Good evening Internet!
After a long hiatus, I’m back! Last time I wrote, I was in France. I’m home in Canada now, and back to my regularly scheduled academic cycle of lectures, essays and exam stress. I’ve been meaning to write for a long while now, but it didn’t seem to happen. Frankly, a lot of it had to do with motivation and my utter lack of it. Last semester was hectic and had me down and I couldn’t think of much to say. C’est la vie though, right?
Anyhow here I am and there’s a particular experience I want to share with you all. My region of the world was ‘blessed’ with an enormous snowfall today. Not the first snowfall by a long stretch, but definitely a big one. I briefly (and very grudgingly) ventured out towards campus in the afternoon and guess what I wore on my feet to deal with this inclement weather. No really, guess.
I wore two – count them, TWO – appropriate boots. Both were sturdy, and waterproof, and warm. They matched each other.
‘How on earth can that possibly be interesting?’ you ask. Excellent question. The answer has a lot to do with my go-to approach to footwear the past couple of months.
One of these shoes makes pretending to be a super-stealthy ninja remarkably difficult.
Ever notice how those plastic-and-felt casts are essentially an open-toed and excessively perforated boot? I certainly have. Of course, it serves a purpose. My foot used to be in almost constant pain and now it’s not. And with the help of physiotherapy and orthotics, I’ll hopefully be fully back on my own two feet soon and regularly sporting matching footwear.
Most importantly, re-training to run. As some of you may remember (read: anybody who’s talked to me for any sustained period of time over the past five years) I’m kind of an avid runner. It makes me feel better about absolutely everything. I haven’t been able to run since last spring, and my foot has only begun to heal in the last two months. So it’s been a long road, and the frustration of school was greatly aggravated by the frustration over my foot. Especially by being asked daily what happened to it, which has been an even more constant reminder. And my usual outlet for frustration has been, well, clearly unavailable.
Anyhow. On a brighter note I’ve been doing my best to manage through other exercise. I’ve become somewhat of a gym rat, and have reached the stage where I leave my cast in my locker and wear supportive shoes to work out. It’s kind of nice to lift heavy things without overly concerned gym attendants lurking nearby, clearly wondering if I should lift things with such lopsided footgear.
Also today for the first time I decided to try a deep-water aqua jogging class. Saying it (or typing it) sounds ridiculous enough to me that it took me this long to try one. Turned out to actually be a good workout, in a hilarious, splashy sort of way. Even though most people there had clearly been going to that class regularly, and in comparison to them I felt sort of like this:
And with that thought I leave you – hopefully for a much shorter hiatus than the last one!
Lawful Academical 