tea for one

So, I went for my first TENS treatment today - that’s ‘transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation’ in fancyspeak. I got to lie on the table for twenty minutes with electricity pulsing through my hip. It was really, well, weird, but also strangely nice - in a pricking, tingling, almost-uncomfortable kind of way. It was a bit like being hit with a bunch of small, very sharp needles, or being pinched. I’m not really feeling any difference as of yet, but I’m guessing it’ll take a few treatments before that happens. I’m going there again next week.

Thinking of going to the public baths tomorrow and just soak for a while in the jacuzzi. Floating’s gotta be good, right? Not putting any weight whatsoever on the hip. Actually, that’s one advantage of having a term pass - you can go in there for just twenty minutes if you want to and not feel like you’ve just wasted a whole lot of money just to sit in the jacuzzi or the sauna. Also good? It’s five minutes away from ours. Just stop by on the way home from uni, and you’re not even wasting much time.

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

I want this pain to stop. Now. Seriously, I can’t do this for much longer. Please, electrotherapy, work.

Sweet unnamed deity, why must there be so much awesome stuff at Etsy? This store is just killing me. I WANT those watches. I’m very tempted to at least buy the silver watch face - it’s not very expensive, and so, so pretty. Could work well with a regular band, too.

But man, some of the bands are so gorgeous, too. Waaaah.

(Does new new layout look okay? All right, it’s not very different, but a little. I kinda like it. The only thing I wish I knew how to get is a line or something between the content and the sidebar. Like the one above each post. But vertical. Obviously.)

I’m spending the weekend working on gathering data for my degree essay, which I’m now definitely writing on dialect effects on polysemy - comparing ‘knock off’ in American and British English. At the moment my work consists of going through the British National Corpus and the American equivalent, COCA, collecting examples. Look at my awesome syntax for searching: [[knock]].[v*] * [nn*] [off].

I’m looking at press, fiction and my favourite (as well as my most hated) category - spoken conversation. Spoken conversation is easily the most amusing and confusing stuff:

I thought aye aye! Water’s gone out of bag. I turned round and it were all right at back of my jeans! D’ ya know, I thought she said that I weren’t coming I knocked the pipe off back. and it comes out of hoover. Yeah. And it’s squirting all over my pigging leg!

 My pigging leg! ♥ How can you not love that?

Coding it is going to be trickier, though. Not thinking about that yet.

I went swimming today! And it was glorious. First exercise I’ve gotten in ages. Whether or not I’ll pay for it tomorrow with owmyhipcan’twalk remains to be seen, but damn, it felt so good. Had a moment of panic when I couldn’t find my keys afterwards, and came out to discover them still sitting in the lock on my bike. Yikes. Good thing no one took them and the bike.

…

I think the first season of Everwood might be some of my favourite TV ever.

Ephram: What are you doing?

Bright: Picking my team.

Ephram: But you hate me.

Bright: No I don’t. I like you.

Ephram: Since when?

Bright: I’ve - I’ve always… been fond of you. I’m just - I’m shy, you know?

Ephram: All right, name one thing you like about me.

Bright: Just one? How ’bout a thousand? You’re, uh, you’re sensitive… Extremely clean…

Ephram: Look, Bright, I know you hate me, all right? And I’m fine with it, it means the planets are aligned, so let’s not mess with the universe, okay?

Bright: …You wanna pick the next guy?

Pain, pain, and pain. I am so fucking sick of it. I’m sitting on the sofa typing this and my hip aches like hell. This isn’t fair.

On a more positive note; why I love The Big Bang Theory: 

Howard: Come on, bath stuff! It’s perfect! You got a scented candle, a cleansing buff, spearmint, and green tea scented bath oil, promotes relaxation.

Sheldon: Well, that pre-supposes Penny is tense.

Rajesh: She knows you. She’s tense. We all are. Buy a basket.

Today was one of those real autumny days, crisp and cold. And the one good thing about it getting colder? I can start wearing my Liverpool scarf again. I know it may sound completely ridiculous, but for some reason I always feel better when wearing that scarf. It’s… I don’t know, it just makes me happy. Couldn’t say why, but it does. It makes me feel like I don’t walk alone, to be really cheesy for a moment.

Tomorrow night we’ve got the party for the A students. Fingers crossed everything goes well. I just wish I knew what to dress up as - I went as a football fan last time, and I don’t want to repeat myself. Ideas for something English?

On a completely different note, I love Misha Collins. He’s a complete nutter and all the more adorable for it, and he’s even more adorable when he’s playing clueless Castiel. "The voice says I’m almost out of minutes!"

And finally, you have to watch Boy A. Wonderful, wonderful film. I don’t think it hit the cinemas when it came out, even, but it’s won all kinds of awards and deservedly so. Heartbreaking. 

Finally made it to the doctor with my stupid hip today, and spent the morning having it poked, twisted (ouch!) and X-rayed. They’ll let me know the results of the X-ray tomorrow, but for now, the doctor got me some wicked painkillers! Win! (Hey, when you’ve been in pain for this long, you get excited about proper painkillers.) I got two kinds; anti-inflammatory and muscle-relaxants - I’m particularly grateful for the latter since I can practically feel the muscles in my thigh vibrate, they’re that tense.

Depending on what the results show, they may refer me to an orthopedist. If I’m really lucky, it could be an inflammation that prescription-free painkillers just couldn’t kick, and these will do the trick. *crosses fingers* I’m quite nervous. It may be a result of my hip dysplasia, and I really, really don’t want that.