via A Bills fan’s eternal lament, in haiku form « this is the city line..

Also, this.

I had my wisdom teeth extracted on Friday, and it’s messed with my sleeping schedule so much that I was actually awake to watch the end of the Panther game tonight. What a great second half… I’ll never get to sleep now.

I had gotten up to about 3 miles at a time on the treadmill before the surgery, and everything felt great, so once I’ve fully recovered, I should be out on the road again. That is all.

• As Joe suggested, I will plan all of my meals in advance. This should be fun and delicious, since I have a super long list of Austin restaurants I miss. Having Kelly and others around to deliver the meals, as Don suggests, is going to be helpful.
• Lisa convinced me that I should only spend about 3 hours each day reading and reviewing literature so I can force myself to write for the rest of the day.
• I’ve asked Kelly to reset my bloglines password so I can’t procrastinate with my RSS feeds.
• Everyone suggested avoiding staying up all night writing and trying to adhere to my regular sleep schedule, until perhaps Thursday.
• Save save save save.

I’ve brought with me my APA publications manual and a bunch of pdfs and things I’ve written, but that’s about it.  I’m excited and nervous to see the questions I’ll be answering.

Kelly and I are staying in Austin until the 12th, so we’ll have time to relax once it’s all over.

The only real bummer I can foresee is that I’m still in physical therapy for my leg so I can’t run Town Lake at all while I’m there.

Ok, going underground….. now!

Luckily, I’ll just defer my admission to the marathon until next year. I’ll have to pay again, but I have little choice now. Oh well. I’m not beating myself up about it, just working hard to get back on my feet. Been to a few cycling classes, and have continued consistently stretching and practicing yoga. Sadly, my two favorite yoga classes at the gym got discontinued, probably because I was one of only 2 or 3 who ever showed up. Hopefully those teachers will be back at other times, they were my 2 favorites.

Relatedly, I finally got in to the physical therapist this week. It has been a nightmare to schedule these appointments, since I have to take off from work early to get to the office before they close. Visiting this place is like stepping back to the 70s. It’s basically a railroad apartment, mauve walls and brown trim, divvied up by orange, brown, and green striped curtains. Behind each curtain is a cot and an aged brown-plastic machine covered in dials. It definitely seems like more of a rehab-after-workplace-accident type place than a sports medicine practice. Thanks HIP! If it weren’t so close to my house, I might seek another place.

Anyway, they hooked me up to this shocking machine for 15 minutes, then gave me an ultrasound massage on my hamstring, and then I rode an archaic stationary bike that looked like a discarded The Price Is Right prop for about 6 minutes. Two feet from the bike was the receptionist’s desk… she was filing as I peddled. A strange place indeed. Perhaps I’ll get some pictures next time– have a few weeks of this ahead.

Oh, and I went to see My Bloody Valentine last night. They were terrific, and the fact that I brushed past J Mascis in the crowd would have made my 15 year old self ecstatic. Haven’t done much that would impress 15 year old me lately, so that felt good. (I can feel him shudder each time I put on my running tights!) The highlight for me was actually the extended noise break they closed with– it was overpoweringly, sensory-overload loud. Like thunder on pause forever. I was fine with earplugs, but people seemed to be losing their minds a bit. I can only imagine that this event had some negative impact on the Jersey Boys performance in the theatre next door. The highlight for Kelly is that she didn’t go to the show and therefore missed it.

Apart from not playing “Cupid Come,” they covered everything I wanted to hear. Alphabetcityblog documented the show way more carefully than I ever could have, I’m just glad I got their in time for the whole set, had a decent view (though this person had a better spot! — this was more like where we were), and was able to meet up with Jon and Melissa beforehand. Well worth the price.

Planning to hit up a couple of more cycling and yoga classes this week, and then I’ll have some recovery stories to tell (I hope) when I finally get in to the physical therapist next Monday.

Sound wise, I just realized that my current (and several-months-standing) favorite band, Black Moth Super Rainbow, has a free EP available on their site to get us excited for the “Drippers” EP, which drops scratch-n-sniff CDs & 10″ vinyl soon. A few other mp3s on there site as well. Enjoy.

BMSR – Drippy Eye

BMSR – Sun Lips

The last time the Panthers went 2-0 in their opening games was 2003. That’s right… we all know what happened then. Only undefeated team in the NFC South!

The Bills have the strongest offense I’ve seen in a while.

Sundays promise to be nice despite the lack of long runs, at least for a while. I got my Physical Therapy referral this week, and should have some idea when I’ll be back on the streets this week.

If you’re not up on SBNation yet, check out Buffalo Rumblings and Cat Scratch Reader.

I had visited my doctor just before the yoga class, and we spoke about where I should strengthen. He know’s I planning to run the marathon, but he didn’t seem worried. Interested, though. I think he’s just glad he doesn’t have to break any bad news to me. He told me to beef up the ibu dose, ice more, and gave me a referral to physical therapy that he seemed to think wasn’t so important. I am, however getting worried that the next 7 weeks will breeze by with out a chance to recover fully. I’m making the promise to myself that I won’t run if I’m not up to it. Even kinda not up to it… the aftermath of no running for weeks is not worth it. I can always just run across the bridge to Brooklyn and straight into an ice bath. No shame in that.

It is amazing, though, how much a little strecthing can make unbearable pain disappear immediately, I’ve been good about getting at least 2 20-30 minute stretching sessions in daily, even despite the working late so much. I found my knee brace today, and hope that’ll give me the support and compression to get me though the day between stretches.

I was meeting with a good friend and music professor on campus today, and when I told him about my sorta injury, he asked to make sure I was using the RICEV method.

me: of course! Wait, what’s the V?
him: Vodka. It goes with the ice.

Paper-wise, though, I’m at the point where I’m putting the finishing touches on this thing. Nearly two years in the making, it’s the biggest milestone I’ve had since starting graduate school. The next step after it is accepted (might have to do a revision or two) is to fly down to Austin the first week of October and take my qualifying exams. Once that happens, and after some relaxing and celebrating, I’ll begin my dissertation proposal.