I’ve got an owie…

…Sort of.

Okay, I did not break my hand.  I just have this itty problem with nerve pain.  Sometimes it starts from my back and sometimes it starts from my hand.  Regardless of where it starts, it spreads to the entire right side of my body.  Hence I take muscle relaxers and those  make me groggy the next day. 

Anyhue, this past week my hand had been hurting as usual but this time, the pain was bad …so bad that I could not sleep.  By Wednesday I had lost control of my three  middle fingers.  A very bad  thing …since that is how I make my living….using that same hand to type and move a mouse around.  I kinda blamed myself for my predicament because I had gone to see my doctor the day before.  I briefly mentioned my pain and when she asked me for more information,  I dismissed  her concern because I do have an unusually high tolerance for pain and was used to it and I did not want to have to start taking another round of medications.  I called my doctor on Thursday and thankfully she was able to see me (again) that same day…with a tiny I-told-you-so smirk.  She gave me anti-inflammatory meds, told me to try a brace and if it did not work, she would refer me to a nerve specialist.  She sent me to an orthopedist who fitted me with the brace.

Firstly- this shit really works.  I mean it takes some getting used to and you get clumsy and drop stuff and your hand writing looks like crap but it minimizes the pain by about 65 percent.  Turtle’s Gabapentin does the rest.  *makes mental note to ditch inflammatory meds and ask for Gabapentin*

Secondly – my boss’s boss told me that mini ‘fro makes me look intimidating (yeah, wtf right?) But add this brace and I look like an angry black chick that punched someone out the night before.  The Starbucks lady even asked me if I was an athlete.  *sigh*

Before I forget… thanks to Rose, I found out the brand and pic of that sugar we had been wracking our brains for.

Oh one more thing.  I have decided that Sugabelly is my crazy cousin, Taynement is my bestfriend, Azazel has been voted as ‘most likely to take In God We Trust out of the American currency,’  Vera is now my baby sister,  Nice Anon is my big sister and Original Mgbeke is my twin.

Yes. I said it.

You learn something new each day

Sobriety sucks.  That’s why we invented booze in the first place.

-Tommy Gavin (Rescue Me, Season 5, Volume 2)

Disclaimer: alright, if you in AA or you a born again/reformed party girl/boy you may want to go read another blog.

Turtle’s dad is a beer connoisseur with a bonafide beer club membership.  Over the holidays he took the time to show me his beer ‘collection’ in his basement.  I use the term ‘collection’ loosely because goodness knows we certainly imbibed more that we collected.

Anyhue – I was mildly surprised to see such variety because my basic experience with beer is this:

• Heineken ruled until Yeungling came to town (same taste, half price)
• Budwieser/Budlight tastes like piss water
• Coors is manageable if you have no other options
• Corona makes you look like you have discernable taste
• Sweetwater is just plain nasty
• You can never go wrong with Stella Artois
• Becks is a good choice when hanging with the guys

…but these are all pretty common beers.  The basement collection seemed pretty unique to me.

Saranac Imperial Stout: found in the Adirondack region and has *gasp* 9% alcohol.  (‘scuse me but ain’t that more like wine ?)

Sprecker Dunkle Weizen: (try saying that really fast) is made in Milwaukee and is a wheat/ale beer

Moerlein Barbarossa: is a double lager that honors some German Emperor dude called Frederic I.  Slow aged and deep reddish brown with malt aroma.

Others brands in the collection are Genesse Beer (aka Genny), Stegmaier Brewhouse Bock, Buzzard Bay, Genny light, Yard’s Philadelphia ale (my favorite), Boulder Beer Flashback Anniversary Ale, Boulder Beer Mojo India Pale Ale (another fav of mine), and Tall Grass India Pale Ale.

No surprise -Rochester is one of the few places that has a Beers of the World store, the other I think is in Florida.

As for the Tommy Gavin quote above, I thought it was just  honest…and hilarious.  Nothing against those in AA…just saying…

Balloons, Games and Toilet Paper

Wow. It seems like I have been going down memory lane these last few weeks. Hmm…. I wonder why….

When I left a message on Vera’s blog wishing her a happy birthday, I wished her lots of jollof rice, chicken and hard icing (naija-style) cake. I also wished her lots of blomh-blomh – an expression I had not used since I was … I don’t know … ten years old maybe? I still don’t know why I used it but it got me thinking of all the expressions and words we used as children like:

Knicka – shorts (probably from the English derivative Knickers), Chuwingum – Chewing Gum,  Blomh-Blomh – Balloons, Suweeti (sweets) – Candy

Our creativity did not stop there. We were capable of taking any random thing and making it a toy. A stick and an old bicycle tire was all the boys needed to run up and down the street. For girls, hopscotch or a game of ten-ten was all we needed to divide the entire neighborhood into feuding teams.

Kites nko? While our western counterparts went to party stores and got fancy supplies to build kites, we collected old newspapers, broom sticks, left over threads after aunty Ngozi/Veronica/Patricia plaits her hair, and left over eba from last night’s dinner. If you ever watched the Kite Runner, it is pretty much the same thing. All kites and their owners tested the strength of the kites and pity the fool whose kite “jalo-ed” (got lost due to windy circumstances or cut threads) or worse, got captured by another kite flyer. The feeling was worse than the death of your pet dog.

An addition to my post:

So I went running this afternoon on a trail on the campus where I work. The trail is a hardcore wooded area, with wildlife peeking at you from the bushes but I digress. Before I started running, I drank a small bottle of Nesquik milk chocolate. Now- let me tell you all, I am slightly lactose intolerant. But I figured I would be alright since it was only a small bottle. I planned to do a quick 4 miles but as soon as I hit the 1 and ½ mile mark, my intestines decided to do “the wave.” I had to go really really bad and if I had had the wherewithal to take toilet paper with me, I would have dashed into the woods, wildlife or no wildlife.  If it was summer and there were leaves available….you get the gist.

 I did an about-turn and ran the longest and the fastest 1 and half mile I ever ran. It was a test of my will and the strength of my sphincter. I ran so fast that I was pretty sure my co-workers were really impressed. Little did they know my speed had nothing to do with my stamina. So be warned. If you carry a fanny pack when you exercise, you might want to add a wad of toilet paper right next to that water bottle…just saying.

Did this post just turn all random on me?