My first boot, and other lessons of the week

My ankle didn't get better, or at least not as better as I thought that it should, so I had to go to the doctor. He called the sprain "severe" and put me in a boot. The boot is heavy. It requires near-constant explanation.

What I have learned from the boot is that I am around a hell of a lot of people every day.

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Speaking of being around a hell of a lot of people every day...

Close personal friend of the author

People enjoy listening to themselves talk, but even more than that, they enjoy other people listening to them talk. Most people don't listen. They're distracted by a screen, or the voice in their head, or both. Knowing this, I try really, really hard to listen to people, even though sometimes I don't do a good job, and even though most of the time no one's listening to me.

What I've learned from being around a hell of a lot of people every day is that sometimes the loneliest you can be is in the presence of others.

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Speaking of being lonely...

I get an email from Facebook if I have a message, wall comment, or event invite. That way I don't have to keep logging in and growing my inferiority complex. But then sometimes I do just that. Sometimes I log in and grow my inferiority complex, and I did it this week because I was a little down and for some (stupid) reason I thought the internet would make me feel better (it did not).

What I've learned from being lonely is that I'm most likely to make painful internet decisions when in that state.

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Speaking of painful internet decisions...

I couldn't tell you what rabbit hole I fell down to end up reading about the hair and makeup routine of some celebrity, but I did, and there were commenters who were staggered by the time and the effort she spends, but it made sense. It seemed reasonable that's what it takes to look like that. My hair and makeup routine takes twenty-five minutes every morning. It's not exactly a natural look (see entry on blue mascara). But because I do it every day, people think that that's what I look like. There are people who think that I don't wear makeup. There are people who have said to me, "But you don't wear makeup!"

It's like at Breakaway when, after I run, people tell me I don't look like I sweat. I sweat. All I do is sweat. I never stop working my ass off. That's the only way to make anything look easy: to always be working hard.

What I've learned from making painful internet decisions is that the world is full of people desperate for shortcuts, and there are none.

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Speaking of shortcuts...

I can zip down my stairs in three bursts - three stairs, nine stairs, three stairs.

A week ago last Sunday, I didn't turn on the light, and I took a (mental) shortcut. I thought I had done this enough times that I didn't need to count.

So I ran down the stairs...three...then I thought was on I stair nine...

...but I was only on stair eight.

And there we go, full circle. That's why I'm walking around in a boot.