Summer Stupor

Back in Summer land again—working occasionally, hanging with friends and family often, and wasting time even more often. After graduating (a little over 1 month ago) I went through a 2.5 week sleeping frenzy. I would sleep 12 hours a night and then take 2 hour naps during the day. That yields 10 hours of life awake for those of you who despise math as much as I do. During those weeks and those that have followed I´ve been trying to spend time with family and friends as much as possible. I recognize I was somewhat absent (or absent minded) the past four years and intend to see as much as everyone I love as much as possible before I jump the puddle late this August (or early September we won’t know until Spain decides to tell me where I’m going to be and then from there when I’m able to obtain my visa).

I´ve already had to say a few “see you later´s” to some dear friends I came close to this year at school through the best Spanish workouts of my academic career (Tackled 19 books, wrote an uncountable number of pages, and learned A TON). Tiff and Amanda have already departed for Mexico, and as consequence, I´ve lost almost ALL discipline in my efforts learning on my own (referring to reading). It is such a shame they had to go so soon—I could talk literature and life ALL day with those girls. I miss them… and the laughter we´ve shared over the mishaps, misunderstandings, and difficulties in long distance/international relationships.
Despite the negligence I´ve shown to my studies, I have kept a decently busy kid-o. I typically can be found at girl´s house off of Cleveland Ave., hanging with mom and dad at home, driving here and there to see my friends scattered about, online—wasting time, or at my new work: Fleet Feet (running specialty store). The online (mostly facebook) stuff really needs to stop. I´m considering asking mom to hide my computer from me for a week—yes, I feel it is that bad. I guess it is acceptable to have a month of no productivity. I mean, I´ve been mass producing for four years.

Nevertheless, I´m becoming bored… I started the summer with a few goals and I´d like to achieve them. I feel like I’m in that summer rut. Just floating along as the days pass me by and wasting copious amounts of time. I was hoping this summer would be different. I was convinced I could avoid the idleness—I even created a list! (This is MAJOR for me. I am not a list maker. Why would I write it down when it is all in my brain? Anyhow, the list is comprised of quite a few books that I MUST read, a language in which I’d like to pick up at least a few lines, and some chords to learn and perfect on the guitar. I´d also like to run at least one 5k…but that will depend upon this lovely new injury I´ve acquired—Plantar fasciitis.

To put it simply the connective tissue extending from my heel all the way to my toes is inflamed from overuse—running (totally not fair, other people put way more miles per week than I do) and then standing on them all the time at work. As result, I have constant pain running through my heel all the way up to the sole of my foot. Every time I take a step = ouch. Every time I work a long day or am on my feet for a long time = unbearable. The especially unfortunate reality of Plantar faciitis is there is no way to “tough it out”. In past injuries I’ve had, sprained medial meniscus, shin splints, Ilio-tibial tightness causing knee and back pain it is possible to suck it up. Not so with plantar faciitis, because all of your weight is bearing down on that darn tissue. I’m going to try to see the positive in it all. The injury makes me take the rest that I really need. I’m swimming and biking ONLY for at least 2 weeks (more like only swimming…never have been a big fan of biking), I’ve got new tennis shoes and new insoles, and I’m icing a lot. I am taking the rest pretty seriously (other than the 12 hour shifts I typically work on Saturdays). On my days off from work I’m on the couch icing and resting. I guess the rest might be exactly what I needed to get going on these other projects I had set out to achieve and get out of this state of unproductiveness that seems to plague my every day. Nonetheless, I hope to have this foot pain gone in the next 2 weeks—we will see!