Under The Needle

Today’s physical therapy appointment is bringing something new (and something which kinda scares me) — “dry needling.” I’m used to getting verbally needled by my physical therapist, but today we’re taking it to another level.

Bathroom Talk
Were you a Seinfeld watcher? (related: Damn, I miss the 90s) Yesterday I nearly lived a Seinfeld episode.

I made a rookie mistake yesterday at work. Since it was unoccupied I entered the handi-stall and did my “business” without second thought.

Modern day commercial bathrooms like ours are equipped with toilet paper dispensers which have two large rolls of toilet paper within them. Unbeknownst to me, ours was completely empty.

Now what do I do???” I though. I did what any inventive person would do. I peered under the stall wall to see if there were any feet next door (“Excuse me, do you have a square to spare?”) and upon thankfully seeing none, reached under the stall wall and tugged on the toilet paper roll, pulling some toilet paper into my stall.

I’ve learned my lesson — “In addition to checking the seat and floor (men are sloppy pigs) make sure to also check the roll before you squat.”

ITP Flickr Pic
I warned you that the flower photos would be coming…
Pollen Count Is High (Key)

Remember: ‘i’ Before ‘e’ Unless There Is No ‘e’
While at Taco Mac (yes, I went back again last night) my coworker and I were served by one of our favorite waitresses. During the evening we decided to buy a couple of the paper fish from Sweetwater (proceeds of which go to saving the ‘hooch) and color them in using crayons. I decided that I was going to create an homage to said waitress and declare to all that I believe that she rocks.

“Oh, that’s so sweet; except there is no ‘e’ in the spelling of my name.”

How immediately embarrassed I felt, especially since I knew that her name had no ‘e’. I think that I unconsciously added an ‘e’ because of the way that I spell “Paulie”.

“Give me a minute or two and I’ll have it fixed.” I said, not having any idea how I was going to fix my blunder.

My mistake took me back to a thought that I had earlier in the day. Earlier I had been walking and thinking about a lot of things, including childhood memories. One vivid memory I had was a sub-ten-year-old me doing homework at the dining room table and upon making a mistake being told by my mother that I had to completely erase my markings prior to correcting my answer.

Don’t you know that I made every effort to completely clean off the crayon which made up the letter ‘e’ (which is not an easy task, mind you). Upon returning to our table our waitress was amazed how much of an effort I made to correct my mistake.

My homage scored no points from her for flattery.
My homage scored no points from her for cleanliness (OCD?).
That’s okay, I know that she has no desire to be with me anyway…

Second Place Is First Loser
For the second time in the month I witnessed my beloved Florida Gators losing a National Championship they were in a position to win. While in Raleigh I watched (on tv) the Gators drop the Men’s Track and Field Championship (yep, there is one). Yesterday the Gators lost the second of three games (in a best-two-out-of-three series) to the defending champion South Carolina Gamecocks in Men’s Baseball.

Bummer.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – nervous
Current Music – listening to this week’s “Back to Work” podcast
Website Of The Day – Interesting article in today’s AJC about people who will be running the Peachtree barefoot or in minimalist footwear. In the article they mention the Barefoot Runners Society which oddly has articles about running shoes on their homepage.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – walking, 1.25 miles
Morning Weigh-In – 204 pounds

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 1.25 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 0 flights

Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)

Vegetarian Days – 5
Carnivorous Days – 23

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

June Goals
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash
– Get back on a bicycle
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run at least once
Eat vegetarian no fewer than five days done!
– Lose three pounds
Go out on a date with someone else
Finish The Laws Of Simplicity done! and read another book

2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two one half-marathon
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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14 Responses to Under The Needle

  1. Martha says:

    Any idea how dry needling differs from acupuncture? I’ve been considering acupuncture for my shoulder and knees (well pretty much all over), let me know what you think.

    I’m sort of stressed out, I have two job offers and everyone wants me to start like now! One job pays a little more (really not enough to base my decision on) but I haven’t met anyone I will be working with or for and I don’t really have much of a grasp of what either job will entail. I was suppose to have a meet and great this morning for one job and a phone conversation about the other this morning, neither came to be…I’m going to have to tell someone no, and soon, I don’t like it. I realize I shouldn’t be whining, it isn’t the worst problem to have.

    Women don’t do much better in the bathroom, I was always shocked by the state of the restroom at my old job. I mean really, pretty much everyone that works there has at least a college degree, middle class, professional but can’t “not” pee on the seat? Or flush?

    I’m not a fan of running in my VFF, it just doesn’t work for me. I did get a pair of Brooks Launch, sort of a ‘gateway’ shoe. So far so good but I haven’t ran more than 8 miles in them. I need to see what happens for a long run. I will say this, for a ‘small runner’ I really go through the shoes…

  2. Steve says:

    Martha, you go through a lot of shoes because you run a lot of miles!!

    You erased crayon? That’s OCD squared.

    -FP

  3. Steve says:

    And I forgot to mention I ran about 4 last night and met this fellow crossing the road..

    http://www.uga.edu/srelherp/snakes/agkcon.htm

    My blood ran a little cold when I saw his picture under the “venomous” category. I didn’t try and pick him up, but I did take a good long look and flooowed him across the street.

  4. Steve says:

    followed

  5. Barb says:

    I hate snakes, and any snake with “graphics” (as Arbitrary called it) I stay far away from.

    And – what was the waitress’s name?

  6. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    Well shoot, no dry needling done today, scheduled for Friday.

    The waitress’ name is Jodi.

  7. Debbie says:

    Copperhead! That’s it we’re moving. I haaaaaaaate snakes.

    Martha send some of that multiple job offers angst my way please.

    I had acupuncture for back troubles and found it very helpful. I’d like to find someone local and see if it would help headaches.

  8. Stacy Fox says:

    Why do we not have a picture of your creation???

  9. Lisa says:

    Not to scare you Paulie, but we are not allowed to do that procedure as a PT. I know that things might be different in GA, but when I was a PT in GA that was outside our scope of practice. Check it out!

  10. Lisa, that thought crossed my mind but then I *thought* that Ralph said his was done at a PT. I can double-check… Thanks.

    Stacy – Great question. What I really should have done is taken a photo of the back of the fish where I “signed” my creation left-handed (I’m partially-ambidexterous) “Paulie, Age 45” 🙂

  11. Martha says:

    I believe that dry needling was added to the list what what PT can do earlier this year.

    Snakes don’t bother me, not that I would be cuddling a copper head.

  12. Barb says:

    hey Paulie – what is your ETA for tomorrow night? and – do you even know what all needs to be done to the bike? (just a tune-up, or is something not working, or ???)

    Allan will be working on probably pouring cement for aprt of the afternoon, so I just wanted to let him know what time he needs to quit, or, you might need to bring some work clothes and end up getting to help 😉

  13. Eric Nuesslein says:

    Down a pound!

    Congratulations!

  14. Thanks Eric. It’s a good start.

    btw – I’m looking at making a trip to NY in either July or August. Neither weekend I’ve eyed looked good for a trip to Citi though. The first weekend the Mets were out of town; the second weekend the Mets host the Braves (geez I can’t get away from the Braves).

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