And, for some reason, I just got hit with a major craving for food from the vegan soul food restaurant in DC. I'm fairly certain that I can't get vegan soul food in central PA unless I cook it myself.

Oh. And WebAssign still isn't working.

Hil, is it just the standing that does it, or the walking from class to class? Could you sit? (forgive me if I'm asking stupid questions)

And dealing with the pain is making me a lot less able to deal with other stuff. Not just things like cooking that I can't do because, by the time I'm done teaching for the day, I can't stand up for that long, but it's also just kind of sapped my "deal with stuff" mental energy. Little things feel like too much.

Pain steals a lot of spoons, sometimes all of them. I wish I could FedEx you a whole silver set. I hope you can make it okay until your appointment.

Hil, is it just the standing that does it, or the walking from class to class? Could you sit? (forgive me if I'm asking stupid questions)

It's all of it. I could try using a walker for walking between classes. I think I could teach while sitting down if I had a good classroom setup with overhead projectors, but the classrooms I'm in this semester are crap.

Hil, you have a disability--the school is responsible for providing you with what you need in order to teach. Have you talked to HR about their lack of AMDA compliance?

And ignore if you aren't looking for solutions--I also just feel so much sympathy for your situation and am wishing you well.

Hil, you have a disability--the school is responsible for providing you with what you need in order to teach. Have you talked to HR about their lack of AMDA compliance?

I didn't request an overhead projector at the beginning of the semester. I had to fight for what I did request, which was that back-to-back classes be in the same building. I got that for every day except Tuesdays, when the schedule gets all weird.

And thanks.

Hil,

Circumstances have changed and you are in a lot more pain. I wonder if they can make accommodations.

Dropping in to say hi.

And someone - Typo? - was posting about Tramadol. I've been on it for a while; no serious side effects. The first month or so it made me really sleepy, so I'd cut the pills in half and the time between in half (OK, maybe not the best idea, but it got me through the getting-used-to-it period). And it made me constipated (it's an artificial opiate and has that effect). All in all, it's good stuff.

And in regard to the Navy Yard shooting - some moron, that evening, decided to stand in front of the White House and set off firecrackers. (The stupid - it not only burns, it explodes.) Needless to say, he was arrested right away ... haven't heard about why he decided that was a good idea ....

I have finished my birthday weekend back in Canberra, which was awesome. My sister and her husband hosted a party at their place on the Saturday night. We had cousins and old family friends that I hadn't seen in years. (It was especially good seeing my cousins. Very interesting catching up with them.) Best party I've had in a long while. (Though apparently my older brother made a scene or two.)

Other weekend highlights included taking Ryan to the National Science and Technology Centre. Some of it's still over his head, but there was plenty of Science that he could enjoy. (Such as freezing his shadow on a wall or recording himself singing and then changing the playback speed.)

So that's the good part, but the weekend also represents the culmination of some family drama that's been ramping up since March, and has caused me more than a few sleepless nights these last few months. My birthday is also my dad's birthday, his 70th this year. That's also his mandatory retirement, for which he had a big celebration on the Friday night. Not one of his children were there. Nor did D make an appearance at my party. Long story short, his new wife's dislike of us (and vice versa) has come to a head, when D excluded selected children from his birthday plans on her behalf, in the process breaking an explicit promise to us that he would not do so this time. I've spent the last several months trying to negotiate a compromise; instead, at each step he made things worse, until we reached this state of affairs where none of us were invited to his party, and he refused to come to my party (which originally was not my party but his own proposed get-together), instead leaving the city entirely.

Needless to say, we're all deeply wounded. For me it's the last straw. My younger brothers were done back in April when he first reneged on his promise (it had been made to them specifically). I dropped off a birthday present for him (the boxed set of The Wire - this holiday season, give the gift of Omar), and with that I'm out too.

On the plus side, at least I'm sleeping again.