Fractured!

If it isn't one inconvenient health issue, it's another! This seems to be the motto of my life. Or the other motto is, You've been living in Chicago for a long time now; aren't you used to these winters?! I'd totally be dead by now if this were the 19th century.

Scene of Evil

On Schubert and Troy near my house, there is an Evil Human who makes a lot of money by renting out tons of units to tons of people. In the summer time, their untrimmed bushes grow empty cans of beer. In the winter, Evil Human doesn't shovel snow on the sidewalk it's responsible for, so the snow gets trampled on, it turns into water, it freezes over multiple times, and it never gets any direct sunlight. I guess I was feeling sort of immortal Monday morning, and I came to Evil Block, thinking I could get across without a problem. And then I did it--I slipped and "fell funny on my leg." I even heard a crunching sound!

Panda pants courtesy of Maddi

So my left ankle (my non-drumming, non-piano-pedaling ankle) is fractured. I was afraid they were going to have to cut up my Hunter boots and my favorite gray jeans, but I only lost a sock overall. I was in a bootleg temporary cast from Monday until this afternoon, and now I have a heavy but fashionable hot pink cast on my left ankle. Apparently, surgery is a common necessity to fix broken ankles, but I don't seem to need it. Three people have already mentioned pins and crap being stuck in your bones for that. Sick! I didn't even know surgery was a possibility--I had been in blissful oblivion for three days.

Come sign my cast!

When I was young, I always looked at other kids on crutches with a little envy. Doesn't it kinda look like fun? It isn't so hard walking in crutches, but it turns out that continuing to walk in them for even a short distance is exhausting. By the time this is all over, I'm going to have one skinny ankle, a weak left foot, a weak left calf, a really strong left quadricep, a strong right leg, and buff arms. The funny thing is, I'm going to be in better shape now than my pre-crippled days (can I say that?).

Beverly Hills, 90210

For most of January, Mordecai and I watched Seasons 1 and 2 of the TV series "Twin Peaks." I don't remember the show running in the 90's, and I hadn't heard of it until Mordecai told me about it a couple years back. But like the feeling I get from completing Phoenix Wright games, I feel loss and emptiness after it's all over. What now? I ask.

Leo wants to know what next, too. He's got spiders on his face, Shelly on his mind.

A couple weekends ago, I came across a used but near-perfect copy of Season 1 of "Beverley Hills, 90210" at Reckless Records. I know Jenni raves a lot about 90210, but the thing about 90210 and myself is that I was too young to understand the contents of the show. Not only was I too young, but I was also probably a little too foreign, and I wonder if the English went by quickly. I think for these reasons among others, my mom didn't care whether I watched the show or not.

So now, I seize the opportunity to fully comprehend what exactly went down in Beverley Hills, 90210, starting with Season 1 (Season 4 is supposed to come out this April; there were a total of 10 seasons!), which originally aired in 1990-91. Some of the outfits and vocabulary are just too much to bear! I like how the girls' styles are consistent--Brenda reps a conservative Midwest look, Kelly is classic, and Donna is WHACK. One of the cool things about the show is that you're supposed to see teenagers, but really, you have a bunch of 20-somethings and near-30 year olds hanging around open lockers gripping binders with about four sheets of loose-leaf paper in them. Oh, how I looked up to binders so much in early grade school. Don't even get me started on Trapper Keepers.

"Can I buy you a drink or something? Oh come on, I'm a nice guy!"

How come no one told me that Brenda dates REX MANNING in the pilot!?!? His name is actually "Jason," a 25 year old lawyer, but his apartment screams, "Rex Manning! Say no more, mon amour...lips are for kissing, baby je t'adore!"