Random day off, being embodied, reading

[flexagon]

I seem to need a lot of rest, in the aftermath of the last few weeks. I took today off work, and tried to spend some of it on things that would be good for me. Took an outdoor distanced handstand lesson at Local Circus School for only the second time, and wandered slowly back and did a few more handstands on the way, which was nice. (Those looking closely at the second of today's Instagram posts may notice that my leggings were on backward the whole time, but will anyone else? Nah, probably not.)

I made an appointment for a tele-health visit with my doctor next week to look at my stupid back; my rash looks nothing like any of the common ones I can find pictures of on the interwebs, so I'm skeptical how far they'll be able to get with visual diagnosis, but whatever. At least now I'm not ignoring it. I scheduled a flu shot also. Then bought some Bactine, because my belly button ring looks like it's getting infected for the first time in 20 years (sigh). I looked up a bunch of Youtube videos on golfer's elbow, which seems to describe my medial elbow pain pretty well -- at this point pretty annoyed about having a body at all, and wishing to upload my consciousness to the cloud. Worked out. Watched the first hour of Race: The Power of an Illusion. Quilted a bit, and I think today's about over.

There's been a good run of reading lately, at least. The House in the Cerulean Sea is basically a hug in book form, Light From Other Stars was lovely (and had the first asexual/aromantic female SF protagonist I've encountered in a while... not counting Murderbot) and I slammed through it in a few hours straight on Sunday. I've continued to do well with nonfiction audiobooks, where I finished up Into the Gray Zone (about consciousness in supposedly vegetative patients) and am on to The Evolution of Everything which is very cheerfully professing a "no gods, no masters" sort of message.

Comments

[jadia]

Oo i really loved Race the Power of an Illusion. It was great.

[flexagon]

The first one mostly confirmed what I had thought about the genetic components of race but it was a nice watch! Two to go. The second will almost certainly have more information that's new to me, given my general lifelong avoidance of history.

[jadia]

Yes! I am similar. I didn't know that the sickle cell thing wasn't racially related, but mostly had heard the other parts.it was put together really well though and i don't think i had really put it all together like that before. The next 2 chapters were more new stuff and so good.

[flexagon]

Just as an update, I finished Race: The Power of an Illusion over the long weekend (last week) and found the third one the most interesting (and horrifying). I hadn't realized that whiteness was such a made-up thing, or that it used to be such a legal matter. I'd only ever known of one case where courts had ever ruled on who was white and who wasn't, but damn, there were a lot! What a clusterfuck.

[ceelove]

Am I following you on Instagram? - what’s your handle?

Re: golfer’s elbow, I can recommend self-care tools by the company Rubz, especially this orange mushroom thing:
https://smile.amazon.com/Due-North-Foot-Rubz-Massage/dp/B00T69CW0M/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=Rubz&qid=1602081613&sr=8-9

It’s rubbery in a way that helps peel open fascial adhesions. Don’t push in directly, but twist/torque/drag it slowly through the flesh.

[flexagon]

Oooh thanks, I'm always up for a new massage gadget! It's in my amazon cart now. And I sent a private message with my instagram.

[triesticity]

A few years ago when I was having pain that felt like it might be golfer's elbow, this seemed to help me: https://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/golfers-elbow-a-possible-solution/

[flexagon]

Thank you! I tried that and it's easy, and it's definitely not hurting, so I've been doing it every day.

[triesticity]

Yay - easy/definitely not hurting/maybe helping was my experience of it.