Sarah Monette's Blog, page 59

5 things, broken ankle edition

Storytellers Unplugged for Augsut, "Verisimilitude. Plus a sestina," is live. And, yes, this is the sestina I wrote stoned on Tylenol 3. It may not be very good, but it's the best blank verse I've ever written.


I'm sorry to have been confusing. There are, in fact, nine screws in my ankle. The one they didn't have to put in was the one that would have held the two bones of my ankle to each other. It's also the only one they would have had to go in and take out again, so it is a very good thing...

firsts

Since Sunday:1. First broken bone2. First time 911 has been called on my behalf3. First ambulance ride4. First time in a cast5. First crutches6. First major surgery7. First nerve block8. First oxygen tube9. First use of bedpan10. First sestina.Apparently, being stoned on Tylenol 3 makes blank verse easy.I'm on oxycodone now and still pretty stoned, so I can't write you a coherent post about my surgery, but I can offer you some bits and pieces.First of all, it went well. mirrorthaw said the su...

Just so everybody knows

Sunday afternoon, at about 1:30 CDT, I broke my right ankle. (I was walking across a grassy slope--or possibly knoll--and my right foot slid out from under me sharply to the left.)

The rest of Sunday was eaten by the ER.

I broke both ankle bones, so surgery is required to stabilize the joint by means of a plate and three, or possibly four, screws.

Today was the pre-op consult with the Orthopedic Surgery Department, and tomorrow, if all goes well, will be the surgery. At the moment I'm stoned on ...

kliban cat quilt

This is the upper left quadrant of the border, which I pieced and sewed to the main body of the quilt while listening to the Brewers get shut out AGAIN by the Astros. You will notice if you look closely that I am failing straight lines (the cat at the top has more of her back sneaker visible than the cat at the bottom). This is not a surprise--I am no good at straight lines, and I never have been; I can remember elementary school teachers being very concerned about my inability to cut in a st...

Kliban cats and the crazy green print

For those who are interested in the Kliban cat quilt:




Steps one and two are complete. I pieced the crazy green print fabric into a strip and have sewn one piece of Kliban cat fabric to it. Next step is sewing the other piece of Kliban cat fabric to the other side of the strip.

(If anyone's wondering, yes, I'm doing this all by hand. I don't actually own a sewing machine, and I'm more comfortable hand-sewing anyway. Sewing machines perturb me.)

Project Valkyrie: waterlog. Plus some random thoughts.

LAPS: 34
YARDS: 1700
NOTES: 3 sets of 4 continuous freestyle laps. Even though I apparently can't kick and breathe at the same time.


The riding equivalent of stand up on it is ride through it.


Something a friend said in a locked post made a lightbulb go on for me: One of the reasons I enjoyed teaching "non-traditional" students (i.e., adults) was that, by and large, they'd gotten past the phase of trying to outsource blame. It's part of learning how to learn things, more than it's specific to any...

anything worth doing is worth doing badly

So, matociquala and I have turned in A Reckoning of Men. I'm working on "Thirdhop Scarp," which is unwinding at a gracious and leisurely pace of its own, and just at the moment, I can't face looking at any of my drafts to revise them. Which is okay. They can sit in the corner and think about their sins for a while longer.

And, although I took issue with one thing about the Milwaukee Art Museum's quilt exhibit, that isn't the only thing I took away from it--or even, I hope, the most important. ...

3 things

1. for those who are interested, this is the email I just sent to the Milwaukee Art Museum about the quilt exhibit:
Dear Milwaukee Art Museum:

While I very much enjoyed your exhibit, American Quilts: Selections from the Winterthur Collectcion, and was impressed by the excellence of the quilts, there was one thing that gave me pause.

The quilts in the exhibit were from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (1760-1850), and they were, of course, made by women. I said to my husband, "This is the ...

Project Valkyrie: waterlog

LAPS: 32
YARDS: 1600

[not in the mood for the rest of the math today:]


Today was a setback from Friday. It was like I'd forgotten how to breathe while swimming. So I could do laps of freestyle just fine, except for the part in the middle of the pool where I felt like I was ABOUT TO DROWN. So a lot of pull-buoy, with which I could get up to a 5-count on each breath.

Well, two strokes forward, one stroke back. Or something of the sort.


On the plus side, I did recover my cap.

while I'm on the subject, YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!

I really don't want to pick on Bruce Seeds, because the fact that he came to my attention under inauspicious circumstances is no fault of his, but there's this thing in his FAQ:

Do you really make these yourself? Yes, the cutting, the piecing, the sewing and the ironing are all done by me, with one exception: the stitching process that binds the top, the batting and the back together requires special equipment. So I pay a service provider to do that step for me, in a pattern and thread color o...