Wednesday 29 October 2003

Making progress

Been a week or so since I last checked in - oops.  We finished our house-sitting stint on Saturday, having to be prised from the house with a shoe-horn mind you.   It was tough coming back to the parents I have to admit  - after having had our own place and time to ourselves, plus being able to cook and eat when and what we wanted to ... have sex on the couch *cough* ... having the freedom to just be us ... And oh gawd having to leave the peace and quiet of our own space (even if it was just borrowed for a wee while) ... ARGH.  Enough enough already.  Don't get me started, please.

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The last few weeks have been quite encouraging on the health front.  There have been a few dud days here and there, to be honest, but in general, good good good.  The physical therapy and all those berloody exercises are paying off, after all.  My legs and bum and pelvic core are much much stronger, and I notice my general mobility (walking, going up and down stairs etc) is a lot more controlled and secure.  See, the thing with hypermobile joints is that they wobble; they're not secure or held steady by tough ligaments and cartilage and stuff.  So I can't do stuff like stand on one leg or walk in a straight line, because of the wobbles.  I was told constantly as a child (and as an adult) that I was clumsy, had shit balance, was uncoordinated blahdiblah, while actually its just the wobbly joints, nothing intrinsically wrong with my balance and coordination.  So all the physical therapy has been focused on strengthening all those core muscle groups with small concentrated exercises.

This was really highlighted for me when I walked down a flight of stairs at a restaurant the other night, without holding onto the banister at all.  I've always used banisters and railings for support, either hanging on or with a light touch, just in case, for a feeling of security more than anything else.  And there I was, walking down a flight of stairs without holding on, not even thinking of holding on.  Sure I was slow and careful but I did it, and nary a wobble in sight.  I know this sounds like an  unbelievably dorky thing to get excited about, but it is a big thing, and shows that my hard work is paying off.  This is a good thing; there's something very disheartening about working hard and doing exercises etc faithfully and seeing no return.

(When I told my physical therapist she was as thrilled as I was; promptly gave me some more exercises, harder ones, and I fell over at one point, and she exclaimed - in between apologies for making me fall over - that she'd forgotten how wobbly I actually was.  Whee!)

So that's some good news - its nice to see gains and hard work paying off.

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Tuxedo has long attempted to widen my consciousness in matters movie, and while I still draw the line at Alien he got me to watch Pulp Fiction the other day.  This is a film I've resisted watching since its release - I didn't enjoy what I saw in trailers, could do without the violence and gore, and the hype over QT made me feel, well, kinda meh about the whole thing.

You know what I'm going to say, don't you - I am so predictable.  I really loved this movie.  I loved the way it was told - in fragmentary episodes running backwards and forwards in time, all of them fitting together in some way.  And the dialogue really was inspired - the cheeseburger and religious debates, the Travolta/Thurman episode, the Bonnie situation ... that dialogue snapped and fired and was brilliantly written and executed.  I didn't even mind the gore and violence so much as I thought even though there was still way too much, basically because those scenes were crafted to seem senseless and silly, and also, I have to admit, they led to more amusing or interesting scenarios.  And as a pop culture icon it is indeed second to none.

So yay, another movie ticked off my personal Film 101 class.  Wonder what's next?

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