Today

So I tried to sleep in this morning, but got up at my usual Saturday morning time, just before 10. That would have given me time to rush to my water aerobics class, but my leg had other ideas. It's MUCH better, but there was a little stiffness, and common sense told me not to push it. Did some reading on the internet about Cortisone flares, which this apparently was. Some entries call the pain excruciating, some mention something called "crystalline synovitis," which apparently happens a coupla hours after the injection, when the cortisone crystallizes in the synovial (or joint-lining) fluids.

All I know is that I've been a martial artist training several days a week and competing, have undergone chemotherapy, radiation, and more surgeries than I can remember, and I have NEVER felt pain like what I felt yesterday.

Funny, I'm always telling my employees about preventive healthcare. Had I taken care of my knees at the first sign of discomfort instead of waiting so long, it's entirely possible that the reaction would not have been so severe. There's no way to know for sure, of course, but it's possible. Note to self: don't wait so long next time. With my medical history, people will call me prudent before they call me hypochondriac (duh....your doctors give you their home and cellphone numbers), and you've been told repeatedly to stop waiting so long when you know your body needs taking care of. So stop with the invincibility crap and start spending a little more time practicing the preventive care you're so fond of preaching about.

So I was saying. Went to Duane Reade and picked up my meds, got a cup of coffee and headed downtown to Trader Joe's. I was in and out in no time -- I'm usually in the gym from 10 til noon or later on Saturdays, and never realized that it's a perfect time to run errands. Came back home to find one of my buddies has hooked me up with a legal copy of Office 2010 for laptop that should be arriving soon (I use a $199.00 Black Friday Special from Walmart. I maxxed out the memory on it so it runs faster. Found one, same model, on ebay for 250, so I got it and will do the same. Once I put office 2010 on it, I should have enough computing power to last me for at least 2-3 more years. ). So I've got Office 2010 all downloaded and ready to install when the new machine comes.

It's still only 12:43. I feel like I'm getting an extra day! I have to grade all those papers, of course, and have to go to the cleaners and pick up the house. But it's a wonderful day and I'm happy to be pain free!

Now, I was raised up without an acute awareness of race. I went to a very progressive kindergarten (Here's a link to it. It was the first integrated kindergarten in town, in 1960. In North Carolina.) So I grew up with very odd constructs about race. Years later, when my friends all knew I was crazy, the thing they thought oddest about me was not that I was in my late 20s and still had imaginary friends, but that those imaginary friends had no race. Race was simply not an essential element of a human's identity in my growing up. I'm sure that was formed in large part because I was a "special" child. The fact that I was black and out-achieved most of my white classmates (and possibly some of my white teachers) was not a black/white thing, but simply an intellectual thing. Intellectual capacity rigor, distinction, (and, sad to say, elitism)have always been much greater points of identification for me than have any sorts of racial classification. AFter the intellectual identification, then there's the spiritual one (not religious, but spirit -- can our spirits speak to, recognize, and/or understand / acknowledge one another?) That's the reality in which I operate. Race has, for the most part, been a tedious, irrelevant, superimposed construct that exists in and is limited to our physicality. My experience had always been about transcending the physicality.

Having lived in NY for several decades, I have learned to deal with the racial issue (although I still don't understand my brother's concept of the "African Holy Ghost" ). So I've learned to deal with racial issues, and can appreciate the distinctions between Italians and Irish, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, and lots of other distinctions that once were lost on me. (My pc usage keeps spiking at 100%. Not sure why. So I shut down and restarted, which totally interrupted my train of thought). But I've learned all these racial constructs, and know better than to generalize, but am gonna do it anyway.

Why is it that when the weather goes above 45 degrees, white people want to take off their clothes? I'm not talking about all white people, I'm talking about mostly yupped out young white males. Earlier this week, on Monday, I saw a guy walking barefoot when it was like 42 degrees outside. I thought he was homeless, but then I later saw him in a fast food restaurant. He was in front of a guy wearing flipflops. Today it was in the 40s when I went outside, but is supposed to get up to 60. Granted, i have joint issues, and am still wearing my longjohns, but really, shorts and flipflops? And it's only guys. Women still have on short jackets or sweaters and scarves. Guys are sometimes wearing sweaters, and shorts and flipflops.

Oh, well. Another thing I'm noticing more is the distinction between American-born kids of Africans versus American-born kids of African-Americans. The kids with direct ties to Africa still have manners and respect for elders -- there's a certain grace and maturity among them, they're working and are diligent and respectful, doing a good job and not just "getting over." The difference is remarkable. I think we may need to start reaching out to these American born kids of African descent so they don't fall into the cycle of self-hatred and self-destrcution that plagues our homegrown kids. I think we need to encourage the ones with active ties to Africa so they maintain those ties and also so they share that culture with the kids here. I can only speak for West Africans, because those are the ones whose kids I see working hard. Don't know a lot about East Africans....

And so I need to get off the comptuer and go do something productive. It feels good to write again, though. And thanks to JohnChapter8 for letting me know you were reading. I needed the motivation!!