Sunday, January 10, 2016

Loose Leafing: Trouble on Re-entry

 Belated happy holiday wishes to you and yours, and I hope you are already enjoying a happy new year! 

I live here. Apparently.

I dropped off the internet for a while there like I do.  December was neither a very good blogging month nor a very good reading month for me.  I was more than a little disappointed that I didn't get much reading in.  I started last year off with a reading bang, but I definitely finished it with a whimper, trailing off just short of 40 books read.

If my reading fell short, it was because I was a little busy with my life.  After 3 months of broken ankle seclusion and dependence, I finally got to start doing some walking and was occupied with the trappings of rejoining the world already in motion.  Going from doing nothing but sitting around my apartment to doing PT twice a week and heading back to work and generally getting back to semi-normal activity has been welcome but not easy.  Add in the extra activity of the holiday season, some car trouble and the unfortunate need to support a grieving friend, and it felt like I was trying to jump on a moving train Dauntless-style, only with a few notable impediments.  Most of December, by the time I got home in the evening, my brain was so mushy that only Netflix would do to pass the sleepy hours between work or PT and an acceptable hour for bedtime for a grown-up.

Train does not stop for the walking impaired
 

It's been good, though.  I was Tiny Timming it by Christmas (that's "down to only one crutch" for those of you who prefer political correctness in your dealings with handicapped literary characters).  It was nice to be able to attend all the requisite holiday festivities with a free hand for carrying delicious foods around.  Bonus points for getting to reply, "God bless us, every one!" to people mocking my semi-crutched status.  By New Years, I could hobble around crutch-free for short distances.  It's not easy, but life seems to be improving bit by bit.

 Disclaimer: No one carried me like this.

I've had a pretty quiet start to the new year.  I've been feeling kind of dull and uninspired, so no resolutions have been forthcoming, but I think one of the things I'd like to do this year is look for the good.  I have a tendency to see the bad in everything, so it's refreshing to try to reflect on what looks like an average day and find something good to note about it.  Once I start seeing some good, I'd like to make some good, too.

Reading is off to a glacial start.  I'm on pace to finish my first book of the year...tonight.  Instead of reading, I've been trying to take back my apartment after months of having no choice but to let housekeeping things go and also taking advantage of my sparkly new Blu Ray player to enjoy watching The Hobbit and Harry Potter movies all over again.  Winter is made for movie marathons, am I right?

 What have you been up to so far this year?