quarter in review and photos galore

K, seriously, download Michael Nyman's Piano Concerto. I can't stop listening to it.

My paper is done, my Schenker project is done, and after a make-up lesson tomorrow, I'll be finished for the quarter. I'm curious to see how I did on the paper. I was really sick when I wrote most of it, so I felt the wording wasn't very good. Oh well.

After turning in my project today, I went out for coffee with one of the theory profs. It was the first time I'd had a chance to sit down and talk with her in a long time since I didn't have any classes with her this quarter. She asked me a lot of questions about how my first quarter was, and since then I've been in a reflective mood. I still feel a little intimidated by my peers sometimes - they're pretty intense - but I've learned so much this quarter. My prof asked if I've seen the other first-years much, and I laughed because we pretty much hang out every day. I think she was worried for my sake because I'm the only girl in the department. Eh, whatever.

I'm still trying to get used to the quarter system. I don't think I'll ever get used to it. Trying to adjust to a graduate workload at the same time makes things even weirder. I felt like the quarter started out pretty busy, then there was a long lull, and then suddenly I was in the library for hours every day. Despite being pretty busy the last couple of weeks, I still think I'm going to take one more class next quarter. I figure that, as long as I'm not TAing yet, I should try to get another class out of the way.

I think next quarter I'm going to take a couple of atonal theory classes and a seminar on hypermeter. I was considering taking a seminar on Copland instead of the hypermeter one (because I LOVE Copland), but the boys have pretty much talked me into taking the hypermeter. They all tell me that, as a percussionist, I'd be really good in the hypermeter seminar. Sounds fun.

The weather here is weird. It's been kind of hard getting into the Christmas spirit this year because it's so warm. Everyone complains that it's cold, and I laugh. It's usually around 40. Also, it rarely snows, though we did get some really wet snow a couple weeks ago. It turned into icky slush right away.

So... now that I'm not so busy with school, I've had some time to go out and take photos. Here are some from Volunteer Park last weekend:

(that one's up in the right corner of this page now, but I figured I'd post the biggie too)

I took these with my point & shoot yesterday while doing some Christmas shopping downtown.

Here's a photo of the Reading Room in Suzzallo. I figured I spend so much time there, I should probably take a photo.

study break/ADD

I'm in the library, and I need a break from working on this paper. I decided to do an analysis of Reich's Electric Counterpoint (just the third movement), focusing mainly on texture. That's the plan, anyway. I'm really sick and should probably be in bed. I've been stuck in the library all weekend. This isn't such a bad place to be stuck. I'm in the Reading Room of Suzzallo Library, which is a really pretty Gothic-style building. The Reading Room is a ridiculously long room with vaulted ceilings, and it looks like something out of Harry Potter. There are big Gothic chandeliers everywhere and stained-glass windows. Despite all the chandeliers, it's kind of dark in here, so all the tables have long library lamps on them. I keep coughing and sneezing, and it echoes really loud in here. It snowed here yesterday. Well, not in the Reading Room, but outside. Okay bye.

sleepy

This morning someone busted one of my car windows and took some of my stuff. I'm really not happy about it, so I'm not going to write about it right now.

My assignment for everyone is to go download Michael Nyman's piano concerto, right meow. I stumbled across it today in my never-ending search for the perfect piece on which to write my paper. It's breathtaking. It's not the right piece for this assignment (too tonal), but I'm glad I found it anyway. If I'm ever in the position to play a piano concerto, I might have to do this one.

I might use Reich's The Desert Music for my paper. Or I might not, who knows.

Being home was nice. It's sad though to see some friendships growing sour (though thankfully none of my own). I guess you expect everything to stay the same while you're away. There probably should be a Garden State quote in there somewhere, but I'm too tired, and I think Zach Braff is kind of annoying.

In other news, I think my ankle is going to explode, and I seem to find the worst possible times to catch colds.

blah

I went to see my ankle doc a couple of days ago, and it was pretty much what I expected. He's recommending that I have surgery, and I think he's right. At this point, things are getting complicated, and I think it would probably be best to not go into a lot of medical details (since I don't totally understand it all anyway). I will say that evidently I have a bunch of arthritis in two different joints (above and below the ankle bone). The joints are eventually going to deteriorate to the point where I'll need a major surgery or two. In the meantime, my doc is trying everything he can to prolong the life of the joint(s).

Right now my doc and I are tentatively planning on doing surgery this summer. I don't think I could do it any sooner because it would be too hard to balance recovery with school. Surgery is never convenient - actually, it's pretty much the opposite of convenient - but it sucks even more when you're 1700 miles from home. I have to figure out how to do my laundry, take care of cats, etc. when I won't be able to put weight on my ankle for like six weeks. I'm sure my friends out here will help me out, but I hate having to rely on others too much. I'll probably come home for part of the recovery time, but then I'll be 1700 miles away from my doctor, which could also be a problem.

I've been pretty bummed out since the appointment because now I have a better understanding of how much damage my ankle sustained. For the past two years, I've been waiting to get "better". I knew I'd never be 100%, but I hoped at least that I'd wake up one morning and not hurt at all, at least for a little while. Now the odds of that happening look pretty slim. It's sad to think that my ankle is only going to get worse from here - it already hurts a lot, and it's keeping me from doing some things I'd like to do. It's hard to sit around while my friends go skiing/snowboarding, rock climbing, etc. I'm young and I should be able to do that stuff too. Hopefully the surgery will make it feel better for a while, but really it's a short-term solution.

On top of this new info, there's some other accident-related stuff that's causing some stress right now. I can't talk about it here, but ask me about it sometime.

Okay, so, yeah....... non-downer stuff....

One thing I'm super excited about right now: one of the percussion DMA students and I were chatting, and he encouraged me to start learning Julie Spencer's "Tribeca Sunflower". It's a marimba solo that was also transcribed for percussion ensemble (solo + accompaniment). It's a really tough piece, but it's one of those that everyone knows and wants to play someday. I don't know why I never thought of looking at it until now, but after that talk, I'm feeling inspired. I talked to my prof about the possibility of playing the ensemble version in the spring concert. He's all for it, and apparently he also wants me to do the solo version for a special marimba concert (also during spring quarter). I'm flattered that he asked me to be in the marimba concert, and I'm totally excited about this piece. I'm going to have to bust my butt to have it ready by then - it should be a good project for me. I've already started working on it.

Another thing I'm excited about: I'll be home late Wednesday night through early Monday morning. Yay!

One thing I'm not excited about: the 15-page-paper that's due in a few weeks. Oh well, time to start obsessing over Prokofiev... or Reich, I'm not really sure yet.... Or maybe Ives, that could be fun.

mostly music geek stuff

Yesterday I came across this interesting link (might be old news to some). It's interesting because it's basically a catalogue of important American post-tonal works, along with random factoids and the blogger's impressions of each work. The author doesn't say what his background is in music, but I'm guessing this is a hobby. While his comments on each piece seem to be restricted to what he likes and what he doesn't, some of the posted links and readers' comments are fascinating.

Speaking of music, this could turn out to be a very Brahms-ian weekend for me. One of my friends invited me to his orchestra concert tomorrow to see them play a Brahms piece, but I forgot which one. I also might go see the Seattle Symphony Orchestra a couple of times this weekend. They're doing two different concerts of all-Brahms: one concert features his Symphony No. 2 and Piano Concerto No. 1, and the other will be Symphony No. 4 and Piano Concerto No. 2. So yeah, lots of Brahms. The SSO does a neat thing called the Campus Club, where students can buy tickets for $10 each, and the fifth concert is free. Sweet.

Also speaking of music, I'm trying to decide what piece to choose for my final project in one of my seminars. The seminar is basically about developing systems to analyze pitch collection-centered (rather than tonal-centered) music. The final project is to write a 15-page analysis of a piece that fits the topic. I'm considering using Steve Reich's "Nagoya Marimbas." It's a pretty sweet minimalist piece for two marimbas. I'm not sure though if I'll be able to eke 15 pages of analysis out of a 5-minute marimba duet. My backup plan is Prokofiev's ballet "Scythian Suite," a piece I know fairly well since it was the basis of Menomonie's winter drumline show that I helped teach last spring.

Okay, enough music stuff...

Did I say I had an appointment with my ankle doctor today? I lied. I had to reschedule because my doctor wanted me to get my ankle all shot up with cortisone/anesthetic first, then wait a week or two before coming in to see him. I had the shot - it sucked a lot. I have an appointment with my doctor next week, and then he'll have a better idea if I need to have the surgery or not. At this point I think it depends on whether or not the cortisone shot is taking care of the pain (which it isn't so far). If the shot isn't helping, I think surgery is the next option.

Last week my physical therapists asked my doc to have the results of my CT scan & bone scan faxed to the PT office so we could look them over together. It was pretty much the same stuff that my doctor saw in the MRI - arthritis, cartilage tears, cyst, etc. Also I guess there are some bone spurs in there too. It's nice that my doc has more images now, so he should have a good idea of what all is going on.

Okay, 'night.

seattle notables

this is funny.

I've seen "GUY WITH TWO BULLDOGS" before, with one of the dogs carrying a water bottle.

some observations

- Washington drivers are a whole new kind of bad.

- Everyone here turns their heat up way, way too high. Really people, it's not cold.

- Bartenders mix gin sours really weird here - with super acidic/yucky sour mix, and garnished with a cherry. WTF?

- People outside of the Midwest don't know what polka music is.

pointless update

Hmmm, time for an update.

Nothing really new here though. School is good. I feel like I have a little too much free time right now. It's weird because I feel really guilty sitting around and watching TV right now, like I should be doing homework or something, but I don't have anything to do. It's taking me some time to get used to the grad course work and the pace of quarter system. I figured that, because of the level of the work and the short amount of time in which to do it all, I'd be overwhelmed. So far though, that isn't the case. I guess it depends on the week though. Sometimes I'm super crazy busy, but most of the time I wonder why I don't have more to do (but that will all change next week when midterm projects start, and then I'll hate Stravinsky and Schenker). I think I'm just weirded out because when I was an undergrad, I was working two or three part-time jobs every semester and doing school full-time. Now it's just school. I think next quarter I might take on one more class, so I'll be at 14 credits (10 is the minimum for full time). Or hopefully by then I'll have a job. Or maybe I'll do both (take another class and get a job). I'm really excited about some of the course offerings for next quarter.

Life outside of school has been good too. I really like it here - I like the school, and I like the city (a lot), so this is pretty much an ideal place for me to be right now. I miss everyone back home, but I have a few good friends here now too.

Let's see, what else is going on... I think my doctor probably got the results of my bone scan & CT scan by now, but I haven't heard anything from him. I have an appointment with him a week from tomorrow, so I might not hear from him before then. I'm not expecting any surprises - he already seemed to have a good idea of what was going on from the MRI, and these tests were just to get a better picture. My ankle has been hurting a lot lately. Yesterday I stood for about an hour and a half while I practiced percussion, then I worked out (elliptical machine) for 30 mins, and then I ended up walking a mile or so (met up with a friend and we got off at the wrong bus stop, whoops). I was really sore after all that, and I'm still having trouble walking. That pisses me off because that's the kind of stuff I need to be able to do on a daily basis. I feel like my ankle is getting worse in general - probably because I'm more active, and now the weather is getting colder. I'm hoping that when I see my ankle doc next, he'll start me on cortisone shots or something.

My neighbor is playing loud music. It's 11:30 my time. Lame. Also, the lock on my door stopped working tonight. I can now push my apartment door open while it's "locked". I don't live in the ghetto, but that's a pretty ghetto problem to have. Good thing I don't have anything going on tomorrow morning, so I can let the maintenance guys know. Don't worry though, because my deadbolt still works, so nobody will be coming in while I'm home. I don't think anyone would try to come in anyway - my neighbors are all crazy (but harmless).

Okay I guess that's all...

weekend in review

My parents were in town this past weekend, so we did all sorts of fun Seattle-type things.

Thursday night I picked them up at the airport and we had dinner. That was pretty much all we did, since it was kind of late.

On Friday I met with my ankle specialist (more on that later). After that, I went to class, and they took my car and drove around. Then we went to the Elysian brewpub for dinner.

We went to an Italian grocery store & bakery on Saturday and bought stuff to make sandwiches. We went back to my apartment to hang out and eat our sammiches. Then we went downtown to the Pike Place Market. After that we met up with some of my friends in the U-District for pizza. My parents took off after a while, and the rest of us went to a hip-hop show and did some barhopping.

On Sunday we went to Snoqualmie, which is probably like 30 miles from here. It was a really pretty drive due to the fall colors. We went to Snoqualmie Falls, which was flowing a lot stronger than the last time I'd gone. After that we spent some time bumming around town, and found a good Mexican restaurant. We also went to a railroad museum, which was pretty neat. Here are some pics (thanks to the point & shoot camera I got for my birthday):









After we got back from Snoqualmie, we went back downtown to the market to buy stuff for dinner. My mom had bought me a Pike's Place seafood cookbook, and we brought it with us so we could decide what recipe to make. While we were standing in front of one of the seafood places, I was paging through the book, and one of the workers came over and started talking to me. After I'd picked out a recipe (halibut with a honey sauce), the worker started paging through the cookbook and showed me where there were pictures of himself and his coworkers. So that was kind of cool. My parents and I came back to my apartment to cook the halibut (along with green beans and an acorn squash) and it was awesome. Oh, and my parents bought me flowers from the market. Here's a picture, but it doesn't really do them justice:



My parents left this morning, and now I'm back to classes and stuff. Oh well. It's really nice to be in an area where I can feel like I'm on vacation without going anywhere.


As I mentioned earlier, my dad and I went to see my ankle doc on Friday. He showed us the x-rays and MRI and talked through everything in detail. Apparently there are a few different problems going on in my ankle. I have some cartilage between my ankle & shin bone that's kind of roughed up, I have a slight divot or something on the bottom of my shin bone, there's some arthritis between the bottom of my ankle joint & my heel, and there's a pocket of fluid in one of my ankle bones.

The fluid inside the bone could be either a cyst or a pocket of blood. If it's blood, that basically means that bone never healed from the original injury, and is still bleeding. If I understood the doc correctly, it might not be healing because something keeps injuring it - probably some of that rough cartilage. It's kind of weird now because the top of that bone isn't solid, so instead of pressure being spread across that bone when I step on it, it just goes to the solid parts, creating more stress.

My doc ordered a couple of tests so he can get better views of that fluid and the cartilage/shinbone. Later this week I'm going to have a bone scan and a CT scan, and after that, the doc will have a better idea of what's going on.

It sounds like there's a strong possibility that I'll need another surgery soon. Luckily I think we can put it off for a little while, and there are some other things my doc is going to try first. He wants to inject some anesthesia into the joint with arthritis and the one with the rough cartilage. If my ankle is still bothering me, then it'll be obvious that the pocket of fluid in the bone is one of the major contributors to my ankle pain (since everything else will be numb). If the doc does surgery, he'll go in and smooth out the cartilage, and then drain that fluid and probably pack a bone graft in that pocket so the bone is strong again.

In addition to this procedure, my doc thinks I'll need another ankle surgery when I'm a little older. Eventually I'll need an ankle fusion (which sounds like no fun) or, if the technology is good enough by that point, an ankle replacement.

It's pretty depressing to find out about all these problems with my ankle. Until the latest MRI, doctors had been telling me that my ankle would keep getting better. They told me it most likely wouldn't be at 100% again, but there was the potential of it still healing up pretty well. Now I know that there are all sorts of problems with my ankle. I kind of had the feeling something was wrong with it (which was why I kept bugging people to check it out), but I had no idea how bad it was. If I have the surgery, it'll probably fix some things for now, but there's really nothing the doc can do about the arthritis. He said he can treat it symptomatically, meaning he can probably inject it with cortisone every now and then, but I don't think that's not going to stop it from getting worse. I knew arthritis was inevitable, but I didn't know it would set in so soon.

Anyway, I'll stop before this turns into a downer post. This is a long one, did anyone even make it this far? ;)

survey says

Okay, my MRI results are in. My doctor said that, from what the MRI showed, my knee looks okay. He said there's new scar tissue (like I needed more of that), but physical therapy should continue to help with that.

Unfortunately, my ankle has some "extensive damage" that has gone unnoticed until now. My doc said there's cartilage damage, bone bruising, and a cyst. There might also be some loose cartilage floating around, but apparently it was hard to tell from the MRI. He didn't go into a lot of detail, because he's more of a knee/shoulder guy, and we just talked briefly over the phone. He gave me the name of one of the ankle docs in his group, so I have an appointment scheduled with him late next week. I asked the knee doc if he could take a guess what the ankle doc might want to do about it, and he said there's a good chance I'll need surgery. I guess now I just have to wait and see what the ankle doc says.

I'm glad I finally know why my ankle hurts so much. I feel like I've been telling everyone for the past two years how much it's hurt, and it seemed like people (doctors, therapists, etc.) didn't believe me and didn't specifically address the ankle problems. But apparently none of this showed up on the first MRI I had done on my ankle (early in 2006 I think) because the metal was in the way.

Anyway, while it's good to know what's going on and I'm glad the issues can now be properly addressed, I can't help but feel so frustrated. Here I am, two years after the accident, and I might need another surgery. I just want to move on from this. When am I going to have time to recover from surgery?

quickupdate

After studying for five hours, I should probably just go to bed, but I figured I'd post a quick update first.

I now have a knee doc out here. My therapist works with him a lot, so she recommended him. He happens to be one of the team docs for the Seahawks, so he must be pretty good. I saw him for the first time this morning. After talking about my pain management issues, he poked and prodded my knee and ankle. Pretty routine stuff, but he instantly found the spot where my knee hurts the most, which wasn't fun. After pushing on sore spots, he looked over my old x-rays and ordered new ones of my knee & ankle. He reviewed the new x-rays with me, and said he doesn't see an obvious reason why my ankle hurts. He said it's generally hard to see ankle stuff on x-rays though. He thinks there could be junk floating around in there, or else it just hurts because of soft tissue damage - which is probably typical from the type of injury I had.

My knee x-ray apparently looks a little different than the last ones I had done (this past spring, I think). The doc said the hole that was drilled for the ACL screw may have gotten a little bigger, which I guess happens sometimes, and it would explain some of the pain I'm feeling. Beyond that, he said it was obvious that I'd had a lot of cartilage removed (to fix the tear). Also, apparently the joint space is just slightly smaller in that knee, meaning my tibia & femur are a little closer together than on my good knee. All those factors could be contributing to the pain I'm having. My doc wanted to double-check on that ACL screw hole and wanted to make sure I didn't have another meniscus tear, so he told me to have an MRI done. After talking to one of the ankle docs that works at his clinic, they decided I should have an MRI on my ankle, too. Luckily they got me in right away, so right after my doctor's appointment, I went to their other office to have two MRI's done. Fun times. I'll get results within the next couple of days, so I'll update then.

On the bright side, my doc seemed to have some ideas for pain management (depending on the MRI results), and thinks that his ankle doc friend will be able to help me in that regard too. It's nice to hear something other than "yeah, you were in a bad accident, you're bound to still be in pain." In the meantime, I got more painkillers. I asked my doc if there were any drug options that didn't involve narcotics, but as it turns out, everything else makes me sick. Oh well.

Okay, I really need to sleep.

school, leaves, etc.

I was told I need to update. So, people do read this after all. ;)

Life is pretty good. Seattle is still awesome, though the rainy season has kind of started. According to the weatherguy, it's cooler than this time of year is normally. Evidently this summer was cooler than average, too. It's not bad though - right now it's pretty much like early October in WI. It's funny watching the people on the news complain about how "cold" it is. Apparently last weekend was December-like weather....? I was outside a lot, and it wasn't bad.

School is going well so far. I'm taking a class on Schenkerian analysis, which is basically just a different method of analyzing music. It tends to focus less on harmony (as opposed to the traditional Roman numeral method), and more on structure and pitch relationships. I have to take an extra credit of this class (along with the other theory student in the class) so I can get more practice, since this is something I'll have to use a lot in the future. My other theory class is a seminar on a piece by Janacek and a couple by Stravinsky. There's a good mix of people in that one - I think it'll be fun.

I'm also doing percussion lessons & percussion ensemble. I just had my first lesson today, and ensemble starts tomorrow. My prof kind of reminds me of Keezer - nice guy, jazz player, kind of old-school in his lit choices. We sight-read some duets on marimba, which was fun. He was impressed by my sight-reading skillz. He told me I'll be a good role model for the kids in percussion ensemble. I think that was a nice way of apologizing for not putting me in the graduate quartet (which doesn't bother me, since all the members are percussion majors). The only thing so far that kind of disappointed me is the fact that the school's five-octaves are Yamahas. I mean, I'm happy to play on any 5.0, and they are nice marimbas, but I was SO spoiled with UWEC's Marimba One.

Uh, speaking of UWEC and being spoiled, I love how they wait until the year AFTER I graduate to become an all-Steinway school. ;) Well, I guess it'll be a while before they replace all the pianos anyway.

Whoops, I just realized it's bedtime. First though, here are some pics I took this weekend at the Arboretum. I braved the game-day traffic in search of some fall colors.

stuff

I guess it's been a little while since I wrote last. It's fall here now, though you wouldn't know by looking at the trees. It was kind of weird how fast the weather changed, though. I'm used to WI where it will be 75 degrees one day, then 45 degrees the next, then 80 degrees. At least then you sort of have a warning that the warm days aren't going to last much longer. Here, I woke up one day last week, and it was fall. Oh well...

Here are some of the things I've been up to since I wrote last:

I went to the Redhook brewery with Scott & Kelli. We did the "brewery tour", which was light on the tour, and heavy on the samples. It was a good way to spend $1. After that, we went back to their condo and ate some venison hot dogs. It was a good ol' WI-style evening.

Last week I had to go to school and do assessment tests. Music grad students always have to take placement tests before school starts, to see if we need any "refresher" courses. I guess there's no more fitting way to start grad school than to have a day full of mind-numbing tests. I think I did way better on the history portion than on the theory, which is kind of silly since I'm there for theory. The history test was so easy though - we had to listen to two pieces (for which we had copies of the scores), and then we had to pick one and write an essay about what time period it's from and how we came to that conclusion. We could only write one page, which was kind of tricky. I spent an hour and 45 minutes writing a one-page essay on sonata-allegro form. Fun stuff. Unfortunately the theory tests weren't so straightforward. It's been a while since I've done harmonic dictation, learned how a German sixth chord is resolved, or thought about tone rows. I think if I'd taken the test after my sophomore year in college, I actually would have done a lot better. Oh well, it's over, and I think I did okay overall.

The one nice thing about testing was that I got to meet all my new classmates (and commiserate with them afterwards about the tests). I was a little intimidated to find out how many of them came from Ivy-league schools, and also how many of them were offered scholarships and TA-ships here at the UW. It made me appreciate how good a school UWEC is, though, if I was admitted here along with the Ivy-leaguers. Also, it surprised me how many of them complained about not learning much in their freshman/sophomore theory courses, because they had bad teachers or TAs. I think UWEC's got some pretty good profs. Anyway, it would have been nice to be offered a TA-ship here, but after listening to some of my peers complain about their schedules for this quarter, I'm kind of glad that I don't have to worry about that right away.

Anyway, I'm having a pretty relaxing final weekend of "summer". Yesterday I went out with Scott and Kelli to the Fremont Oktoberfest. It was pretty awesome, aside from waiting in lines all night. There were probably like 30 different micro brews on tap - it was crazy.

In other news... Physical therapy has been going alright, but I kind of feel like I haven't made much progress lately. My ankle has been bothering me a lot more now that the weather is colder. It's hard to walk in the mornings and evenings - it's really annoying. My knee pain doesn't seem to be getting much better, but at least I think it's stopped getting worse. My therapists have told me to back off on certain exercises, so that's probably helping. I have to deal with a deep-tissue massage on my quads every time I go to PT now, and it pretty much sucks. After one PT session last week, my muscles cramped up and it felt like a charlie horse. My leg was all bruised the next day. My therapists have backed off on it a bit since then. It's still no fun though. Last time, I forgot to take a painkiller before going in. Whoops, I won't make that mistake again...

I can't believe it's almost that time of year again. It doesn't feel like it's been two years, but at the same time, it feels like it's been forever. I ride a city bus to and from school, and last week when I got on the bus, I had a brief flashback. It was really weird and I don't know what triggered it - something about looking toward the front of the bus. Normally I'm okay with city buses because they look different on the inside, but apparently it still bugs me to be on any sort of bus. It's too bad parking on campus is so expensive. Oh well. I think I was just out of it since I had just spent like eight hours doing assessment tests.

On a lighter note, here are some pictures I've taken over the past week.

Carkeek Park

Discovery Park

weekend and stuff

My weekend was pretty nice. I spent Saturday with a couple of friends - we drove up north through the Cascades and bought some fresh peaches and apple cider. We stopped and did a short hike through Deception Falls, which was pretty. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me... I spent most of Sunday relaxing and reading some of Harry Potter (yes, I finally started the last book). Sunday night, one of my friends helped me obtain a free TV, and then I grilled us some salmon with peach chipotle salsa. Yum.

I made myself take it kind of easy this weekend because the side of my knee is starting to bother me a lot again. I mentioned it to one of my physical therapists last Friday, because I noticed it getting worse Thursday night. It swelled up and felt squishy. When I pushed on it, it kind of looked like poking a water bed. My therapist seemed concerned but she said it was just swollen. So I took it easy over the weekend... I went back to PT today (or by now I guess it was yesterday). I had the other therapist, and I mentioned that it was still bothering me. She did a bit of deep tissue massage on my quads and realized that my lateral quads are REALLY tight. She spent about 10 minutes massaging my thigh, and it was ridiculously painful. My thigh has been really tender to the touch ever since I broke my femur (which effectively ripped up all the muscles). So yeah, not fun. She told me I'd feel fine once she stopped massaging, but when she stopped, the pain continued. It hurt pretty bad for the rest of the appointment, even after icing it. It still hurts a lot. I hope it'll start feeling better once the irritation from the massage wears off. I'm a little worried because it feels about as bad as it did when it was at its worst, and then I had to pretty much stop doing any activity for a while to get the pain/irritation back under control. My therapist said she thinks it hurts so much because there are so many factors involved - my quads are tight, my hamstrings are tight, my IT band is tight, my kneecap doesn't move correctly, my tibia doesn't rotate like it should (as she discovered today), my fibula doesn't move, and I have craploads of scar tissue in that area. How frustrating...

Oh, and you know you're in Seattle when you go to your PT appointment and one of the other patients in the gym is a member of a famous band. I probably shouldn't say what band, but it starts with "sh" and rhymes with "pins".

In other news, tomorrow (er, today I guess), I have an advising appointment. I hope I'll be able to kind of figure out what to do with my schedule. I guess people usually don't have their schedules sorted out until after the first week of classes, but hopefully after this appointment I'll have a better idea of what's going on. It's kind of annoying that I don't know my schedule yet, because I'm trying to figure out when I can plan a trip home.

I'm not looking forward to placement tests. For those of you who haven't had the joy of studying for them, it's basically a bunch of theory & history tests to make sure students don't need any "refresher" courses before starting grad level work. It wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to take a refresher course, but it would suck to pay for a class that I've already taken and audit it. I've never been very good at history, so I've been spending most of my time studying that. I'm not going to stress too much about theory, but I think it would be sort of embarrassing if I had to take undergrad-level theory as a theory grad student.

I guess that's about it for now.

RIP Pavarotti...

weekend, PT, etc.

I hope everyone had a fun Labor Day weekend! I got together with Ben on Saturday, who was on the coast for a quick visit to see his parents in Oregon. He came up to Seattle and we went down to the market and did other touristy things. I had so much fun with him, but it really made me realize how much I miss all my friends.

After Ben left on Sunday, I decided it would be a good idea to go for a hike through Discovery Park. My physical therapists had recommended doing the loop trail, so I decided to check it out. I figured I'd start the hike and then turn around when I started feeling sore. Unfortunately by the time I started getting really sore, I was over halfway through the loop, so I just finished it out. I ended up hiking for over two hours. I was in so much pain by the time I got home, I pretty much spent the rest of the day taking painkillers and icing everything. It was a nice hike though - the weather was great, and it wasn't too crowded. Next time I'll have to bring my camera (and maybe not hike so far).

I spent most of Monday relaxing and doing stuff around the apartment, since I was still pretty sore from the day before. I did head over to West Seattle to see downtown from Alki Beach, which was kind of neat. Here's a pic from there:


Today I had physical therapy. It's been going pretty well, but today was just painful. I was sore to begin with because of the weather (we actually had a thunderstorm here last night, believe it or not). And I was probably still a little stiff from the hike I took on Sunday. Anyway, PT today consisted of lots of pushing on lots of sore spots - which is what they usually do, but today it was worse than usual. But we discovered that I have more bones that aren't moving - now it's my fibula and some little bone in my foot. Add those to the list, I guess.

The past couple of times I've gone to PT, they taped my knee. I guess it's a technique which helps the kneecap to stay in the proper alignment. They literally just move the kneecap over and put tape on it to keep it there. The last time they did it, it didn't hurt too much, and it seemed to give me some relief over the next couple of days (while the tape was still on). Today though, I had the other therapist, and she wasn't quite as gentle with it. She taped it a lot tighter, which I suppose is probably a good thing, but it hurt a lot when she did it. In retrospect I probably should have taken a painkiller before going to PT today.

Anyway, here are some photos I took tonight from Carkeek Park (overlooking Puget Sound and the Olympics when they're not hiding):

anyone out there?

Today I had my second appointment with my new physical therapists. So far it's going well - they seem to really know what they're doing. It didn't take them long to isolate all my major issues (stiff heel, ankle, and kneecap). They seem to have good ideas, and they think I'll be able to regain at least a little motion in my ankle. My kneecap apparently is pretty much locked, so I don't know that it's going to get much better. But they have me doing exercises to target my overcompensation issues, so eventually my kneecap will hopefully move in a more natural way.

PT out here is so different. The office I go to is downtown, on the eighth floor of a big office building. The view is amazing, and on a clear day (like today) you can see Mt. Rainier. I'm really happy with this place so far as compared to the other place I tried. In addition to being very knowledgeable, they're really compassionate too. It's hard doing this out here though, where I don't know anyone... I'm used to the ortho wing at Midelfort, where just about everyone knew me by name. They all remember the first day I went over there - when I got my first cast put on, before I was discharged from the hospital - and after that, they would always remind me how far I've come and tell me how proud they are of me. It was nice working with people who knew me and knew what happened. It's so bizarre trying to explain the accident to people out here. I feel like I'm making something up - it doesn't sound like something that would really happen. Anyway, my current therapists weren't there when it happened, but they're doing their best to try and understand what I've been through and what I'm still going through.

If I were still going to UWEC, I'd be starting school after this weekend. It's kind of sad to think that everyone back home is getting together again after a summer apart, and I'm not there to enjoy it. It's also weird not going back to school there. But then I remember how frustrated I was at the beginning of the past couple of semesters when I knew I should have graduated already, but because of the accident, I was behind in school. I guess it's not too sad when I stop and think about the fact that I'm doing something new and exciting, and I'm finally going to grad school.

Anyway, I'm excited for this weekend - Ben H-D and Geoff will both be in town! Hanging out with them will definitely be a good change of pace.

Here are some pics from last weekend & earlier this week. The first is the Olympics and Puget Sound (as seen from Sunset Hill), the second is pretty self-explanatory (from Kerry Park), and the third is Mt. Rainier and Lake Washington (from Magnuson Park).

nothing much

I made some calls today and I think I may have found a new physical therapist. That's good because I've been really stiff and sore lately. I've definitely been more active since I moved out here, which is a good thing, but I don't think my knee & ankle are adjusting very well. The outside of my knee is starting to hurt again, and I'm getting more sharp pains/stiffness in my ankle. No fun...

Anyway, here are some pics from Volunteer Park:



The above two pics are from the plant conservatory. I wish I'd gotten a better wide-angle shot that showed how neat the place was. It had five different rooms, including a palm room (where these were from) and a cactus room. I took the first one while standing underneath the leaf - it was huge.

Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains, as seen from the Volunteer Park water tower.

Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains (again, from the water tower).


The steps back down. There were a lot of stairs, but the view was worth it.

day in review

Today I had my first physical therapy appointment since moving out here. It was pretty miserable. My therapist didn't seem to have much experience with my injuries, and spent the hour-long appointment on a soapbox about the Mayo health system. In the process, he made me feel like crap about my recovery, wasted my time, and generally made me really upset. I don't care what health system I'm in, I just want to be able to walk without being in pain. I should have known he'd be a pompous ass when he asked me where I was from and then said, "oh, Wisconsin? I'm sorry." Tomorrow I'm going to look for another therapist.

After my terrible morning, I went for a walk through Magnuson Park. It's on Lake Washington and has a nice view of the Cascades. Here are some pictures:








Also, I forgot to post some pics from last week, when I went to Snoqualmie Falls. Here they are:




That's what's new with me. I hope marching band is going well. Maybe the weather will start cooperating..?

japanese gardens and airplanes

Yesterday I went to a Japanese Garden. It was expensive ($5), and I think it would have been prettier in the spring, but it was neat anyway. Here are some pics:

turtles! ^

Today one of my friends took me to Boeing's Friends and Family day, which the company does every year. It was really neat - it was an insider's look at the factory. I got to walk all around the factory and see lots of planes in various stages of being built. I would have taken pictures, but cameras weren't allowed.

My ankle is so sore now - apparently the factory is the largest building (by volume) in the world, and we spent four hours walking all over. I turned down an invitation to hang out tonight because my ankle hurts too much to walk :(

I'm glad I did the Boeing thing though, it was cool. I had Holsinger's "To Tame the Perilous Skies" stuck in my head from looking at all those planes. Remember when Chi-Hi did that for marching band? That was one of my favorite shows.

It sounds like there's some icky weather going on back home and in various tropical places. I hope everyone is safe! It was winter and summer all in one day here: it was 55 degrees and misting this morning, then by this afternoon it was 70 degrees and sunny. Weird.

bunch of pics

View from the ferry terminal before going to Bainbridge Island

Passing by another ferry

Fay Bainbridge State Park

My dad took this one on the ferry's return trip

View from Gasworks Park

All the rest of these (except the last one) are from Gasworks Park

(click for a bigger version)

Kerry Park