communication breakdown

One Step Forward, Two (Painful) Steps Back

On a scale from 1 to 10, my frustration level is at about 37. I'm not a patient person, and this situation with my back is really testing my limits. In my last post I think I said something about my back being up to about 90%. What I should have said was that I think my back is 90% - because apparently I was dead wrong. I showed up for TKD on Wednesday feeling no pain at all - maybe this was bad luck, but the first thing we did in class were some jumping drills. Well, after about 3 or 4 jumps, I knew I was screwed. I felt that all-too-familiar twinge again and knew I had just thrown two weeks of recuperation down the drain. Needless to say I haven't been very happy the last few days...

There are a couple of things that drive me crazy about the whole situation. First, I felt like I did most everything right - though I did mess up by not immediately stopping the tennis match when I felt the initial pain, since then I've been very careful about resting. Two weeks of pretty much not doing anything except getting it back in shape, and I figured I'd be rewarded for this out-of-character show of patience - only to find I had really made no progress at all. So now I'm back to doing what I have been for two weeks - icing, resting, not enjoying myself. In the absence of really close friends up here to hang out with, there's really only a couple of joys in my life when it comes to leisure time:

1. Martial Arts
2. Tennis
3. Everything else.

Clearly the first two have been eliminated, so I'm pretty pissed, mostly with myself I guess, and partly with the situation. To top it off, it's even been feeling worse in the last few days, for reasons I can't even fathom, since I haven't been doing much. OK, OK - enough of my whining. I know it's cathartic for me, but the few readers which haven't left already are surely getting restless...

Unfortunately, there's not much more to tell. One interesting thing that happened was that I got an email from Lockheed Martin saying they had open positions in the northern Virginia area, and that I seemed to be a good fit for them. At first I dismissed this because I'm pretty happy with my job, but then I thought - why close the door on an opportunity? Especially one in a location that very much appeals to me. However, making matters more interesting is that I called the number the recruiter left me on Tuesday, and I never heard back from her. I thought that was pretty odd for a recruiter - I can only think of two possibilities. One, she's really busy and didn't have time to return the call yet. Or two, when she heard me say that (despite what it says on my outdated resume) I'm working full-time for a company in Minnesota, that might have scared them off. I don't know - nor do I know how seriously I'm going to consider this whole thing. We'll see if anything comes of it in the coming days...

To add to the "bad news" pile, I had to miss one of my good buddy's weddings this weekend down in Georgia. With all my student debt I've really got to pick-and-choose my Atlanta trips, and since I had already made two wedding trips this year, it wouldn't really be fiscally responsible for me to go. Congratulations anyways Will and Gini - I was with you in spirit. God Bless your new life together...

Oh, and by the way, to top it all off: nothing makes you feel like you're back in college as much as a 5 AM apartment fire drill. Ah, the memories...