It seems at this point my existence is becoming a long trudge of schoolwork (homework and tests and the like) punctuated by brief breaks. Probably a bit of an exaggeration, but still…it is wonderful to be off of school, even if only for half a week, even with the knowledge that my next break, in about a month, will probably not be super restful, though I will be receiving anesthesia (and probably some pain-controlling narcotics, too) and will therefore be sleeping a ton.
But for now, a no-strings-attached five-day break.
I saw in the paper today that 43.6 million Americans will be traveling today, whether by plane (I imagine what the lines would be like at airports and feel glad that I'm not going that route) or by car (plus: no lines at airports, minus: traffic, second minus: cars are considerably more boring than planes). I'm not traveling at all. My family has decided to take it somewhat easy. After all, winter break will not be relaxing, at least for me. Might as well take what we can get. So we'll be doing Thanksgiving dinner, watching movies, reading. Taking a breath.
Which has been nice. Today, for instance, I woke up, read, cleaned myself up, went outside to sword-fight with my brothers, read some more. Well, technically it's a bout between pool noodles and foam swords, but still. It's nice being able to run around, especially seeing as the weather's quite lovely. To be fair, I wasn't paying much mind to the weather—foam swords have hard plastic cores, so I spent a solid amount of energy defending myself. Also apparently spent a fair amount of energy on getting my jacket covered in bits of leaves…I swear the thing is a magnet for general detritus (which then gets tracked into my room for the cat to eat).
As far as other updates go, I've now managed to get the contacts in with relative ease. Actually, I'm wearing them as I type this. They really are miraculous little things…I keep reaching up to play with the frames of my glasses, only to remember that I'm seeing quite well without needing annoying heavy cumbersome frames which support lenses that too frequently get dusty or fogged up from heat or humidity.
In other, unrelated news, I appear to be nearing the end of Stephen King's The Stand. I tried starting the book four years ago at the recommendation of an English teacher, only to be foiled by an edition with beyond-miniscule font (this despite the story playing out over 1100 pages). While at the bookstore recently, I spotted an edition with larger pages and readable font (over 1400 pages). During my last break, in October, I started the book on a plane. I kind of thought I'd still be trudging through its bulk while in the hospital with my leg skewered by a brand-new Taylor Spatial Frame. Apparently not. I still have 400 pages to go, but I'll have moved onto new and exciting stories come December.
Really, though, I'm just enjoying the ability to move around. To freely navigate the house, to play, to get up from my reading chair to raid the tortilla chips. And I'm finding it kind of hard to imagine life unable to walk, to roam. I know I've done it before, but, honestly, it's been years since I was in a wheelchair, and not in this house.
Should be interesting.
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