A Step In the Right Direction

I got up early so I could do work on a holiday gift guide for men for Helium and check the Temporary Disability site. The information displayed wasn't pleasant. They were going to take 14 days to put the papers I sent last week through! That was it. I couldn't stay out anymore. The only thing the government was going to do was give me a hard time. I had to ask Dr. Berlin if I could go back to work.

In all honesty, I would be happy if I never went back to work at the Acme again. I really don't like that job. I'm not suited to it. I do know now that I can write. The writing I've done over the past few weeks for Helium has taught me that. It's just a matter of finding something I can really do with that besides articles for one little site. As soon as I can walk there with no major pain (or only a little pain), I'll go to the therapist at the office building around the corner from Dad's house. I need professional help getting around whatever it is that's keeping me from finding a job that works for me and pays my rent and health insurance.

After I finished and posted the article, I worked on the scarf for my friend for a while, then had Tuscan Tuna Bean Salad on a bed of spinach for lunch while watching Sailor Moon episodes. I returned to working on the scarf for a while. Rose was supposed to come by today with a few grocery items I needed, but I never saw her. I got bored and decided to attempt another walk, this time to WaWa.

It was cloudy this morning, but by 2:30, the sun was out, the sky was blue, and the air was crispy and woodsy. It was probably in the lower 50s, chilly but pretty normal for mid-November in Southern New Jersey. I wasn't the only one enjoying the weather. The students of the Oaklyn (Elementary and Middle) School had just gotten out for the day, and they looked just as happy to be out and about as I was. Many of them lingered on sidewalk before hurrying along with their friends, kicking up small piles of leaves as they passed by.

WaWa was very busy, as it always is after school ends for the day. I took money out of the Bank of America account and bought a Winter Spice Cappuccino. It was a little sweet, but not too bad for WaWa, and it really did taste a bit like spice cake. I sipped my hot drink as I strolled home, enjoying the lovely weather. The leaves are still beautiful here. This has been the prettiest fall in years. The golden leaves around my apartment have been just amazing. It's like living in a huge box of watercolor paints.

When I got in, I finished up the scarf and started a new project, a coaster. I didn't work on it for very long. Jodie picked me up around 3:30 to dodge the traffic and get to the Foot and Ankle Center to finally pick up my heel spur orthopedics.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wait nearly as long as I did the last two times I was there, either in the waiting room or in the examining room. The orthopedics turned out to be hard versions of the gel pads I bought for my work shoes last year. They really do feel a bit better on my feet. Dr. Berlin says I have to break them in for a few hours every day, and I'll need to come back in a month for a follow-up visit to see how they're working.

And we finally decided I could go back to work a week earlier than planned. I'll be out for the rest of this week and returning next Monday. Thanksgiving week is the wrong time to be returning to work at a grocery store. It's too crazy for my feet to deal with in their current state. There's the matter of breaking in the orthopedics, too. (And I still need to get someone to take me over to Komfort Kare to pick up that brace for my other foot.)

Jodie dropped me off at my apartment, agreeing to take the Doctor's new orders over to the Acme later today or tomorrow. When I got in, I put on Foul Play as I continued my work on the coaster. This wacky 1978 romantic comedy/adventure/mystery features Goldie Hawn as a librarian trying to put her life back together after a nasty divorce. When Hawn gives a stranger a ride home and gets a date with him, she didn't expect him to arrive at the movie theater with a bullet in him...or to be catapulted in a series of events that involve her with a dwarf, an albino assassin, a handsome but clumsy policeman (Chevy Chase), and a religious conspiracy.

Wacky 70s comedy with a great cast. In addition to Hawn and Chase, we also have Burgess Meredith as Hawn's kindly, karate-chopping landlord and Dudley Moore in his first major American film as a very horny orchestra conductor. The plot is hard to follow at times, and Chase isn't exactly suave leading man material, but Hawn more than makes up for it as the naive working woman who went looking for a second chance and found more adventure than she could handle.

Switched to the first few episodes of the TV series Wings as I made leftover chicken sausage, roasted cauliflower, and green beans sauteed in Lemon-Wine Sauce for dinner. Lauren sent me copies of this popular 90s series in its entirety last year. Two brothers (Tim Daly and Steve Weber) run a small airport on Nantucket together. Joe is fully dedicated to his job and the business; Brian just wants to get laid. Helen (Crystal Bernard) runs the lunch counter and has known the brothers for years. Fay (Rebecca Schull) is the sweet older woman in charge of the flight announcements. Roy (David Schramm) is the cheapskate who owns the island's rival air field. Lowell (Thomas Haden Church) is the none-too-bright mechanic. He wasn't in these episodes, but apparently Tony Shalhoub was in the series in later years as an Italian cab driver.

I don't have too many memories of this one. I might have seen it in passing as a kid, but it would have been considered kind of adult for us when it debuted in 1990. By 1997, when I was in college and old enough to get the jokes about Brian's libido and Fay's husbands, it was in it's last season. My family didn't watch much NBC in the early 90s anyway. We were mostly ABC people; they ran all the kid-oriented sitcoms. Lauren is a fan of Monk and got into this because of Tony Shalhoub. If it's half as good as fellow NBC early 90s mates Cheers and Night Court, I'm looking forward to the rest of it.