~Pins and Needles
2004-08-17 - 11:38 a.m.

I had acupuncture yesterday and now I'm home sick.

*giggles* OK, so those two things aren't related.

It's week 6 of term and around week 3 I began feeling very tired. I just wasn't sleeping enough and never seemed to have enough energy. Also, my back began feeling sorer, and my foot. I began going back to the physio, as well as my regular massage. Finally, this weekend, I began feeling a little unwell and, on Sunday, had an increasingly sore throat.

I went to work yesterday. I didn't feel bad enough to have the day off, and it was our football clinic day, with two AFL footballers coming to take it.

Viv will like this: Corey Jones and Leigh Colbert. I'll admit that I liked the Leigh Colbert part enormously, aswell! I'd always liked him when he played for Geelong, but I'd never really appreciated how gorgeous he was until I met him in real life (and TALL!). So I was chatty and pleasant, and felt smiley all the rest of the day because he was so charming! But URGH, if this is how I feel when I'm merely momentarily smitten, I don't really look forward to falling in love. I think I'd fall rather heavily and, while it'd be wonderful if it was requited, I think I'd really be in agonies unless it definitely was.

Not that I wouldn't like to be in love with someone who was in love with me, I've always wanted that, but I'm certainly not pining for it, and rather dread the incredible lows that may come with it. Especially as, ultimately, I'm extremely happy not being in love. In actual fact, I realised how much my ambitions have grown up today. I can remember having vague ideas of a happy, successful future, then gradually formulating a plan to go overseas. That is still just a dream, although I can now afford to make it a reality whenever the opportunity arises. I've thought increasingly seriously about buying a new car and moving out.

Today, however, I was watching TV and saw a pool ad, with a shot of a lovely indoor pool, and I thought that's what I want in my house. I suddenly felt this excited ambition to have a house. I've never, before today, entertained thoughts about my own home because the time when I'll be financially and emotionally ready for that seems so far away. I would need to save much, much more money than I have now, and I'd still want to go overseas first. I'm not even sure it's worth considering buying a house for another few years, because I wouldn't want to commit myself to a house and then meet someone and want to buy somewhere else with them, or find that I want to work elsewhere and get stuck in the one area. Having a house ties one down so much financially. For that matter, just moving out would do that, and I'm still enjoying being at home and saving half of my earnings (although, this year, I seem to be unable to save nearly as much as last!).

Still, the dream's taken root now, even if it may be still rather dormant in the back of my head. My house. My own house with an indoor swimming pool. I would actually go swimming if it was at my own house, even moreso if it was heated and I'd definitely use it if it was indoors - although maybe I'd have it so there are big doors that can fold out to open onto the backyard/patio. Whee, I'm going to have a house with a pool!! One day...

Well, I actually coped very well yesterday. My throat actually felt better than on Sunday, but, by the end of the day, I felt as if I'd better have a day off. If I didn't sleep well enough, I probably would feel awful, so it was safer to have one day's rest and recuperate than to plough through and get sicker.

I did the right thing because, even though I still feel well enough to struggle through work, I really do feel extremely exhausted today. I probably didn't sleep til around midnight, and I've got into the habit of waking by 6am, which really isn't enough sleep (even though my radio alarm goes off at 6:25am). My nose is much stuffier and my throat is a little sore. I've hardly spoken so far today, so it could've been much sorer if I'd been at school. And it's my yard duty day today.

Anyway, I went to my physio yesterday. The work he'd done on my back last week really hadn't had much effect, so he considered he'd see if part of the problem was more towards the hip (that whole hip-back area hurts and aches), and he decided he'd try acupuncture! Well, he stuck four skinny-winny, almost-2-inch long needles into the side and back of my hip and thigh. I'm rather queasy around needles and injections, at least when they're my own, but I quickly got over that when I realised I couldn't really feel them at all! It only hurt a little when, after leaving them in for a little while, he moved them around a bit, and even that was fairly bearable. And it worked! My back and hip don't by any means feel cured, but they feel remarkably better than they have for over a month! I could feel the difference pretty much immediately. It was almost like a series of popping feelings in my hip and thigh, and a kind of release, as if they'd suddenly been untightened with a gentle jolt. Far, far less painful than the manipulative massage I've had previously (which really hurts because they find all of your problem points and then push them and prod them and stretch them relentlessly).