Rebcake-o-rama

1. On a brisk sunny Tuesday morning, with a crystal blue sky - I lugged myself off to the doctor. It's about twenty-twenty five minutes. Train is fifteen. Walk is about ten to fifteen, depending on how fast I go? Ten blocks.

The knee wasn't bothering me though, sciatic, yes, knee no. I'd been using a hip compression, and wandering about at home. Also I can sit with my legs elevated at home. This was leading me to believe that - it was indeed sciatic nerve and back/hip related, not knee related.

Got the X-ray. Waited about thirty-five minutes to see the doctor. And after the assistants took my vitals. A wet-behind the ears kid came in.
I stared at the kid. Okay, granted the doctors are getting younger - but this is ridiculous. I have Doogie Howser.

Kid: Hi I'm Lucas, I'm the student intern working with the Doctor.
Me (oh thank god.): Oh...right.

His job was to ask me what was going on. I was kind embarrassed because after killing me for weeks on end, the knee decided not to hurt today. When the Doctor eventually came in - he wasn't a kid at least (thinking mid-thirties) - he quipped, yeah it's like taking your car to the mechanic and all of a sudden it stops having mechanical difficulties.

The Knee Orthopedist thankfully found nothing wrong with my knees, outside of mild arthritis. (I was relieved. Mother was relieved - after I told her.) This is the second time I checked the knees out this year. So clearly this is a hip alignment/sciatic nerve issue. The knees just have mild osteoarthritis. Additional proof - the hip compression sleeves that I've been using this weekend, which I bought on Amazon, have actually helped. My knees weren't bothering me that much today. Of course I only went to the x-ray/doctor's office, then shopping after. Less steps, more walking, than I do going to and from work. The commute has more steps, less walking.

Apparently the knee doctor sees approximately eighty patients a day (explains a lot) while the pain management doctors only see ten, which is why it is almost impossible to get an appointment with the pain management. He didn't recommend muscle relaxants either - last resort and all the do is knock you out (or screw with digestion). PT is the best bet - and I've scheduled that.

Afterwards - I bought stuff. ( Read more... )

2. Voted on Saturday. I will be happy when the election is however, the ads are annoying. So is the discourse.
( Read more... )

We won't know the results until tomorrow - I think - or late tonight, since the polls close in NY at 9pm. Over 300,000 voted early. It's the highest turnout for early voting in the State's history.

3. Still rewatching Buffy and Angel.


* There's two very subversive character arcs in these series, actually more than two. But Spike and Cordelia, which are in some respects similar characters - are at the top of the list. ( Read more... )

The other takeaways from Buffy - is Buffy and Riley don't really work. They become bland fast. There's not enough conflict. It's kind of like Buffy S3 with Angel take 2? But from another angle? ( Read more... )

Overall - the episodes are still good, even if the central plot is flawed?
Oh, learned recently that Robin Sachs who played Ethan Rayne died several years back. He was a good friend of Juliet Landau's, apparently.

Almost forgot? S4 Buffy makes it clear to me that the writers watched Doctor Who, the Prisoner, and various British sci-fi shows. Buffy almost states - when she runs into the secret underground facility underneath Riley's frat house - that it's bigger on the inside than on the outside.

And..I realized that biggest problem with the whole Initiative storyline, is that they kind of combined Reptile Boy with Some Assembly Required - not the best episodes of the series? ( Read more... )

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On Twitter, someone asks to name a better show than Buffy. And people named Charmed. Charmed??? I found Charmed unwatchable at times. I tried. But it took campy to a whole new level. Also I felt the writing was horrible.

1. Eye Doctor. I got up early, made it to the eye doctor's office at 7:55 am, with my appointment scheduled at 8:15 am, only to discover that the doctor was no longer working at NYU Langone. They'd left.
And NYU Langone was calling me to reschedule with yet another brand new opthamologist literally twenty minutes before my appointment.
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I could have slept another hour. Although they did do the vision test, and the dilation around 8:30, with the Doctor seeing me around 9:30. All in all it was two hours. I knew it would be - that's why I didn't try to schedule the knee doctor on the same day.

After a five minute vision test done at the speed of light.
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Doctors? Its basically hurry, wait, hurry, wait. It's why Breaking Bad refuses to see them, and my Aunt did. My mother has persuaded me to see them - because she's convinced her sister, my Aunt, died because she refused to.

I'm going to have to find an opthamologist/optometrist duo, because NYU can't keep an opthamologist to save its life, and the optometrist - I noticed that office was temporarily closed and people were being redirected to the horrible Tisch Center for Men's Health.

The Good News? My eyes are fine. I mean I still need bifocals, and contacts. But there's no other issues. This morning, while putting in one of the contacts I got a piece of hair caught between my eye and the contact - which was excruciatingly painful until I got the contact out, and the offending hair out - but apparently it didn't result in any damage to the eye.

One down, four to go. (X-rays tomorrow, knee doctor tomorrow, then two weeks from now, on Saturday - the Optometrist, then in December, the PT.)

I feel like I've spent a lot of money on copayments to doctor's this year.

I did however accomplish two things at least? Eye doctor and laundry, also set up optometrist appointment in two weeks.

2. Still rewatching Buffy and Angel, and noticing things I didn't notice before? Not being obsessed with the stories or worried about where they are going - makes certain bits clearer? Also knowing what will happen - makes other things clearer? It helps when you aren't overly emotionally invested in what happens to the characters - or worse writing or reading fanfic about them. Makes the story as whole and the big picture much clearer?
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3. I am not used to it getting dark by 4:50pm. It's throwing me off my game? I keep thinking it's 7pm when it's actually just 5:45pm. Yes, I know it being dark at 7:30 am in the morning was an issue. But I honestly wish we would just stick with one time adjustment, and not keep doing this flipping back and forth.

Clearly I'm in the minority, or it would have changed by now. But I wish.

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November Memage:

1. In the UK, the 5th of November is Guy Fawkes night, which is celebrated with fireworks. The firework displays and parties usually start this weekend and may continue for several days of November. When was the last time you attended a firework display?

Hm. I think sometime in 2010? It was the 4th of July display in NYC.

I have watched them out my window at home - but not sure that counts.

2. Do you have anything you love so much on TV that you record all the episodes?

I don't need to any longer with streaming. Also the DVR doesn't always work?

But, when I had a VHS recorder - yes. I recorded all the episodes of Buffy, and Angel. Also Farscape. Those are three shows I loved enough to record all the episodes and own the DVDs (for a bit).

3. What’s the weather like today?

Partly Cloudy, Cool, potential for rain (but mostly sunny). In the upper fifties, high was 60 degrees.

1. Sigh, Let's Do the Time Warp Again

I don't know about anyone else? But regardless of what I do? I'm always thrown sideways by the time change. It's dark out - and I keep thinking it's 6:58 or almost 7pm, when in reality it's only 5:58 pm and almost 6. (I really wish they'd stop doing time change back and forth.

It just occurred to me that maybe this is the inspiration behind the song (or not as the case may be? I don't really want to know either way, and regardless - I posted it on FB too, so an annoying relative will most likely tell me) - Time Warp.

2. Watched the Associate Minister's last hurrah - so to speak - or her last sermon. The church really needs to acquire a Director of Religious Education who isn't interested in becoming a minister - this is the second one they've lost to the Minister path. There's clearly something about Religious Education that calls people to become Unitarian Minister's? That and yoga.

I didn't go in person - for various reasons - I had ambivalent feelings about the Minister in question, and my church isn't the most accessible on the planet? ( Read more... ) And I wasn't exactly close to the Assoc Minister, actually I'm kind of relieved she's leaving? And I can't say I didn't agree with her sentiment that letting go of this congregation and moving on to one out on Long Island, (the Assoc Ministers always go out to Long Island for some reason - the last one went to Huntington, this one to Shelter Rock), was a good idea for all involved? The church really needed to jettison the prior leadership - the music is fine, they can keep that, but the management of the church needed to be reconfigured.

Have you ever met people that you feel you are supposed to click with or should click with - and just don't no matter what you do? Or that you do sort of like, but sense that they don't really like or understand or see you - and wish you'd go away?

That's the energy I always kind of felt from the Associate Minister? I'm learning the best approach in these situations is to - back away and give that person plenty of space. It happens to me online as well. So it's not relegated to in-person interactions.

Also I'm irritable folks. ( Read more... )

I don't know if any of that made sense. Perhaps it did? Perhaps it didn't?

3. Television

* I've given up on Outlander. It's not my cup of coco. I don't like it and there are too many other shows to watch instead.

* I finished Rainmaker S1 finally - this is on Netflix. It's a legal procedural. And among the better ones. There are a lot of twists and turns.
It's more serialized than most - and far more character centric. It's based on the book by John Grisham, except instead of a big Insurance firm being the bad guy, it's a law firm. So a blending of The Firm and Rainmaker, I think? It has a lot of Grisham's legal tropes in it. ( Read more... )
Anyhow, recommend, the above doesn't really have any spoilers, or only vague ones.

* Watched two more Angel episodes from S1, She and I've Got You Under My Skin

A. "She" is the episode with the comedic dancing from Angel and Wes, and manages to get across both characters personalities with it. Also the humor of the writers - I think they were going for Seinfield's comedic bit with Elaine and the dancing? Hollywood writers like to make fun of how people dance for some reason? ( Read more... )

[I was going to skip it - glad I didn't - you kind of need to see it, to understand the Wes/Angel and Cordy dynamic. Also, it has great character moments. I think I kind of skipped over it the first two or three times I'd watched the series. I've not watched or rewatched since roughly 2005 or thereabouts. I think the only season I've rewatched since then was S5.]

B. In I've Got You Under the Skin - the writers pull an interesting twist, actually two twists. It's another episode written by Jeannine Renshaw - who was also responsible for co-writing I Will Always Remember You, and Parting Gifts. She's known for writing for The Cleaning Lady, In the Dark, and Grey's Anatomy, among others. The episode comments heavily on The Exorcist, and kind of makes fun of it - even has the name of the priest being the same name as the director of the Exorcist, and dead. It also furthers the bond between Wes and Angel. The writers are working over-time to develop Wes and Angel's bond to equal Doyle and Angel's. ( spoilers and length )

* Watched Jurassic World: Rebirth on Peacock - this is the latest Jurassic World flick. I have a weakness for these movies and have seen all of them. I saw roughly three of them in theaters. My favorites are 1, 3, and 5, or all the ones with Sam Neil and Laura Dern in them. Film 4 wasn't bad, and slightly better than film 2. But this film is horrible. ( Read more... )

Skippable.

* Welcome to Derry - this was on HBO. It's a prequel to IT. And I can't tell if it's a satire of Stephen King horror films and books or supposed to be taken seriously? It's a bit over the top? Even the credits are over the top and tongue in cheek. It's screaming satire or parody to me? And it's not real subtle about it. Reminds me a little bit of Fallout in that respect. ( Read more... )

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Off to bed, have to get up early for eye doctor's appointment tomorrow.