Month: June 2011

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Massages can be bad for you

Yeah, I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but I honestly think that’s part of the reason why I haven’t written anything in the last week or so.

My right shoulder hasn’t completely recovered from when I rolled the Explorer down the embankment, so I’ve been getting massages to try to loosen up the muscles in that area. Thankfully, it’s making progress, but the masseuse usually works on some other areas during each session, too. I don’t know how it happens, but muscle tightness migrates on my body. “If you think your shoulder hurts now, just imagine how your lower back will feel by this weekend!”

Unfortunately, sometimes it hurts while she’s working. If any of you have ever had a deep-tissue massage, it basically involves finding tight lumps in your muscles, then pushing down on it reeeeeally hard to get that spot to relax. (I don’t think she’s ever used a steak tenderizer on my back, but I’m not always sure I’d notice.)

“Can you feel this?”
“A little, yeah.”
“I’m putting a lot of pressure on it.”
“… Oh.”

She told me that if there’s a spot that starts to hurt, breathe deeply. This last time, she finished on my shoulder, started working on my neck and that’s what I was doing. In retrospect, I think part of the reason I didn’t tell her to ease off was because I was exhausted and half-asleep—she thought I was asleep—but the jolts in my neck kept me from drifting off completely.

I got through the rest of the evening, went to class for a couple hours (and stayed awake, no less) and everything seemed fine. Everything was not fine when I woke up the next morning.

Nope, when I woke up, I could barely turn my head in either direction. Incidentally, for those of you who have never tried it before, it makes driving way more interesting. Same thing the next couple mornings. It’s getting better, but one problem with having a really sore neck is that there’s not much motivation to lift my head off the pillow (using my neck muscles or pulling it up with my hands) when it’s a lot more comfortable not moving.

Now I’m up and about and feeling much more mobile, but I’ve learned my lesson: no more deep tissue massages for my neck. And along those lines, I should probably watch out for the steak tenderizer, too.

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A special gift for Father’s Day

I don’t want to make any jokes about how when men become fathers, they oftentimes have to sacrifice their sex lives so they’ll have more time and energy to take care of their kids. (Initially, I wrote “make sacrifices in their sex lives”, but I’m sure plenty of dads out there would agree with the latter sentiment.) Okay, maybe that was kind of a joke, but that’s not the point.

The point is that if you look at tonight’s TV schedule, NBC is playing the Miss America pageant. It’s Father’s Day and they’re showing attractive young women displaying their attractive young bodies in skin-tight clothing for two hours.

Coincidence? I think not!

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Gratitudes, Day 7

I know, I know, this is actually the eighth day since I decided to write gratitudes, but with the film project and everything this weekend, most of my plans got shot to hell. (Of course, I usually have this problem when I write a daily journal, too—something comes up, lasts for the rest of the day, I fall behind and continue to fall behind until I decide it’s not worth agonizing over the state of behind-edness and just stop entirely.)

Part of the reason I didn’t get anything written yesterday was because I slept in. A lot. Then after being awake for not very long, I drove up to our main shooting location for the film because most of the cast and crew was getting together to see the final product that we submitted that afternoon. I got a bunch of compliments. Not just because I did a good job in the movie, but also because I was fun to work with and not a prima donna. (Such was not the case with the entire cast, but I digress.)

  1. The cast and crew of “The Love, The Leather, and the L33T” — I’m not sure who came up with the title, I just know that it was a lot of fun doing a musical/western with that group.
  2. The movie’s editor — I’m usually my own worst critic, but after seeing the final result, there wasn’t much to criticize. He did a great job making everyone look good.
  3. My fire-building skills — I gave one of the cast members a copy of the Beauty and the Geek DVDs and everyone watched the first part of Episode 3 to waste some time before watching the movie. Later on, one of the guys came up, put his arm around my shoulders and said, “You’re a Boy Scout?” “Yeah…” “So you know how to make fires, right?” “Yeah…” So I ended up getting the bonfire started last night.
  4. Brownies — I brought some to the viewing and got to bring home what was left. They’re yummy.
  5. Chicken wings — Someone else brought them to the viewing and I brought some home inside my stomach. They were yummy, too.
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Gratitudes, Day 6

I know I’m cheating a little by backdating this to yesterday, but I didn’t have a whole lot of time to write anything. Because of the 48-Hour Film Project, I woke up about 6:30am, was out the door at 7:15am and got home around 2:15am. No computer access during the day = no blog entry. Which isn’t to say that I’m not grateful for stuff today.

  1. The 48-Hour Film Project — I’m sure I’ll be writing a separate blog entry about it eventually, but for now, suffice it to say that I had a lot of fun.
  2. My prescription sport goggles — For my role in the movie, I wore them instead of my usual glasses.
  3. Caffeine — I’m running on about three hours of sleep over the last two days and it did a very good job keeping me awake earlier tonight. I’m tired enough that I have double vision and I’ve been doing the tired head bob, but I was okay earlier.
  4. Bonfires — Someone wanted marshmallows or smores, beer and guitars around the fire, but I was just happy to stay warm on a cool night.
  5. Wet Wipes — They’re good for removing makeup after a play or movie shoot. They won’t probably won’t get the makeup off the inside of my shirt collar, but at least my skin is clean so I won’t leave any weird streaks of color on my pillow tonight.
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Gratitudes, Day 5

I waited to write this one because I went to see the knee specialist this afternoon. Something happened during a soccer game a few weeks ago—I’m not sure what it was—and I felt a burst of pain and pressure against the back of the knee that had the replaced ACL. After feeling some bad pressure on the top and bottom of my kneecap when trying to jog last Sunday, I was pretty much convinced that I was running on three functional ligaments in my right knee again. After some x-rays and a brief inspection, the doctor thinks there’s no permanent damage, just inflammation.

  1. My right anterior cruciate ligament — I spent a lot of time with the original one torn in half and then recovering from surgery, but I still don’t appreciate it very much… at least until it stopped working properly again.
  2. ACL replacement surgery — It’s not the original ligament, but I can walk and run and my knee moves in the direction it’s supposed to.
  3. Dr. Randy Lewis — The doctor who performed my ACL replacement surgery and doesn’t think I need a second surgery. (The x-rays look good and when he was moving my knee around, the graft still feels solid.)
  4. Soccer — It’s my favorite sport to play and I’ll be back on the field soon.
  5. National Sex Day — If it’s not an official holiday, it should be. Even if you don’t get to actively celebrate.