Introduction & Early Stages

Latest Entry

Entries:

June 2008

Monday, June 02, 2008

One must wonder what the likelihood of getting hurt would be for a benign sport like Frisbee. And not the “ultimate Frisbee” version, but the in-the-park-on-a-Sunday game of Frisbee. Well, things got out of hand after the third jumping catch. I know this because today feels like I woke up in the dungeon of a torture chamber. Maybe that’s a bit harsh, but I still feel more beat up than most, I nearly guarantee, because of the parrot on my shoulder named Arthritis.

Such is life, I concede, and well worth the fresh air outside for a few hours. Despite the allergies, of course, which is par for the June course. But nevertheless, it gets chalked up as the “you don’t know unless you try” category of physical activity. And silly me thought a few stretches before and after would help.

At least the wrists are intact.

Monday, June 16, 2008

It would be so nice if my flip-flops were comfortable. As in comfortable for more than two blocks of walking. When the temperature hits about a billion degrees, who wants to put on shoes and socks? I don’t. Nor am I inclined to wear Croc’s (if only Seinfeld were still airing episodes – they’d have a field day with those). So I’m stuck wearing the coolest, most (un)comfortable footwear around: Reefs. I know: stop the presses.

I’m no surfer dude, nor do I spend much time around a pool, but when going for a relaxing walk outside it would be nice to do it without ankle pain. I feel like a debutante after a formal ball – keeping a smile on my face despite the pain in my feet and ankles. Especially my ankles. Now if only I were as tall as a debutante.

Monday, June 30, 2008

It’s official: people with arthritis should travel to and through Europe by boat. It’s not a very joint-friendly continent. Last week we were over in Basel, Switzerland, meeting with our friends at Roche about some fun projects. After 3 days of walking and touring and sight-seeing, I was ready to collapse. My ankles, knees and hips felt as though they’d spontaneously quit working, “on strike” for higher wages and better medicine.

Which was somewhat of a bummer – especially when this so-called joint-strike came around the time I was free to roam around Holland in the days leading up to our trip to Basel. I think what kept me from going over the edge was my amazement of how handicap-un-friendly Europe is (for the most part). Old school towns and areas with cobblestone paths and extraordinarily narrow passageways. And most noticeably, the airports had no golf carts shuttling around the extremely obese (some things you just don’t miss about America…). Instead, for the most part, everyone was mobile, happy and more-or-less in shape. So weird!

The best I could come up with was the fact that everyone bikes from A to B in Europe. Like literally, everyone. Thousands of bikes line the streets in most, if not all cities. And where there aren’t any bikes, you can bet that the nearest suburban metro stop has those thousands of bikes waiting for the masses after rush-hour. It definitely made me curious about my own bicycle tendencies: as in I haven’t ridden a bike since about the year 1989. Unicycle…different story; but maybe I should quietly look into bike riding more often? Exclusively in Central Park, so as to not land on the hood of the cross-town bus. Which, let’s face it, would be just my luck. Only I would hop on (the hood of) the express bus.