But this one is the "best of" from the town in which I work. Favorite entry: "4/28/10 7:57 p.m. An angry looking crowd of people and dogs were seen heading up Country Club Road in apparent hot pursuit of somebody. They turned out to be a runners club."
See? Actual running content!!
The rest is pure Lake Oswego.
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be
That represents the only song I ever learned to play on a piano with both hands.
More fun news stuff (Because I got nothing else. Except for the tale about the big chunks I ripped out of my fingers yesterday that are now getting fairly ookily infected. And who wants to hear about that?):
"For a fish, it's a pretty big deal." Favorite quote: "We don't spend that much time underwater observing fishes." Liar!!
Did you know people are all anxious to immigrate to states like Alabama, Indiana, and Utah? I get the first if you're really into football, the second if you're really into basketball, and the third if you're Mormon. But otherwise? Really?
Sadly we can't pass laws about U.S. citizens all wanting to move to Portland. Go away! We're trying to stay weird here.
Is this pissing anybody else off?
"He says he has no hard feelings about the shark..." Favorite quote (other than that one): “I have a 5 year old son who is already dealing with the fears of shark attacks and seeing this ad will only add fuel to the fire." Gotta hope she doesn't see the link above about fish using tools ("Mommy! I dreamt that Nemo was coming after me with a chainsaw!")
Ooh, it's after five o'clock!
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
More fun news stuff (Because I got nothing else. Except for the tale about the big chunks I ripped out of my fingers yesterday that are now getting fairly ookily infected. And who wants to hear about that?):
"For a fish, it's a pretty big deal." Favorite quote: "We don't spend that much time underwater observing fishes." Liar!!
Did you know people are all anxious to immigrate to states like Alabama, Indiana, and Utah? I get the first if you're really into football, the second if you're really into basketball, and the third if you're Mormon. But otherwise? Really?
Sadly we can't pass laws about U.S. citizens all wanting to move to Portland. Go away! We're trying to stay weird here.
Is this pissing anybody else off?
"He says he has no hard feelings about the shark..." Favorite quote (other than that one): “I have a 5 year old son who is already dealing with the fears of shark attacks and seeing this ad will only add fuel to the fire." Gotta hope she doesn't see the link above about fish using tools ("Mommy! I dreamt that Nemo was coming after me with a chainsaw!")
Ooh, it's after five o'clock!
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Smoked Salmon Schmear
Say that ten times fast!
Yes, my meals today have all been fully paleo. If my caveman ancestors lived in a strip mall with a Starbucks, a McDonald's, and a Noah's Bagels, that is.
I was up early this morning to drive down to Salem to a court proceeding (for our office, not me personally -- I am pure as the driven snow ya know), in the car by 7:30 a.m. Shut up, it's early for me; I work four minutes from my office and often get up a little after 8:00 to be in the office around 8:30. Anyhow, I made it all the way to downtown Salem.... at which time I got a call from my boss that our motion to postpone the trial had been granted. I hung a U-turn and drove all the way back to L.O. Yippee.
(Kim -- I saw a hot air balloon outside of Keizer and thought of you. Did you see me waving at you all the way from Salem?)
To get completely random, I've got a question for you all. Around here, there is much talk about who should foot the bill when search and rescue efforts are sent out for people who get lost or into trouble climbing Mt. Hood. Usually in the winter and much too often after ignoring weather reports. Many people think there should be some sort of reimbursement or else mandate GPS tracking devices, etc. Anyhow, the news about the release of the American hikers jailed in Iran got me wondering if there is a corollary there. As in, if you hike in or near a place like Iran, do we have to spend tax dollars to get your ass freed? I mean, I had sympathy for their being imprisoned and all but they couldn't have picked somewhere else to hike? Really?
Just so you don't think I'm totally heartless, here are some touchy-feeling news stories for you.
Family owned businesses thriving in Beaverton.
Stay in school, yo. And put sex education back in the curriculum. With the actual facts.
Snip snip kitty!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Or, caveat emptor.
Who was shooting the video for YouTube?
(okay, so those last two weren't all that touchy-feely)
I want to be a police officer in Alaska.
And even better, there's an article about the officer who writes the Unalaska police blotter.
Now I must go read the back issues of the Unalaska police blotter. It's been a long day.
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
Yes, my meals today have all been fully paleo. If my caveman ancestors lived in a strip mall with a Starbucks, a McDonald's, and a Noah's Bagels, that is.
I was up early this morning to drive down to Salem to a court proceeding (for our office, not me personally -- I am pure as the driven snow ya know), in the car by 7:30 a.m. Shut up, it's early for me; I work four minutes from my office and often get up a little after 8:00 to be in the office around 8:30. Anyhow, I made it all the way to downtown Salem.... at which time I got a call from my boss that our motion to postpone the trial had been granted. I hung a U-turn and drove all the way back to L.O. Yippee.
(Kim -- I saw a hot air balloon outside of Keizer and thought of you. Did you see me waving at you all the way from Salem?)
To get completely random, I've got a question for you all. Around here, there is much talk about who should foot the bill when search and rescue efforts are sent out for people who get lost or into trouble climbing Mt. Hood. Usually in the winter and much too often after ignoring weather reports. Many people think there should be some sort of reimbursement or else mandate GPS tracking devices, etc. Anyhow, the news about the release of the American hikers jailed in Iran got me wondering if there is a corollary there. As in, if you hike in or near a place like Iran, do we have to spend tax dollars to get your ass freed? I mean, I had sympathy for their being imprisoned and all but they couldn't have picked somewhere else to hike? Really?
Just so you don't think I'm totally heartless, here are some touchy-feeling news stories for you.
Family owned businesses thriving in Beaverton.
Stay in school, yo. And put sex education back in the curriculum. With the actual facts.
Snip snip kitty!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Or, caveat emptor.
Who was shooting the video for YouTube?
(okay, so those last two weren't all that touchy-feely)
I want to be a police officer in Alaska.
And even better, there's an article about the officer who writes the Unalaska police blotter.
Now I must go read the back issues of the Unalaska police blotter. It's been a long day.
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
Monday, September 26, 2011
Bits 'n Pieces of Monday
I was going to call this "Bits 'n Pieces o'Monday" but that seemed way too damn cutesy.
So. How was your weekend? Most of my weekend was spent in a post-long run hangover with touches of migraine. Meaning the first part of my weekend was spent running 18 miles.
I'll use the phrase "running" loosely. The first six miles was more of a limping lurch as my right leg just did not want to get with the program. I wanted to quit every single second of those first six miles. Thankfully Julie was there and she kept me from quitting, because right at end of that first loop everything literally fell into place and the pain went away. Well, the piercing, shooting pain from the back/hip issues went away. I still had the "I'm running 18 miles" issues to deal with. Despite that and the sun emerging from the lovely fog -- we loved the fog, it had that cool wet breeze on your face thing going on -- we were running the last few miles about four minutes faster than the first few.
After all of that joy plus a nap, I spent the rest of the weekend holding down my couch and catching up on television. Some interesting stuff in the new season:
- Prime Suspect. This U.S. remake was really good. I love British crime dramas and Helen Mirren but the one episode I watched of the British version I didn't like. The U.S. one held my interest. Definitely going to keep watching this.
- The Playboy Club. I was bored and it was On Demand. Plus I'm a sucker for Eddie Cibrian. I'd watch him read the phone book. Particularly if he were shirtless. I was so sad when they killed off his character rather than that fuckwad Eric Delko on CSI: Miami. Anyhow. The representation of the era was nifty and it was pretty cool to see the guy die by bunny stiletto. Heel, that is. Oh, and the secret lesbian bunny is portrayed as a seriously girlie girl and it was good they bucked that stereotype. But on the whole? I'd watch it if there were nothing else on. For Eddie Cibrian, mainly.
- Supernatural. I'd heard they were killing off Castiel this season and SPOILER ALERT they did. Sort of. I keep thinking I should stop watching this show and I never do. I have a feeling that TPTB might be thinking the same thing and that this might be its last season.
- CSI: The Mothership. I absolutely love the casting of Ted Danson. I didn't think I didn't like Laurence Fishburne on CSI last season, but after seeing Ted Danson I realized I did. I really did mind. Glad he's gone.
- CSI: Miami: Please please please KILL ERIC DELKO. Beat him to death with Tony DiNozzo if you have to, but HE MUST DIE.
- Glee. It was meh. There may be sharks underfoot.
- The Good Wife. I've never watched this one before. I liked it.
- Harry's Law. Still an awesome show. Just hope it doesn't spiral downward into WTF??ness like every other David E. Kelley show I've ever seen.
- The Mentalist. SPOILER ALERT. Red John lives! Can't say I was terribly surprised. Still hoping that what's his name -- the guy who started out heading up the CBI, who was the slimy President on 24 -- turns out to be Red John. Gregory Itzin, that's his name.
I think I'm done for now. Anything good on your TV that I'm not watching? Anybody like this season's Biggest Loser?
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
So. How was your weekend? Most of my weekend was spent in a post-long run hangover with touches of migraine. Meaning the first part of my weekend was spent running 18 miles.
I'll use the phrase "running" loosely. The first six miles was more of a limping lurch as my right leg just did not want to get with the program. I wanted to quit every single second of those first six miles. Thankfully Julie was there and she kept me from quitting, because right at end of that first loop everything literally fell into place and the pain went away. Well, the piercing, shooting pain from the back/hip issues went away. I still had the "I'm running 18 miles" issues to deal with. Despite that and the sun emerging from the lovely fog -- we loved the fog, it had that cool wet breeze on your face thing going on -- we were running the last few miles about four minutes faster than the first few.
After all of that joy plus a nap, I spent the rest of the weekend holding down my couch and catching up on television. Some interesting stuff in the new season:
- Prime Suspect. This U.S. remake was really good. I love British crime dramas and Helen Mirren but the one episode I watched of the British version I didn't like. The U.S. one held my interest. Definitely going to keep watching this.
- The Playboy Club. I was bored and it was On Demand. Plus I'm a sucker for Eddie Cibrian. I'd watch him read the phone book. Particularly if he were shirtless. I was so sad when they killed off his character rather than that fuckwad Eric Delko on CSI: Miami. Anyhow. The representation of the era was nifty and it was pretty cool to see the guy die by bunny stiletto. Heel, that is. Oh, and the secret lesbian bunny is portrayed as a seriously girlie girl and it was good they bucked that stereotype. But on the whole? I'd watch it if there were nothing else on. For Eddie Cibrian, mainly.
- Supernatural. I'd heard they were killing off Castiel this season and SPOILER ALERT they did. Sort of. I keep thinking I should stop watching this show and I never do. I have a feeling that TPTB might be thinking the same thing and that this might be its last season.
- CSI: The Mothership. I absolutely love the casting of Ted Danson. I didn't think I didn't like Laurence Fishburne on CSI last season, but after seeing Ted Danson I realized I did. I really did mind. Glad he's gone.
- CSI: Miami: Please please please KILL ERIC DELKO. Beat him to death with Tony DiNozzo if you have to, but HE MUST DIE.
- Glee. It was meh. There may be sharks underfoot.
- The Good Wife. I've never watched this one before. I liked it.
- Harry's Law. Still an awesome show. Just hope it doesn't spiral downward into WTF??ness like every other David E. Kelley show I've ever seen.
- The Mentalist. SPOILER ALERT. Red John lives! Can't say I was terribly surprised. Still hoping that what's his name -- the guy who started out heading up the CBI, who was the slimy President on 24 -- turns out to be Red John. Gregory Itzin, that's his name.
I think I'm done for now. Anything good on your TV that I'm not watching? Anybody like this season's Biggest Loser?
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Thirteen Things Thursday
1. I'm knocking on wood as I write this but I've been able to walk normally this afternoon for the first time in weeks. Seriously, I was thinking of becoming a professional John Wayne impersonator, the limp and lurch was just that bad. I hope this is the end of that mess. At least until after the Portland marathon.
2. Which is in 16 days.
3. I know I haven't trained enough for this race but considering that just two months ago I was still rehabbing a stress fracture I'm okay with that. Still hoping to beat my Eugene time of 6:26 and barring catastrophe (again, knock on wood) it's definitely doable.
4. After the Eugene Women's Half, I told Julie we needed a code word for really meaning it if one of us tells the other to go on ahead. Without the code word, the other person gets to drag, beat, and otherwise cajole your ass forward without mercy. I think the word will be "popcorn" because why else would you say that during a marathon?
5. I knew I was taking the day after the marathon off but had forgotten until this morning that I'm also taking the day after that off as well. Yay for foresight!
6. Migraines SUCK. The Excedrin Migraine worked for about an hour but now the headache is back again. I'd really rather be in a darkened room right now. Stupid sunny day and stupid office with lots and lots of windows and a view.
7. I really wish I had a way to notify all of the taxpayers of a particular county that their county counsel is wasting tons of their money just fucking with us. I swear she's doing is so that she can justify her continued employment. For example, in the court we work in you can't do formal discovery requests until discovery has been asked for and ordered. And she knows this. Yet she just served us with 30+ formal discovery requests, without an order of discovery. Bitch.
8. She also doesn't believe a trust can own property. That's going to come as quite a surprise to the zillion people who have set up trusts and transferred ownership of their property to them. Dumbass bitch.
9. I've never watched Portlandia. Should I?
10. I can't believe the fall TV season has already started. I used to start preparing weeks in advance, even making a spreadsheet so I'd know what shows to watch when, what shows to tape, etc. Back in the VCR days you had to coordinate in order to tape stuff. I did watch the reboot of Two and a Half Men. I didn't think it was any better or any worse than with Charlie Sheen -- I do like Chuck Lorre's stuff as it is. The Dharma and Greg cameo (a Chuck Lorre show) did make the whole episode worth watching though. The Charlie Sheen roast was pretty good. Mike Tyson was fabulous in it, and there's a phrase I never thought I'd say. I mean, the man even made an Iliad/Homer joke. And it was funny.
11. I was just talking with our bookkeeper about whether I needed to take a vacation day for my jury service or if I would get paid. I came across this in my research. I admire the responder's self-control; my response would have started with "You are an idiot, sir." And I was just commenting on how sometimes courts do run out of jurors. Imagine just walking down the street and being summoned for jury duty.
12. Back to television. I did watch The New Girl. I found it kind of meh. The singing to herself thing got real old real quick. I also caught most of 2 Broke Girls which I liked a lot better. As I've mentioned before, I typically cannot stand sitcoms so when I actually like one good for them. I may still not actually watch that one though; the only sitcom I watch with any regularity (that's not in syndication and on when I'm making dinner) is The Big Bang Theory and that's only been in the past year. I think it's because most sitcoms involve somewhat mundane situations where it would be resolved in two seconds if only people would talk to each other. The more absurd situations -- the Murphy Brown turkey episode comes to mind as well as anything Sheldon ever does -- are the ones I'll bother to watch.
13. Folks are talking about the Run Away Pumpkin Half Marathon on October 28. Hmmmm......
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
2. Which is in 16 days.
3. I know I haven't trained enough for this race but considering that just two months ago I was still rehabbing a stress fracture I'm okay with that. Still hoping to beat my Eugene time of 6:26 and barring catastrophe (again, knock on wood) it's definitely doable.
4. After the Eugene Women's Half, I told Julie we needed a code word for really meaning it if one of us tells the other to go on ahead. Without the code word, the other person gets to drag, beat, and otherwise cajole your ass forward without mercy. I think the word will be "popcorn" because why else would you say that during a marathon?
5. I knew I was taking the day after the marathon off but had forgotten until this morning that I'm also taking the day after that off as well. Yay for foresight!
6. Migraines SUCK. The Excedrin Migraine worked for about an hour but now the headache is back again. I'd really rather be in a darkened room right now. Stupid sunny day and stupid office with lots and lots of windows and a view.
7. I really wish I had a way to notify all of the taxpayers of a particular county that their county counsel is wasting tons of their money just fucking with us. I swear she's doing is so that she can justify her continued employment. For example, in the court we work in you can't do formal discovery requests until discovery has been asked for and ordered. And she knows this. Yet she just served us with 30+ formal discovery requests, without an order of discovery. Bitch.
8. She also doesn't believe a trust can own property. That's going to come as quite a surprise to the zillion people who have set up trusts and transferred ownership of their property to them. Dumbass bitch.
9. I've never watched Portlandia. Should I?
10. I can't believe the fall TV season has already started. I used to start preparing weeks in advance, even making a spreadsheet so I'd know what shows to watch when, what shows to tape, etc. Back in the VCR days you had to coordinate in order to tape stuff. I did watch the reboot of Two and a Half Men. I didn't think it was any better or any worse than with Charlie Sheen -- I do like Chuck Lorre's stuff as it is. The Dharma and Greg cameo (a Chuck Lorre show) did make the whole episode worth watching though. The Charlie Sheen roast was pretty good. Mike Tyson was fabulous in it, and there's a phrase I never thought I'd say. I mean, the man even made an Iliad/Homer joke. And it was funny.
11. I was just talking with our bookkeeper about whether I needed to take a vacation day for my jury service or if I would get paid. I came across this in my research. I admire the responder's self-control; my response would have started with "You are an idiot, sir." And I was just commenting on how sometimes courts do run out of jurors. Imagine just walking down the street and being summoned for jury duty.
12. Back to television. I did watch The New Girl. I found it kind of meh. The singing to herself thing got real old real quick. I also caught most of 2 Broke Girls which I liked a lot better. As I've mentioned before, I typically cannot stand sitcoms so when I actually like one good for them. I may still not actually watch that one though; the only sitcom I watch with any regularity (that's not in syndication and on when I'm making dinner) is The Big Bang Theory and that's only been in the past year. I think it's because most sitcoms involve somewhat mundane situations where it would be resolved in two seconds if only people would talk to each other. The more absurd situations -- the Murphy Brown turkey episode comes to mind as well as anything Sheldon ever does -- are the ones I'll bother to watch.
13. Folks are talking about the Run Away Pumpkin Half Marathon on October 28. Hmmmm......
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Whimsical Wednesday: Alive and Tap Dancing
Because I'm just not quite kicking but I got the rhythm in me.
Or something like that.
Anyhow. Hi! It's been a somewhat sucky and busy several days. Let's recap.
Saturday I slogged through a painful run. Still had the pinched nerve issue. I'd run a couple of miles and then it either went numb or the nerve pain went away and then I could run fine for a couple of miles. Then my whole right buttcheek would turn into one big muscle cramp. The nerve pain was tolerable, the muscle cramp not so much. So we'd walk for a while until it released then the nerve pain started again. Lather, rinse, repeat. After the third round of this I didn't think the cramp was going to quit so we walked for a while as I debated whether or not I was done for the day.
Which is when I noticed the searing pain in my left foot. See, all of the foregoing was in the rain. Which on the whole I don't really mind, because there is always a point where you're not going to get any wetter so who cares? Except that it was wet enough to get my shoes wet and I didn't think it was going to rain in the morning so I hadn't put any Bodyglide between my toes. If you've been following me for a while, you know that I've only had blisters once while running and that was when my shoes got wet. My big toe gets all up close and personal with my second toe and I get a blister in between the toes there. Not fun.
Shortly after I noticed the searing pain in my left foot, I realized it was likely because whatever blister had already popped. You just know when a body part feels like so much raw meat because it is. Ironically, the muscle cramp in my ass had let up by then so I felt like I could've finished out the 18 miles except for the whole hamburger-in-a-shoe thing I had going on. Y'all, it hurt even to operate the clutch in my car.
It was great trepidation that I took off that shoe and pulled down my sock to assess the damage. To my disgusted fascination, I found I had a balled up piece of skin the size of a pea hanging by a thread from my toe; that's what was pressing into the area of raw meat it came from and causing the searing pain. It was gross. I had developed a blister about a half inch long and at least a 1/16th of an inch deep. And the skin just isn't all that thick right there to start with so shudder. It pretty much recontoured my toe right there.
I skipped Monday's run to let my foot heal a bit. Monday was also my return visit to the chiropractor. I told him we had to take care of this, dammit. So after my adjustment I got to take a spin on the decompression table. Yippee!
If you're not familiar with decompression, it's basically like treating your spine like a slinky. Cervical decompression is where you lay down on a table and stick your head into a vise. There are also straps across your forehead. Then the machine tries to pop off your head. It's interesting. For spinal decompression, you lay on a table that has a break in the middle; the break lines up with your waist. They really strap you in for this one, pecs to hips, like you're Scarlett O'Hara getting ready for a BBQ. Then the machine tries to pull off your lower body. This is the kind I had done and again, it's interesting. If your pants are a little loose, you spend the whole time waiting for them to be pulled off. I can't imagine what it's like for men since they have no hips.
The whole idea is to increase the spaces between the vertrebrae and unpinch the nerves.
I have to say it did a fairly effective job. I felt like a slinky and the nerve pain subsided for the most part. So, bonus! It does a number on the muscles though since they've been treated a lot like taffy during the decompression process, and those were feeling a bit abused. But achy and stiff muscles I can handle. Drugs work for those, and so does ice and heat.
Complicating things a tad was that I got to exercise my most important aspect of my United States citizenship and serve jury duty yesterday. After more than 20 years of registered votership and over 15 years in the legal profession, I'd still never been called. And yes, lawyers can serve jury duty; lots of my friends asked me that, I think seriously, which surprised me. Anyhow, I was looking forward to to the experience. My boss, not so much. He never said yay or nay, so after looking at the calendar for the next twelve months I just scheduled myself a vacation day and really freaking early on Tuesday headed downtown to the courthouse.
In my county, service is one day or one trial. You show up by 8:00 a.m., you're going to be there until 5:00 p.m. unless they dismiss you (i.e., no more trials are scheduled for that day so no more need for potential jurors) or you get selected for a trial and that trial concludes. Could be 30 minutes, could be all day. When a judge calls down that they've got a trial going forward, they select 40 potential jurors from the batch that showed up that day; I'd guess there were around 160 of us when we started. I'm guessing they allocated 40 potential jurors per trial scheduled that day. If they had all settled by the end of the previous day, we wouldn't have needed to come in.
After the orientation stuff, a group got called up right after. A second group got called up around 10:00 a.m. Not long after eleven, the coordinators were telling us they were hoping to release us for good before noon. But nope. Shortly before lunch my name was finally called -- in what they call a holding pool. Meaning they kept back about 50 of us in the event the last trial on that day's schedule went forward. So I had to come back after lunch. Thankfully the chairs were comfy -- seriously comfy, actually -- but sitting for so long was doing a number on my hip. Just stiff, though, not the shooting pain I've been having.
After lunch they're still talking about potentially releasing us all. And then, at 3:30, the judge calls down and wants a pool of jurors. I get called and we make our way to a teeny weeny courtroom on the seventh floor. Like, 20 people in the room would've seemed kinda crowded and we had more than twice that what with the sheriff's deputies, counsel, the clerk, etc. We get a brief introduction to what's going on and then the judge reads the indictment. All fifteen counts of it. Kidnapping, multiple counts of assault, harassment, identity theft, mail theft, forgery -- all in a domestic situation.
Then we get to go through the voir dire process. They don't show this too much on television, but it's been in a few movies. The John Grisham/John Cusack movie The Runaway Jury is a good one for this. A really fascinating look at a part of the process that usually isn't that big of a deal in most trials. Anyhow, the judge and then the lawyers ask the potential jurors questions. The first big one was right after the reading of the charges, whether what anyone had heard made them concerned they couldn't be fair and impartial. About a dozen people pegged on this one, what with the domestic violence aspect. The judge questioned each one so you got to hear their stories. Fairly personal stuff too. Most, but not everyone out of that group, got dismissed by the judge right away.
We went next into the do you know anyone involved in this case. Which includes the responding police officers. Lastly they have you answer six or eight questions: your name, what do you do, where do you live, with whom do you live and what do they do, hobbies -- I told them I run marathons for fun, have you ever been involved in court proceedings, been the victim of a crime. The final question was interesting: who would you say knows you best and what would they say about you? My first thought was my mom but then I started thinking that I wouldn't necessarily say my mother knows me best. But I didn't want to explain my thinking behind that one -- I was on a court bench, not a shrink's couch -- so I did say my mom and that I was honest to the point of being obnoxious and that I'm not always as funny as I think I am.
Ooh, forgot one part (if you're still reading this!). The judge said the trial was expected to take three days. We got to say if we had a hardship with that. I did raise my hand, not so much on my behalf -- I thought the case sounded very interesting and I really wanted to serve -- but on my boss's. Figured if I did get picked I could at least tell him that I tried to get out of it. The judge understood but said if I did get selected he'd call my boss and explain things to him. Snerk. Sadly, they filled the jury before they had to get to me.
Overall, I loved the experience. Even just hanging out in the jury room all day -- I read two books and watched a lot of CNN yesterday -- was pretty nifty because I was there, ready to go if I was needed. As they point out in the orientation and in the courtroom, many people have died fighting for our right to a trial by jury. It was so important that it was included in the Declaration of Independence, not just in the Constitution. Yeah, it's a pain because we all have obligations but it is a necessary and integral part of our legal system. I don't know anyone who has actually served on a jury and regretted it. If you get called, make the best out of it you can. Read, write, browse the 'net. Nap if you can get comfortable enough. One person brought a pillow. I rarely get downtown anymore so during my lunch break I went down to the mall food court where I used to go all the time and ate while I people watched. I would've tracked down my favorite food cart but I didn't have cash and didn't want to limp all around downtown looking for it.
So, that's been my week. How about yours? Has anyone actually served on a jury?
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
Or something like that.
Anyhow. Hi! It's been a somewhat sucky and busy several days. Let's recap.
Saturday I slogged through a painful run. Still had the pinched nerve issue. I'd run a couple of miles and then it either went numb or the nerve pain went away and then I could run fine for a couple of miles. Then my whole right buttcheek would turn into one big muscle cramp. The nerve pain was tolerable, the muscle cramp not so much. So we'd walk for a while until it released then the nerve pain started again. Lather, rinse, repeat. After the third round of this I didn't think the cramp was going to quit so we walked for a while as I debated whether or not I was done for the day.
Which is when I noticed the searing pain in my left foot. See, all of the foregoing was in the rain. Which on the whole I don't really mind, because there is always a point where you're not going to get any wetter so who cares? Except that it was wet enough to get my shoes wet and I didn't think it was going to rain in the morning so I hadn't put any Bodyglide between my toes. If you've been following me for a while, you know that I've only had blisters once while running and that was when my shoes got wet. My big toe gets all up close and personal with my second toe and I get a blister in between the toes there. Not fun.
Shortly after I noticed the searing pain in my left foot, I realized it was likely because whatever blister had already popped. You just know when a body part feels like so much raw meat because it is. Ironically, the muscle cramp in my ass had let up by then so I felt like I could've finished out the 18 miles except for the whole hamburger-in-a-shoe thing I had going on. Y'all, it hurt even to operate the clutch in my car.
It was great trepidation that I took off that shoe and pulled down my sock to assess the damage. To my disgusted fascination, I found I had a balled up piece of skin the size of a pea hanging by a thread from my toe; that's what was pressing into the area of raw meat it came from and causing the searing pain. It was gross. I had developed a blister about a half inch long and at least a 1/16th of an inch deep. And the skin just isn't all that thick right there to start with so shudder. It pretty much recontoured my toe right there.
I skipped Monday's run to let my foot heal a bit. Monday was also my return visit to the chiropractor. I told him we had to take care of this, dammit. So after my adjustment I got to take a spin on the decompression table. Yippee!
If you're not familiar with decompression, it's basically like treating your spine like a slinky. Cervical decompression is where you lay down on a table and stick your head into a vise. There are also straps across your forehead. Then the machine tries to pop off your head. It's interesting. For spinal decompression, you lay on a table that has a break in the middle; the break lines up with your waist. They really strap you in for this one, pecs to hips, like you're Scarlett O'Hara getting ready for a BBQ. Then the machine tries to pull off your lower body. This is the kind I had done and again, it's interesting. If your pants are a little loose, you spend the whole time waiting for them to be pulled off. I can't imagine what it's like for men since they have no hips.
The whole idea is to increase the spaces between the vertrebrae and unpinch the nerves.
I have to say it did a fairly effective job. I felt like a slinky and the nerve pain subsided for the most part. So, bonus! It does a number on the muscles though since they've been treated a lot like taffy during the decompression process, and those were feeling a bit abused. But achy and stiff muscles I can handle. Drugs work for those, and so does ice and heat.
Complicating things a tad was that I got to exercise my most important aspect of my United States citizenship and serve jury duty yesterday. After more than 20 years of registered votership and over 15 years in the legal profession, I'd still never been called. And yes, lawyers can serve jury duty; lots of my friends asked me that, I think seriously, which surprised me. Anyhow, I was looking forward to to the experience. My boss, not so much. He never said yay or nay, so after looking at the calendar for the next twelve months I just scheduled myself a vacation day and really freaking early on Tuesday headed downtown to the courthouse.
In my county, service is one day or one trial. You show up by 8:00 a.m., you're going to be there until 5:00 p.m. unless they dismiss you (i.e., no more trials are scheduled for that day so no more need for potential jurors) or you get selected for a trial and that trial concludes. Could be 30 minutes, could be all day. When a judge calls down that they've got a trial going forward, they select 40 potential jurors from the batch that showed up that day; I'd guess there were around 160 of us when we started. I'm guessing they allocated 40 potential jurors per trial scheduled that day. If they had all settled by the end of the previous day, we wouldn't have needed to come in.
After the orientation stuff, a group got called up right after. A second group got called up around 10:00 a.m. Not long after eleven, the coordinators were telling us they were hoping to release us for good before noon. But nope. Shortly before lunch my name was finally called -- in what they call a holding pool. Meaning they kept back about 50 of us in the event the last trial on that day's schedule went forward. So I had to come back after lunch. Thankfully the chairs were comfy -- seriously comfy, actually -- but sitting for so long was doing a number on my hip. Just stiff, though, not the shooting pain I've been having.
After lunch they're still talking about potentially releasing us all. And then, at 3:30, the judge calls down and wants a pool of jurors. I get called and we make our way to a teeny weeny courtroom on the seventh floor. Like, 20 people in the room would've seemed kinda crowded and we had more than twice that what with the sheriff's deputies, counsel, the clerk, etc. We get a brief introduction to what's going on and then the judge reads the indictment. All fifteen counts of it. Kidnapping, multiple counts of assault, harassment, identity theft, mail theft, forgery -- all in a domestic situation.
Then we get to go through the voir dire process. They don't show this too much on television, but it's been in a few movies. The John Grisham/John Cusack movie The Runaway Jury is a good one for this. A really fascinating look at a part of the process that usually isn't that big of a deal in most trials. Anyhow, the judge and then the lawyers ask the potential jurors questions. The first big one was right after the reading of the charges, whether what anyone had heard made them concerned they couldn't be fair and impartial. About a dozen people pegged on this one, what with the domestic violence aspect. The judge questioned each one so you got to hear their stories. Fairly personal stuff too. Most, but not everyone out of that group, got dismissed by the judge right away.
We went next into the do you know anyone involved in this case. Which includes the responding police officers. Lastly they have you answer six or eight questions: your name, what do you do, where do you live, with whom do you live and what do they do, hobbies -- I told them I run marathons for fun, have you ever been involved in court proceedings, been the victim of a crime. The final question was interesting: who would you say knows you best and what would they say about you? My first thought was my mom but then I started thinking that I wouldn't necessarily say my mother knows me best. But I didn't want to explain my thinking behind that one -- I was on a court bench, not a shrink's couch -- so I did say my mom and that I was honest to the point of being obnoxious and that I'm not always as funny as I think I am.
Ooh, forgot one part (if you're still reading this!). The judge said the trial was expected to take three days. We got to say if we had a hardship with that. I did raise my hand, not so much on my behalf -- I thought the case sounded very interesting and I really wanted to serve -- but on my boss's. Figured if I did get picked I could at least tell him that I tried to get out of it. The judge understood but said if I did get selected he'd call my boss and explain things to him. Snerk. Sadly, they filled the jury before they had to get to me.
Overall, I loved the experience. Even just hanging out in the jury room all day -- I read two books and watched a lot of CNN yesterday -- was pretty nifty because I was there, ready to go if I was needed. As they point out in the orientation and in the courtroom, many people have died fighting for our right to a trial by jury. It was so important that it was included in the Declaration of Independence, not just in the Constitution. Yeah, it's a pain because we all have obligations but it is a necessary and integral part of our legal system. I don't know anyone who has actually served on a jury and regretted it. If you get called, make the best out of it you can. Read, write, browse the 'net. Nap if you can get comfortable enough. One person brought a pillow. I rarely get downtown anymore so during my lunch break I went down to the mall food court where I used to go all the time and ate while I people watched. I would've tracked down my favorite food cart but I didn't have cash and didn't want to limp all around downtown looking for it.
So, that's been my week. How about yours? Has anyone actually served on a jury?
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Hip Chick
I was a good girl and went to see my chiropractor on Monday. He confirmed my initial diagnosis that my back was all fucked up (but in nice, technical medical terms). Since I couldn't find a pretty diagram to show what the problem is (in my hip at least -- can't diagram my general psychoses) I thought I'd draw it out for you.
Not that I can actually draw, but oh well. That's what captions are for.
So here is a lovely view of someone's backside. Told you I can't draw! The green triangle pointing towards the booty crack is that center part of your pelvis that is shaped like, well, a triangle. I mean, I can't draw but work with me here. See how it's nice and (more or less) straight across the top? That's how it should be.
But on me?
It's a helluva lot more like this. Not only is the top no longer parallel to the ground, it's also kind of rotated on its axis. Since I can't draw, you'll have to take my word for it.
Now what this does is pinch on all the lovely nerves that are in and coming out of your pelvis and lower vertrebrae. The green lines are nice, happy, non-pinched nerves. The red ones are all pinched. Makes walking feel like kind of a hit or miss prospect. Will my right leg stay under me with this step? How about this one? Let's go for three!
Not fun.
My chiro did a good job of moving the bony bits mostly back where they should be. But they (a) have shifted a little bit since Monday and (b) are surrounded by swollen, inflamed, unhappy muscle and connective tissue. There is a big pinch still in my low back and another one in the right hip flexor. They tend not to hurt both at the same time though. No, they are nice enough to trade off. So that one hurts a whole bunch only while I am sitting and then the other one hurts a whole bunch while I am trying to walk around.
And I can't get back in until Monday. Should be a fun 18-miler on Saturday.
So, um. Anyone know where I can score some vicodin?
(I'mmostly kidding with that one.)
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
Not that I can actually draw, but oh well. That's what captions are for.
But on me?
It's a helluva lot more like this. Not only is the top no longer parallel to the ground, it's also kind of rotated on its axis. Since I can't draw, you'll have to take my word for it.
Now what this does is pinch on all the lovely nerves that are in and coming out of your pelvis and lower vertrebrae. The green lines are nice, happy, non-pinched nerves. The red ones are all pinched. Makes walking feel like kind of a hit or miss prospect. Will my right leg stay under me with this step? How about this one? Let's go for three!
Not fun.
My chiro did a good job of moving the bony bits mostly back where they should be. But they (a) have shifted a little bit since Monday and (b) are surrounded by swollen, inflamed, unhappy muscle and connective tissue. There is a big pinch still in my low back and another one in the right hip flexor. They tend not to hurt both at the same time though. No, they are nice enough to trade off. So that one hurts a whole bunch only while I am sitting and then the other one hurts a whole bunch while I am trying to walk around.
And I can't get back in until Monday. Should be a fun 18-miler on Saturday.
So, um. Anyone know where I can score some vicodin?
(I'm
Cheers,
the CilleyGirl
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