for tnh, if you think not could you give it to someone else, and if not, to TNH". Now, it's true that "the enclosed" is not at all my thing--Teresa, how do you feel about a cute pink washcloth?--so it's not that I'm thinking "He got her this cool thing that I want." It's that I thought he'd gotten me something, and it turns out to be more akin to sending a package "TNH, c/o redbird," only not labeled as such, so I thought it was something else cool from the friend who sent me a goat.

It may be relevant that I don't see TNH much except online, a mode in which Tom could equally well have sent the thing to Teresa, or hung onto it himself, because the net doesn't currently support Fabric Transport Protocol.

I'd been going to wait until Andy got home to open the package from Elise, but after feeling grumpy and itchy for a few minutes (the itchiness is unrelated to the package, but it doesn't help), I decided it would cheer me up. I am now wearing my new pendant. The pendant is smaller than I'd visualized, which probably means I'll wear it more often, because that makes it lighter.

Mail

I am disappointed at the moment, I think moreso than the situation really explains.

Today's mail included, in addition to the usual selection of junk and a small check for some freelance work, two packages. One was from elisem, containing my new pendant and cattitude's two new cat earrings.

The other was from Malaysia. I looked at it and thought "What has fivemack sent me?!" A mysterious gift from halfway around the world, in an envelope with stamps showing rice and bananas, yet.

Inside was a nice postcard of the Sukhothai Golden Buddha, on which Tom professed his love for cities, and then said "I don't quite know if the enclosed is remotely [?] appropriate for tnh, if you think not could you give it to someone else, and if not, to TNH". Now, it's true that "the enclosed" is not at all my thing--Teresa, how do you feel about a cute pink washcloth?--so it's not that I'm thinking "He got her this cool thing that I want." It's that I thought he'd gotten me something, and it turns out to be more akin to sending a package "TNH, c/o redbird," only not labeled as such, so I thought it was something else cool from the friend who sent me a goat.

It may be relevant that I don't see TNH much except online, a mode in which Tom could equally well have sent the thing to Teresa, or hung onto it himself, because the net doesn't currently support Fabric Transport Protocol.

I'd been going to wait until Andy got home to open the package from Elise, but after feeling grumpy and itchy for a few minutes (the itchiness is unrelated to the package, but it doesn't help), I decided it would cheer me up. I am now wearing my new pendant. The pendant is smaller than I'd visualized, which probably means I'll wear it more often, because that makes it lighter.

I think my job is hurting my shoulder

For the last few workdays, I've been doing not-very-interesting tasks that involve a lot of turning pages, a lot of taping corners down, and a moderate amount of typing. ("Not very interesting" is kind--the work is interesting only when I come across a page that needs a revision, which should have been done sooner, and stop to do it.)

Also for the last few days, my shoulder has been hurting more, and I'm not able to do as many repetitions of the shoulder strengthening exercises. A week ago, 20 of each was easy, and last Wednesday, as I noted, Sixta told me I should add the reach-across exercise to the set. Yesterday I managed to push myself to 20 of each of the ones I'd been doing for a while, and I think ten or a dozen of the new one.

Today, well, I got to 20 on the one I do first (pulling backwards) and generally find easiest. Close to it on the next three, and I think five of the new one.

The lung infection may be a factor, but I'm breathing a lot easier than I was a week ago.

I don't know what to do, except hope that the next task (this one shouldn't last more than another day or two) is better. Well, I know to keep icing, and keep stretching, and I'm considering--thank you, cattitude!--seeing if I can rearrange my stupidly cramped work area to do more of the repetitive stuff with my other arm.