403: forbidden

0) My mom accompanied me to a brain-adjuster appointment at awful o'clock in the morning (the only schedule slot that all parties could arrive for). It was Good and Useful.

1) zeightyfiv became Dr. zeightyfiv.

2) Departing after the ceremony, I tried to circumvent the traffic jam on the stairs and instead fell + slid down five rows of auditorium seats. Injured right wrist, lower back, left shank.

3) The following 6.5h were spent at the ER, during which I had a total of 12 15 X-rays taken. They probably could've left off the last set, but the orthopedist wanted to look at my right ankle to compare with the left.

4) I was discharged around 21:00 with diagnosis of a minor fracture at the top of my left fibula. I have a straight-leg brace, crutches, and instructions not to bend my left knee until my orthopedics follow-up in a fortnight. Shall be seeing my GP far sooner than that, though, because the prescribed pain meds are utterly insufficient for that span of time.

5) I am home and medicated. Sleep now.

I keep meaning to update, but then before I'm done composing a post, more stuff happens. Going to change strategies and just hit the most important high points.

* Around the beginning of summer, I was diagnosed with narcolepsy. Suddenly the excessive difficulty of the last two-ish years made sense.

* I'm trying out a medication for it - so far, so good. Still feeling tired all the time, but it's an order of magnitude less than before. I can do stuff, now, and I'm actually interested in doing it.

* In line with that last bit, if all goes well I should be getting my B.Sci in May. Finally!

So yes, there's a thing. Hi again, everyone.

About a month and a half since I last posted, longer since I've read with anything approaching regularity.

The semester has come and gone; my last final was yesterday. I liked all of my classes, but have taken an incomplete in two of them because I've been considerably less than okay, in ways that have prevented me from getting the necessary work done. Those problems aren't fixed (and my brain certainly isn't fixed, by any stretch of the imagination) but I have a bit more time with a bit less pressure to work around them.

In other news, my sister has been staying with us since September. She had expected to be in a better job and moved out on her own by now, but hasn't been able to make either one happen. Her current plan seems to be returning to AZ after the airplane ticket prices go down from their holiday highs (about a month from now). I'm just as glad - I like her, but an extrovert trying to share an apartment with two introverts is stressful all around.

Chanukah is behind us, and longest-night still ahead. Here goes.

I have a presentation and poster session a week from today, on the behavior of Arabidopsis thaliana LBD16 mutants under phosphate starvation. This afternoon, I finished the last of the main-inquiry data gathering. Now I have to make it mean something.

Probable radio silence ahead, not that that's any different from usual.

Goodbye first paper of 2012! (Finishing off an incomplete from 2011.) You were fun, but I don't think I'll miss you.

With any luck, I'll get around to posting a bit more now that's off my back.

Oh, yeah, somewhere in there I got a twitter account. Cross-sections of my life in 140 characters or less.

5.5h sleep, 45min from bed to walking out the door. Managed to not fall asleep on the subway.

Violin class went well. Prof says I'm good enough with the mechanics of playing that I ought to be moving faster, but get tripped up by my lagging ability to read music. Need to do something about that.

Currently sitting in genetics class, struggling to stay awake.

Genetics is not an introductory class. Can I please have an interesting and challenging problem set?

This is a calculus-based class. Please assume that we know all math typically taught before that level, and get on with teaching physics.

No love,
- Me

Sunday (9/4) was RenFaire day with siderea and tn3270; I'd guess that King Richard's Faire is about half the size of its Phoenix counterpart. Was fun for what it was. Most notable event was that zeightyfiv solved a puzzle ring with no assistance. Took him around 2.5h, and when he'd finished, he suggested that he should try it again to make sure he understood what he'd done, rather than just getting it by accident. All three of the staff who'd watched him puzzling over it shouted "NO!" in perfect unplanned unison. ;)

Monday (9/5), we cleared the last of our belongings out of the basement of the old apartment. There's some garden stuff left outside, but I'm allowed to continue gardening until the season thoroughly finishes around (IIRC) November for the cold-hardy plants. Due to moving and setup for classes, I didn't get to bed until 02:00 or so Tuesday morning.

Tuesday (9/6) was my first day of class. I got up absurdly early for a doctor's appointment that turned out to be nearly useless. Once in class, I learned that I'm now in waitlist position 3/12 for Population Biology, but nothing of significance actually happened. After class, puzzled over administrativa for two hours or so, then met zeightyfiv at his office and fell asleep on a couch for another three. We went out for dinner, had delicious fried vegetables, and didn't get home until about 22:00. I did some more damn paperwork, and all of a sudden it was 02:00 Wednesday... but I needed to pour some recent events out of my head before I could sleep. And here I am.

Wednesday (9/7) is my first violin class. Its location is still listed as "to be determined". I can tell it's going to be a fun day already.

After five hours of orientation, I'd visited every building on campus and am so thoroughly orientated that I have *less* of an idea how to find things than I did before arriving.

I get to go back tomorrow to talk to the people who evaluated my transcripts, who did so in the least useful possible way. Seriously, who accepts credit for a 400-level math class but not AP Calculus (score 4/5)? The latter is a prerequisite for every single class I need to take this semester. The former isn't.