What happens when I’m cooped up at home for a week and a half on medical leave

So, my evil gallbladder has been annihilated, and good riddance.  I survived the terror that was surgery and learned that being stabbed by a doctor does not change the fact that you have been stabbed.  It still hurts and your body still has new holes.   (I did not ask to keep the gallstone.  For some reason, this is a question that I have been asked several times.  Only by guys though.  Odd.)

I’m pretty sure these guys don’t have gallbladders either.

Another surprise was that when they told me I’d be able to go back to work after a week and a half, I somehow took that to mean that I would be completely healed and better after a week and a half, but I was wrong (which, in retrospect, I should have known, considering I’ve had paper cuts that took more than ten days to heal.)  It just means I am well enough to go back to my desk job.  I am going back to work tomorrow, but I am still being held together with tape, which is a disturbing thing for me to look at in the mirror.  I am also still very slow-moving and if I bend to the floor to pick something up, my belly button feels like someone stabbed me again, which is irritating.  But I improve every day, so I’ll not complain about that any more.

I really thought I would be writing a lot of blog posts for you while I was on leave.  All that extra time without anything else to do – my expectations were high, I tell you.  But the thing is, I was on pain killers.  I was napping a lot.  Also, when you aren’t doing anything, it’s awfully hard to think of things to write about.  For me anyway, since my blog is mostly just show and tell.  And being confined to a small apartment meant I didn’t have much to show or tell.

Also, laziness begets laziness. 

So here’s what I actually did with my medical leave:

• slept a lot
• watched all the vampires again
• read some books
• spent way too much time doing dumb stuff on the internet:  playing on Twitter, reviewing a bazillion books on Goodreads, playing games (or “training my brain”) on Lumosity, and looking at cute animal photos on Pinterest
• making plans for when my body works again

And it was that last one where I got a little ambitious, my friends, because it is amazing how much you suddenly want to do things when you can’t do things.  2013 is apparently going to be a year of new experiences for me, and I planned or cemented my plans for almost all of them in the last ten days or so.

They’re just so pretty. How could you not want to learn to make them?

New experience 1: I will be taking a macaron-making class in May.  This was something I was thinking about self-teaching, but after spending some time looking it up, I think I’d enjoy it more with a pro on hand.  Apparently they’re a bit fussy to make.

New experience 2: I bought a Groupon for a four-week introduction to dragon boating.

New experience 3: My mom is going to teach me to sew, because suddenly I decided that was a really important — or at least really useful — thing to learn.  I started a skirt the last time I saw her.  I’m going to finish that over Easter and then hopefully do a top.

New experience 4: I planned a vacation that I am going to go on alone.  Ten days to Charleston and Savannah.  I have no idea why these places popped into my head as places I should go, (my total knowledge of Charleston prior to this decision came from Gone With the Wind; as for Savannah, I just thought the name sounded really pretty) but once they were there, they could not be denied.  Luckily, further research has told me these are really beautiful cities, so it should be good.

New experience 5: I’m joining a second book club so I can meet more people in Vancouver.  A bunch of my friends had kids in the last few years and now I never see them, so I feel like I need to broaden my network.

New experience 6: I bought another Groupon for an eight-class European swordplay program called “Warrior Fundamentals.”  The description says it’s “a beginner sword-fighting program that teaches students the skills of a traditional European warrior, including wrestling, longsword, sword and shield, spear, and quarterstaff.”  I have serious doubts that I will even be able to lift a long-sword, but I’m pretty excited about it anyway, especially the quarterstaff part – I think because of Robin Hood.  I am also just amused by the idea of finishing a day of accounting and then going to warrior classes.  (I have a strong feeling that if I were to sit down and list the number of things I’ve done in life because the idea amused me, it would turn out that being amused is actually my primary motivation in almost all my life decisions.  I don’t even know if that says good or bad things about me.)

Many adventures to come and I’m excited.  I’ve been quite boring for the last six months or so, and while that was something I was needing, I’m ready to do things again.   New things.  Fun things.  So many things!  (I don’t think I’ve ever had this many things planned at once before.  The idea makes me smile a lot, which is an excellent thing when you’re feeling all stabbed.)