Heroics at Burning Orphanages Not Included

Hey y'all.

So, some of you may be wondering why I haven't posted in awhile. Others of you know already. Yet others find they don't care too much either way. And still others are too unobservant to have bothered noticing that I hadn't updated for the last some amount of time.

Well, one of my excuses is that I injured my wrist during a freak dishwashing accident. Yes, dishwashing. I was not injured for a good reason, I was injured for a non-reason. Here's the whole story. The scoop, if you will.

I was washing dishes. The handle of the mug I was holding shattered, and somehow the force of the break caused me to smash the intact mug (including the little nub of the handle) into my left wrist, causing a puncture that bled a lot and scared the hell out of me. I ran around like a crazy woman for awhile, cleaning out my new wrist hole in the bathroom sink while still holding part of the mug handle. But eventually, I settled upon wrapping it tightly (my wrist, not the mug handle) in cotton and runners tape and hightailing it to the campus clinic to let someone professional decide if I needed stitches.

I didn't.

But they did pull the skin back together with those sticky plastic thingies, and give me a nice huge bandage running longways up my wrist. So, rather than walking into my psychology department like that, I decided to wear Michael's carpal tunnel wrist brace over my bandages. Call me vain or paranoid (and Gina did), but I had a feeling that carpal tunnel wouldn't peak the interest of psychologists the way that a blood-tinged wrist bandage might.

Eventually (after about five days), the wrist brace took a functional turn. The puncture had healed nicely, but I had bruised my tendons badly enough that when I would unthinkingly grasp something, it would hurt like a mofo. Wearing the wrist brace around reminded me to be careful, and it held my wrist still and allowed me to heal. Another two weeks has passed. I have nearly full wrist mobility back. It no longer hurts to type provided I have a pillow or cloth underneath my wrist, and I can even pick up fairly heavy things without pain. Usually.

But alas, the wrist saga continues because now it appears I have an infection or something under the surface. It's driving me crazy. It itches like madness and when something touches it, all of my wrist senses flare up... well, okay I only have the one sense in my wrist. But still. Flares up. Back to the doctor tomorrow for antibiotics or something.

Less exciting, but more interesting news is that I've started data gathering for my thesis. I've interviewed several people already and I'm in contact with five more. Interview on Wednesday. Going back to Kauai again soon. Now that I can type again, I'm about halfway through transcribing the interviews I've already given. This is absolutely fascinating stuff. I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait to write it all up and become a Psychology Master. Which may or may not happen in May.

I've turned in my application to graduate (with Masters... I'll still have a PhD to go after this) in May. But, I don't know yet if I'll actually be able to finish my thesis before the deadlines for Spring commencement. So I may still have to defer and get my Masters in December. Either way, it will be a whopper of a surprise to me if I don't have a Masters this calendar year. Huge HUGE major things would have to happen to keep me from finishing this, this year. I'm not trying to tempt fate, I'm just saying. It's all coming together now.

Oh, and also I learned that since the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans are the fastest moving minority into the middle class. As my professor (Ashley Maynard, awesome woman) says, it's not fair to count what happened before Civil Rights. But since my people stopped openly blatantly purposefully oppressing them, African Americans are in fact making great strides. This doesn't mean, of course, that we can now stop working for social justice, just that people who wonder (sometimes with snide intent) why things never change can stop wondering. Things are changing.

And oh man, I wish I had known this when I still lived in Tennessee. I kinda wanna look up every bigoted arse I ever got into it with and give them a good whatfor. Not that I didn't back when we were into it. Just, now I have a little more ammunition.

Like you, guy I argued with in Waffle House that day because you were such good friends with the KKK. Suck it.

Everyone else, have a great day!