This sucks and I hate it

I have pinched my sciatic nerve.

I've basically been flat on my back since Saturday. My low back was a little tetchy after I got home that morning from substitute-teaching a couple of dance classes, but since that's not entirely out of the ordinary for me I didn't think much of it. Then, after a couple of hours, BAM! Major pain all down my right leg. 

I tried stretching. I tried child's pose. I tried standing, walking, sitting, and lying down. I tried ibuprofen. I tried acetaminophen. 

I gave up, and called the advice nurse.

They got me an 8am phone appointment on Sunday with a physician, who very kindly agreed with my assessment of what the problem was and sent in two prescriptions for me, to be picked up at the only open Kaiser pharmacy within a decent distance on a Sunday morning. 

On the first day, they accomplished nothing.

I woke up at three o'clock in the morning on Monday and was in so much pain I thought I was going to yak. Luckily, the doctor had said if the initial dose of the nerve pain killer wasn't enough, I could have another one, and that helped enough to get me through the rest of the night. At a socially acceptable hour on Monday morning I requested the information for a chiropractor from a friend and was able to get an appointment just before lunchtime. That helped a whole heap, but it didn't fix it 100%. I have to go back a few more times for follow-up adjustments, which wasn't a surprise. It did really help, though. And so did the increased dose of the nerve pain killer, but still not as much as I'd have liked, so I got on the horn with Kaiser again. We've upped the nerve pain killer dose, ditched the muscle relaxers as they had accomplished diddly-squat, and given me a new dosage and schedule for my ibuprofen.

Monday was a total write-off as far as work was concerned. Thank goodness I have the ability to work from home if necessary, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to work at all. My immediate boss, whose son has suffered from this same injury, has been very accommodating, as she knows just how much it SUCKS. I'm putting in as much time as possible, but sitting for too long is The Worst, so it's going to be a week of in-and-out for me. 

So, y'know, it's been fun around here.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program

I took last week off because I had a birthday. I expect a few of you noticed. I was hoping to encounter something worth writing about during my hiatus, and I only halfway did, but I suppose it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Most things are.

So, this birthday. My house is the cleanest it's been since...probably sometime in 2020. No one's been here! Well, very few people, anyway. But I was determined to have at least some semblance of a celebration this year, come Hell, high water, or germs, so I had two (TWO!) people over. Two people who were not my parents who obviously are people but it's just different when you're related, m'kay? One person (BFF-Since-We-Were-Three, if you care,) showed up early and we went into San Francisco (!) on BART (!!) to pay Japantown a visit. I did not think this through very carefully. If you're not aware, flowering cherries and plums go cuckoo bananapants this time of year and in Japan they have a whole set of traditions around it--Sakura season. Well, it turned out that there was a festival going on in Peace Plaza so there were far more people there than was ideal, but they had sanitizer stations everywhere and I feel like there were more people wearing masks than not, but it was kind of hard to tell because a lot of people were eating because hello, cultural festival food. Anyway, we hit up the one store we had actually made the trek for, grabbed boba, and headed back down the hill.

That was another thing I hadn't thought about. "It's only just over a mile from the BART station, we can walk!" But San Francisco has hills. I celebrated part of my birthday with an unintentional hike. My shins are still pissed off.

The third thing I hadn't thought about was the fact that the route that took us up the hill was straight up Hyde Street, which is on the border of the Tenderloin District which is not somewhere I would want to be alone. Thankfully it was broad daylight and there were community-policing-type persons around in great numbers, so it wasn't so much nerve-wracking as...sad. Really fucking sad. Check-your-privilege sad. The sidewalks were lined with homeless people. There were addicts casually lighting up their crack pipes. One person had a syringe sticking out of their arm. Everywhere you looked there was some new horror. Open wounds. People who clearly needed mental health attention. Did-that-come-out-of-a-dog-or-a-person. Shells of what had once been human beings, staring into nothingness.

It made me want a shower. And if it made me want a shower just walking through it, imagine how the people living in it must feel. 

Did that sound awful? Here's some people who help, and have been helping the Tenderloin community for nearly sixty years: GLIDE If you've got a few dollars lying around, maybe push them their way. I did.

After the wake-up call, however, the rest of the day was really very pleasant.  When BFFSWWT and I got back to my place my pal PV joined us and we had food and cake (made by BFF... because she is a Kitchen Witch) and forced PV to watch The Birdcage because it is my and BFF's strongly held belief that everyone should see that film at least once.

PV wasn't even BORN when that film came out. 

Happy birthday, I'm old. 

 

Revolution

I'm taking the week off.

Happy birthday to meee!!!

 

It's basically a love letter.

My best friend has been my best friend since we were three.

The thing about being three is that you sort of magically make friends with your peers. I honestly can't tell you what it was that started us off, but I can tell you that it was at the preschool that used to be at the Gilroy Parks and Recreation building at Las Animas Park. I haven't been to that part of town in years, so I have no idea if it's still there, but I can see it in my mind's eye. All I know for sure is that we found each other...and proceeded to put the baby dolls in the play oven. When kindergarten started, wouldn't you know it, we were at the same school in the same class.

I don't know what this world looks like without her in it.

We skipped through childhood together. We navigated adolescence together. We despaired through early adulthood together. And now, we're barreling at top speed toward middle age--together. We were always a good match, mostly because she was painfully shy and I...well, I wasn't. I've always been all edges, and she's always been more delicate. I feel like we've grown into ourselves in reverse--I've had to learn softness, and she's had to learn when to be hard.

She was always an artist--even when we were very small indeed. Now, she teaches art at our old high school, which is such a perfect thing for her to be doing, and I am so proud that she made that happen for herself. She made her own way there in her own time, the same way she's always done everything. She is an enchanting amalgam of every woman described in Joni Mitchell's Ladies of the Canyon. She makes me laugh. She's the person I moan to about life. She's the first person I tell about pretty much anything. She is my favorite, and my best, and my constant. I love her so much it hurts--but in the best possible way. She has been with me all of my memorable life. I don't intend for that to ever change.

Thirty-three years is a long time.

One hundred and thirty-three years wouldn't be long enough.

 

The photo is one I took in 2003 or 2004 for a composition assignment in my high school photography class. It remains my favorite photo of her to this day.