Diary of a Black Friday Shopper
9:00 PM: Arrive home from a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, with plans to sleep for a few hours before hitting "Midnight Madness" at the local outlets. (My parents kept the girls last night.)
9:01 PM: Realize that there is a new Grey’s Anatomy on, so sleep can wait.
10:01 PM: Turn on the football game.
10:30 PM: Mr. BBM goes to bed to get one hour of sleep. I decide I’ll take a nap on the sofa, but can’t fall asleep.
11:30 PM: Rise and shine (or something like that) and head out the door to arrive at "Midnight Madness." On the drive there, despite the steady stream of cars heading in that direction, we are convinced that our idea is unique and that it will be "dead."
11:59 PM: Realize we were very, very wrong. We have to park in a lot that belongs to a nearby restaurant and walk to the outlets.
11:59-12:10: Dodge cars filled with crazy shoppers while crossing the street to get to the stores. No, people didn’t slow down for a lady on crutches. I started wishing I had fluorescent tape on my crutches.
12:10 AM: Arrive at outlets and my legs are already tired.
12:15 AM: Realize that the toy outlet jacked up all their prices by $10 since the day before. Promptly leave.
12:30-2:20 AM: Shop until we felt like we were going to drop. We bought Christmas outfits for the girls, pajamas, coats, mittens, hats, etc. (Mr. BBM and I also bought ourselves new shoes.) I also realized that people could care less if you’re walking with a crutch. They will continue to ask you to move out of the way instead of asking someone better able to do so. They will also occasionally swing their bags at your knee and make you want to scream.
2:20 AM: Go to food court for breakfast buffet with plans to hang out until the next string of stores opens at 5:00 AM. Realize the line is too long, so we opt for a slice of pizza. Mr. BBM gets me an iced tea with caffeine in it, and suggests we go home to sleep for a bit.
3:00 AM: Arrive at home.
3:05 AM: Mr. BBM is out cold.
3:06-4:40 AM: I try to catch some z’s but I’m too jittery from the caffeine, so I listen to Mr. BBM snore for a while and do my leg exercises.
5:20 AM: Arrive outside Staples and make several laps around the parking lot. Mr. BBM decides he will not be standing in line for a computer or navigation system.
5:40 AM: Arrive at mall, and of course, buy the thing that is NOT included in the sale. We only realize this after we’re already rung up, after standing in line for 20 minutes.
6:05-7:45 AM: Mostly just stand in line at the Disney Store. Also, spend entirely too much money on Vera Bradley bags. Oh, and purchase a navigation system (Mr. BBM decided to do all his Christmas shopping for me with me.)
8:05-9:30 AM: Arrive at Walmart for the toy portion of our program. A cashier asks if I’d like a scooter. I really want a scooter, but truth be told, I’m afraid I’ll run into something. Crutch my very tired bod all around the store, frequently wishing I was riding a scooter. Find a better navigation system for a better price and buy it. Spend what feels like an eternity browsing toy aisles and trying to figure out what toys won’t clutter up our house too much. (We found no such toys, but bought plenty of them anyway.)
9:45 AM: Arrive at restaurant for a much-deserved rest.
10:30 AM: Arrive at specialty toy store and finish getting Lil C her Christmas presents.
11:25 AM: Arrive home and promptly fall asleep.
3:00 PM: Mr. BBM wakes me up.
4:00 PM: Arrive at physical therapy. Complete all my exercises, increase my weight by 5 lbs. again on the leg press, increase my time on the bike up to 10 minutes, and add on leg curls.
5:50 PM: Prepare to meet parents and the girls for dinner, all the while praying that my parents wore them out so we can please go to bed as soon as we get home.
Something tells me I’m going to have a 10:00 or 11:00 PM which says something along the lines of "Yeah right" and possibly "What was I thinking?"
***The latest review is up at The BBM Review. If you are a home schooling parent, or a parent looking for a fun and educational website and haven’t heard about Time 4 Learning, you don’t want to miss it.
Patience
Filed under: ACL Hell, Mental Strain for Mama, Tales from the dojo
Last week, I watched Big I’s karate classes from the sidelines. The desire to get back out on the floor again is so strong that I began daydreaming about whether or not I’d be able to balance by putting most of my weight on one foot in order to do drills where you don’t have to move your legs much. I thought about putting a chair out on the floor so that I could sit there and do the arm movements. I thought about what good exercise it would be to just balance on my right leg during class for all the drills. I could do cat stance, I reasoned with myself.
My daydreams were then interrupted by Big I’s one instructor. He asked me if I could work with one of the little girls on her punch from the sidelines. Her punches were not going to the solar plexus. Instead they were being thrust out there at about shoulder height in a very haphazard fashion. While the instructor continued with the other kids, this little girl sat beside me and we worked on punches.
I told her to watch herself in the mirror and aim for her belly. The punches were still going up to her shoulders and beyond. So, I showed her how her gi comes to an "x" almost right at the perfect punch spot. I told her that was her target, and to look at herself in the mirror and punch that "x" every time. It seemed to click; and I sent her back out on the floor to practice the next skill.
It was a nice little distraction from my daydreams, and it felt good to help someone else instead of having everybody help me all the time. I’m not playing the role of the injured girl very well. I’ve been trying to walk around without my crutches entirely too much, because it’s so frustrating to not be able to do things for myself. It’s impossible to carry a drink up to the living room when both hands are holding onto the crutches. Although being waited on was initially nice, it’s now very annoying to have to rely on other people all the time. For my independent thinking in the form of walking without crutches around the house sometimes, I paid for it yesterday.
My knee hurt terribly. At the end of the day, I sprawled out on the floor on my stomach to have Mr. BBM inspect the back of my knee. The back of my knee is SO sore. It’s sore to the touch and some of the exercises were really hurting it too. Mr. BBM said I was a little swollen. I asked him to get me some ice and attempted to get off the floor without asking for help. My knee shifted and that horrible pain shot through my knee. It hurt so bad that my eyes teared up. It’s moments like this that I’m very skeptical about being about to rehabilitate my knee without surgery. It just feels so wrong in there.
I have three more weeks of physical therapy, and then I see the surgeon again. He said that if we decide to do surgery he will get me in within a week or two. Let’s do the math: appointment on the 7th, surgery by the 14th or 21st. Christmas is the 25th. If that’s the case, I am going to have one incredibly miserable Christmas. Not knowing what’s going to happen is also driving me insane.
I told Mr. BBM that I feel like my life is on hold. My plans to test for Shodan, that had been so meticulously mapped out in my head, are now completely up in the air. With the way I’m feeling now, I can’t even imagine going up for testing in February; and if I do have surgery, summer is probably out of the question too.
Lil C is two years old and when Big I was this age, I used to wear holes in the knees of my jeans all the time. I spent so much time crawling around with her and playing with her; and I absolutely hate that even sitting on the floor to play with her is uncomfortable right now. I hate it even worse that carrying her around isn’t an option. She’s only little for so long; these years fly, and I don’t want her early memories to be of her Mommy on crutches.
I was feeling all sorry for myself last night after I twisted my knee, and I asked Mr. BBM why he thought this was happening. Is there a reason for this? If everything has a purpose, then what is the purpose of this? Mr. BBM said, when I first did this to my knee, that this is the perfect piece of "drama" for my eventual book. You know, the part in the book where people’s jaws drop and everyone wonders, "Will BBM get her shodan? Will she be able to do the martial arts again?" and so they keep turning the pages faster and faster to find out. I wish that I could skip to the end chapter and know how it’s all going to work out. For now, it’s just a work in progress and the ending is very uncertain.
As I was getting ready to leave the dojo the other night, one of my instructors said to me, "Injuries teach us patience." I’ve always believed that there is more to the martial arts than just the physical aspects. If the martial arts isn’t just about kicking, punching and technique, then maybe that is why this is happening. Apparently, I’m getting a very well-rounded martial arts education. Lesson #58: Patience.
***The latest review is up at The BBM Review. In the weeks to come, look for more book reviews, toy reviews, website and learning software reviews, and hopefully some cool new video game reviews as well. If you like the reviews, please consider adding us to your blogroll, and bloglines subscriptions. We appreciate your support as we continue to receive growing interest from many companies.
***In case you’re looking for the comments, I closed them on this entry. Just because I’m feeling sorry for myself doesn’t mean I expect you to.
Christmas List
Filed under: ACL Hell, Holiday Fun, Mental Strain for Mama
It’s my blog so I can say "Christmas" not "Holiday." Any complaints can be emailed directly to yourself, because I don’t care to read them so there.
Yes, I’m a little cranky today. Not that I really needed to state that. We are less than a week away from Thanksgiving and I am still on crutches. Know how sick you are of hearing about it? That’s how sick I am of using them. (If you’re a new reader and want to know why I’m on crutches, start here.)
In addition to Lil C’s crutch injury the other day, I almost killed myself while going up the stairs to Big I’s teacher conference yesterday. The steps in the school have this little lip on the end of them and as I moved up one by one, I kept getting caught, which made me lose my balance and teeter backwards a bit. Thankfully I made it up without injury, but coming down was a nerve-wracking experience as well. Luckily, the conference itself was nothing short of wonderful and glowing so that was at least good.
After the conference I went to PT and sadly, had to report to my PT that after my workout on Wednesday, I felt very sore. It wasn’t my muscles either; it was the knee joint itself. Because of my report, he cut out one stretch, and cut my bike time in half. I hate set-backs. He said that much of PT is trial and error so that’s the way it works. He also said that I can cut down to twice a week since he knows I’m doing my exercises at home, and primarily because my co-pay is going to be the end of us.
When I got home, Big I wanted me to write out her Christmas list. I thought it would be a good idea to write a list for all of those that I buy for, 20 total, two additions from last year. My choices as far as Christmas shopping goes are as follows: crutch it around the mall and die of exhaustion and irritation (at all the rude you-know-whats that don’t hold doors for injured people), allow Mr. BBM or Big I to push me around in a wheel chair (NO WAY! What? I have pride issues.), do all of my shopping from the comfort of my own couch via the internet, or make a detailed list including item numbers, prices and descriptions and send Mr. BBM on what will still be a wild goose hunt.
I also wrote a list for myself since I rarely ever do this and after Christmas, I’m always like "Oh man, why didn’t I ask for. . .?" Right now, my list is markedly longer than anyone else’s list and includes the following items: gift cards or clothes from Ann Taylor loft or Ann Taylor, zip-up hoodie and matching pants from ATL or Eddie Bauer (I need cute PT clothes; I’m running out), that military book by Eric Haney (the one that show "The Unit" is based on), Shureido sai (sob, sob, sob-I could at least hold them and look at them), a brand new intact ACL, gift card for Victoria’s Secret, a new Vera Bradley purse, stationary for letter writing, kanji paint set from craft store, thin socks (blacks and blues), a pale yellow Pitt sweatshirt, ginger salad dressing (the kind they serve at hibachi restaurants). . .
You get the idea. I went a little nuts; and I admit that I’m sort of unrealistic about some things.
In contrast, here is Big I’s list: Wii Princess game, Pirates of the Caribbean III movie, unicorn webkin, Littlest Pet Shop Teeniest Tiniest Pet Shop (dear God, help me!), Littlest Pet Shop Electronic diary, and a computer (more our idea than hers), and sparring gear.
Lil C’s list? Puzzles, Ratatouille movie, Brio train accessories, oh and chocolate.
I think I need to remind myself that Christmas is for kids. . .
***If you’d like some ideas for Christmas yourself, make sure you check out the reviews on The BBM Review. From books, to martial arts products, to video games, there are plenty of reviews there and there are many to come in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Our review schedule is getting booked up quickly. If you have a product or website that you’d like The BBM Reviewers to review, please contact me as soon as possible.
PT: Day Three
Here’s the good news:
- Almost three weeks post ACL tear, I have better extension and flexion in my knee than people do four months post-ACL reconstruction surgery (straight from my PT’s mouth).
- I started riding the bike today. It was for five minutes only and in that time I made between 40-50 rotations total, but I rode the bike today with only slight infrequent twinges of pain (minus my first try when the seat was too high and I thought I was going to pass out from the pain).
- My PT said that my knee looks really good and that I’m able to do things very well for being less than three weeks post-injury.
- I met my permanent PT today and I like him a lot. He seems to really get that it’s important for me to get back to normal as fast as I can.
Here’s the bad news:
- I have to stay on the crutches until I can walk without limping. I can’t currently walk without limping, and can’t imagine that I’ll be able to anytime soon. I can’t straighten my leg and put any pressure on it so that’s that. At least my crutches are cool.
- The pain I’m having in the back of my knee is likely due to the hyperextension, and those aches and pains are going to take 6-8 weeks to repair. Oh goody.
- Every single person (doctor, two PT’s, radiologist) has a completely different theory on my knee pain and where it’s coming from. All I know is that it hurts and it needs to stop.
- PT is taking up a big chunk of my life right now. I am there three times a week for about an hour and a half each time. I imagine this time is only going to increase as they continue to add new exercises, more sets, and longer times on the bike. Then I have to repeat the exercises twice more at home each day. Whatever it takes though, I’ll do.
I’m sending those little Mario worker dudes on double shifts from now on.
***Some of you may have noticed my new tip jar on the sidebar. It’s there on the off chance that Bill Gates comes to check out my site, is highly entertained and wants to give me like, I don’t know, a million dollar tip or something. A girl can dream right? 😉
***Do you have kids? Have you given birth? Has your wife? How about sending me your birth stories for my other site? Please people. I only had two kids and both of their stories are up already. I need more! Please help!
When it rains. . .
Big I is home from school today with a cold. Guess who else has it? Guess which little person is also getting stuffy? I’ll tell you, when it rains it pours around here. It makes sense though because the holidays are just around the corner now, which means it’s time for the annual carousel of sick. Like I needed one more thing. . .
I had planned to write a post on the book I’m reading today that I think would have provoked some interesting discussion. Because there is ample nose-blowing and plenty of sounding like we’re talking with our noses pinched shut, today is the perfect time for a photo blog. Plus, that eight about eight thing practically killed me. The interesting book discussion will have to wait.
The other night, one of my karate friends brought a kanji kit over to my house to properly finish adding bling to my crutches. After several minutes of preparing the ink and practicing the brush strokes, the first stroke didn’t go so well. Just like kobudo weapons that come with that stupid laminate coat on the outside, so do my crutches.
The ink beaded up and looked awful. We wiped it off and looked for a Sharpie. I could only find red or very thin black Sharpie’s, but I did find a Crayola magic marker. Because I was too afraid I’d screw it up, my friend skillfully wrote the desired symbols on my crutches, front and back.
It was then that I grabbed one of them and smeared black marker on my hand. I spent the rest of the night in a seated position so I wouldn’t need to disturb my drying crutches.
It didn’t matter.
The next day I went to a baby shower and arrived with a black hand. Throughout the day, it only got worse. On Monday, I noticed the kanji was smeared even worse and was now on Lil C’s clothing as well.
With a drop of organic cleaner and a rag, the kanji came right off, but I wouldn’t give up. I remembered I bought these really cool paint pens when I was decorating a little train for Lil C for her birthday. I never even opened up the black one. I found a piece of sand paper, sanded off the shiny junk and got to work.
My crutches are now complete. I realize the close-up picture is a little blurry. It’s probably better that way.
If you know anything about Japanese writing, please don’t look too closely. Although my intent was to write "Nintai" which means to persevere (also seen to the left in the sidebar), it’s quite possible that it instead says, "stupid American girl." That’s probably what the fabric says on my crutch covers too.
***There are two new reviews up on The BBM Review. If you’re into video games and/or looking for games for yourself or your kids this year, then get over there now. TSDAdam reviewed a game called "Virtua Fighter 5" for XBox 360 and yours truly reviewed the ESRB website, a must see site for anyone buying video games for kids this holiday season.
Copyright
© Copyright 2006-2019 blackbeltmama dot com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Follow Me
Blog Designed By
My Creations
Things You Could Care Less About
