coasting

I counted this morning.  I have eleven days of summer vacation left, give or take.  The schedule's not set in stone.

I'm still nursing the broken toe, although I go long periods of time without thinking about it.  But then this morning, I woke up early because it was killing me.  I periodically have this issue where the splint-wrap just feels way too tight, even though it was fine moments ago... and eventually it settles down and stops bothering me.  Weird.

Vacation was overall lovely, but ten days was too long to be away.  We broke up the trip with a quick jaunt to Massachusetts to see family, and on our return to Connecticut, most of us were just ... done.  DH and I went with DS1 to see the Greater Hartford Shakespeare Co's Pericles, Prince of Tyre, which was rather silly but well-produced, but other than that, we just hung around for the most part.  We did some antiquing and I found a nice sort-of icon of Mary:

At least I think it's Mary.  It's an unusual presentation, but from what I could find out in researching the symbolism of the blue, star-strewn robe, gold gown, and open book, it's probably Mary.

Our travels home were uneventful (other than our first flight's 40-minute delay, which made making the connection in DFW interesting), and now I'm back to keeping the foot elevated while I read nearly all day.

I'm getting antsy about back-to-school preparations, but there's really not much I can do.   I started the online Google for Educators training, but I don't want to commit any more time to that until I get word that we are actually using it this year -- then I may go so far as to get the certification.  And I'd love to get started on my seating charts, name cards, and all that jazz, but I don't have rosters yet.  Since I literally can't do anything until we get our classroom keys back and hear from admin about everything else, I'm doing my best to just relax and enjoy these last lazy-ish days. 

Now if I could get DS2's room painted...

travelling with boot

It's OK.

Before the trip, I mostly hung out at home and barely wore the boot at all.  What I'm finding now is that it's really exhausting to wear the thing for more than a few hours, but overall, it's OK. I think if I had to do a lot of walking, I'd get blisters, because no matter how tightly I wrap the velcro straps, my foot slips around a bit when I'm walking.  Fortunately I don't have to do a lot of walking!

I'm so grateful!  The flights were uneventful, but stumping through the airports wasn't much fun -- still, the toe itself doesn't hurt, and having the boot on ensures that nothing's going to make it worse. We got to CT, and headed to Mystic the next day, and even though there were some thunder showers, we managed.

I would prefer, of course, to wear normal sandals and not have to even think about it, but the reality is, it's OK.  One upside: extra suitcase room, since I didn't have to pack all the shoes I usually bring!

incarcerated

Yes, that's exactly how it feels.  Of course I'm not locked up anywhere, I could go out every day if I wanted to, but I don't.  It only helps a little that I'm the one who imposed the house arrest.

To recap: a little more than 3 weeks ago I broke my right big toe (in 2 places!) in an unfortunate furniture moving accident. Luckily, I'm off for the summer, so I can sit around all day with my foot up, periodically icing it and praying for it to heal quickly.  (I have a long and distinguished record of healing very slowly. )

So, home, and cabin fever is setting in. I went out three times this past week. Last Sunday being out for a while became very painful, but by the end of the week, I could tolerate standing for much longer periods of time.  The toe doesn't look very swollen when it's elevated, but when I stand on it for any length of time, it swells up again. This is a bummer because the chief indicator of healing is that the swelling has gone down.  I have been so good about staying off of it and keeping it elevated. Why isn't it better? Ah, yes, that long and distinguished history of mine -- plus the reality that broken toes take 6-8 weeks to heal, and it has only been three.

We're heading to the east coast soon, and I am dreading the travel.  Practically everything we do back east involves walking around. I'm trying to imagine walking on sand (as in, going to the beach) and all I can think is, Ow nope nope nope not gonna happen, and that thought makes me sad.

I'm trying somewhat successfully not to ruminate on how bad it's going to be and what I won't be able to do, and thus avoid being simultaneously full of both self-pity and self-loathing.  I am achieving this partial success by distracting myself with reading and watching things (indie movie The Endless was cool, just started The Hollow Crown series of Shakespeare's political plays).  The reading, of course, leads me to still be up at 4:30AM because I no longer have any kind of a regular sleep schedule, and I'm going a bit crazy being stuck here as I am.

Would I be doing different things if I hadn't broken the toe? There are a few things, yes, but the reality is, probably not much different.  Most of the time I don't even have a car at my disposal, since we have three cars and three working people in the house now.  If my toe weren't broken I would be chauffeuring someone back and forth to work, so I could have a car.  As it is, I'm spared the hassle, and dealing with the heat, which has cranked up to its usual AZ horrors.  I'm certainly spending less money than I would be if I were out and about as I usually would be, so there's another upside.

Seeing the doctor Monday morning, we'll see what she says.  Sleep is hard to come by in my current state, but I'll give it a try.