Wednesday, April 01, 2026

Dusting This Off

 ... probably because I'm avoiding doing other work, but whatever.  I miss my little corner of the Blogosphere and it's nice to read and reflect and update once in a while. 

I'm at the library, waiting to go to Improv class. My last client for the day (awesome senior, AP Calc student) canceled, so I'm just hanging out. I have a fiction project, but I need to be in the right headspace to work on that. 

Things that have happened since I last wrote here:

Dad had heart surgery last March and I had hand surgery about a week and a half later, while he was still in the ICU. I had debated postponing mine, but I had already put it off so many times, and my hand was only getting worse, so I went ahead with it - a big surgery - I had my scaphoid removed and 4 other carpals fused.  It would keep me out of BJJ for 7 months, out of my kayak until summer. 

Dad died two days later.

Needless to say, the last year has been pretty bad. Grieving him, my hand, my activities, my support system - it was a lot. When the dust settled, Not-So-Little moved to State College so the Nest was officially Empty.

I continued tutoring, the one bright spot that got me out of the house. Eventually, I started working at neuropsych again as well, after a year and a half hiatus. 

I returned to BJJ in the late summer, but it sucked with the hand still in a splint. I tried again in the fall, and just as I was starting to enjoy it again, I tore my rotator cuff. Back to PT, back to being a depressed Sloth. 

This week, I went back. The shoulder isn't great, but I can get my hand behind my back, which was the criterion I had set. It has been so good to be with my friends again, with my Coach, doing the thing I love (but really suck at right now). Getting up at 5 has been a challenge, and I definitely need a nap halfway through the day, but I'm determined to make it work. If the 2 week rule holds, I'm going to be so glad I did this by mid-April.

Also, I started taking Improv classes, and I'm enjoying the nerdy playfulness of that.  Hoping to continue with that if the schedule allows. 

Going there now.