Waving the clouds away

I sprained my knee in a hockey game last Thursday. Spent the whole weekend with my left leg elevated and an ice bag on it. The knee joint feels loose, each time I lift my leg the shin seems to be lagging below the thigh. It's not super painful but super uncomfortable (and I'm afraid it might fall apart if I try to do anything strenuous). I've never had such an injury and, although it isn't terribly painful, it's a major hindrance on my mobility. I can walk but I limp around with my lower leg feeling like it's hung by a thread and I certainly can't move very fast.

Continuing its well-known June Gloom into July, San Diego's skies have been covered with a thick blanket of clouds for well over a week now. A few brief bright minutes of blue sky yesterday were the first in about 8 or 9 days. With my balky knee I've been confined to the house throughout that time while the skies outside stay grey and dull. Understandably, I've managed to sink down into a muck of unhappiness pretty much every day during that time.

I did manage to write that long Madlib Medicine Show review earlier in the week which was great but I've otherwise fallen too down and disappointed with my ability to write or come up with interesting topics. Yesterday, after returning home from work on the last day of what's been a stressful, tiring (hard to sleep with the knee feeling out of place when I roll around), embarrassing (I can't knock the feeling of looking pathetic for limping around slowly) week I collapsed onto the couch and fell into a very deep sleep that lasted nearly 3 hours. I dreamt vividly and came out of the slumber feeling like Rip Van Winkle. I'd forgotten what day it was, what time it was, whether I had any obligations.

Collecting myself, I remembered it was a(nother) cloudy July afternoon. LeBron had made his decision: the Heat. Cliff Lee was not traded to the Yankees (thank God), the Rangers had stepped in. I then put on some nice jazz, watched the Mets and Padres games (they both lost), and ate dinner. I felt refreshed. The funk of negativity and despair was over with.

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Other than my balky knee and the violently rippling waves within me that led to unrest, it's been a nice and productive last week or so. As I mentioned above, I was able to complete those Madlib posts I'd been wanting to write, I also have almost finished with a second reading of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man for which an introductory/overview blog post will soon follow as an opening to my upcoming walkthrough of Ulysses (which I've also made nice progress on). I've also totally revamped the blog's look and I'm very happy with it.

Coming up very soon is a post with thoughts on the first half of the baseball season. Stay tuned.