The one about how I fell, brushed myself off, and remembered how much there is to be thankful for

I have been a very bad and lazy blogger of late. Id’ like to say there’s a good reason, but other than being super busy with work, breaking my foot, giving the soul-suckers at CashCall another chance to refinance our house, and celebrating an anniversary of sorts, nothing much has been going on.

Yes, we actually did give Cash Call another go, which after the September debacle makes us pretty gutsy or awfully stupid. This after they gave us the most pathetic mea culpa in the history of avaricious money lending institutions. An actual sorta kinda bigwig called several times to personally apologize to Chuck for the shitty treatment we suffered at their hands in September (I am ever so slightly dramatizing this for effect, but not much). The end result was that we did get our interest rate lowered from 5.75% to 4.5% with no closing costs but did have to go through the entire signing process all over again. So yay us, sort of. Because we signed last Friday and they said they’d call on Monday to let us know all was well and, uh-oh, they haven’t called yet. The only reasons they could come up with for how we got jerked around last time was that “we slipped through the cracks.” Oh, and the always great to hear, “somebody dropped the ball.” Uh-huh.

busted foot
busted foot

So, on to the foot. We have also been quite busy with planning, setting up, and staffing a booth at the California Library Association’s annual conference which took place this year in Pasadena. The first day of set up went well, but then that night on the way to dinner I stepped off a curb that I flat out didn’t see and broke my foot (the fifth metatarsal, to be precise). I actually heard it snap, which is not a sound you want to hear your foot make. We took a taxi to Huntington Memorial ER where they informed us, as I hopped into the ER leaning heavily on Chuck, that they had no wheelchairs. Welcome to healthcare in America! In fairness, we actually made it in to see a doctor pretty quickly (after we made a phone call to a nurse friend who made a call to a doc…), and a few x-rays later they confirmed what I suspected – the foot was broken. They put a splint cast on it and sent me off with a prescription for Percocet and a recommendation to follow up with an orthopedist ASAP. They also assured me that my ankle and its ligaments that I had surgery on several years ago were all fine, albeit sprained. I called an orthopedist in Pasadena then next morning and miracle of miracles was able to get an appointment for later that day. I worked at the conference part of the next day until the foot hurt too much, then went back to the hotel we were staying at and spent a few hours feeling really really sorry for myself. The ortho appointment cheered me up immensely – Congress Medical rocks, and Doctor Harris is the bomb! He said the break wasn’t bad, put me in an air cast (it inflates!) and crutches and said it would take about four weeks to heal but that I could put weight on it as discomfort allowed and could take the boot off to sleep and shower. Yippee! Sort of, except it is still a broken foot which means no running, biking or swimming for a while. I worked the rest of the conference, gimping around and garnering boatloads of sympathy and generally getting in the way.

It’s been about 11 days now and the swelling has gone way down, the bruising is getting quite colorful and I am officially tired of the whole thing. I have, however, come to have a deep appreciation for lululemon sweats as they fit over the boot quite nicely and even look good! Oh, and I made an eye exam appointment because when you can’t see curbs clearly you need glasses.

On a happier note, in October we had a fabulous long weekend in Healdsburg running a half marathon (my niece’s first – congrats to Marjorie!) and going wine tasting (pics here). Yum! We found a new winery that we love called Hartford and found some very small but charming boutique wineries. Then earlier this month we went to Solvang and rode in the Solvang Prelude, completing 51 miles, and yes, doing some more wine tasting (pics here).

It’s also the three year anniversary of Chuck’s cancer diagnosis – the Day Our World Changed. Sometimes it’s like a bad dream it seems so long ago. But then a check-up happens and we remember that the diagnosis will be with us forever. A friend is battling colon cancer right now, and I realize that while Chuck’s lymphoma was and is no walk in the park, it could have been so, so much worse. Since it’s almost Thanksgiving I guess I will end on that note – how grateful we are for each other, for friends, for family, and finally and most happily good health (aside from the odd broken bone).

Happy Thanksgiving, world!