Photo Update!

Finally, the Tyler Whetstone Photo Project has been updated with pictures from our 4th of July Family Reunion!

Ready, Set...

Currently Reading The Fifth Elephant: A Novel of Discworld By Terry Pratchett see related

I'm ready to get back to school.

No offense to home. I love being with my family, my job is good, and I feel a little bit bad about my dog missing me when I'm gone, so I like being here. But I am seriously ready to get back to school.

I got a call from a roommate today! Apparently, Kyle got back from the Philippines and is looking forward to school as much as I am. He was trying to figure out what he was bringing and wanted to know if I was bringing certain books of mine so he can borrow them (apparently, he's planning on quitting his job, so he won't have much money for leisure reading). I also get to bring lots of kitchen stuff, since my mom gets an employee discount at Williams Sonoma.

Things have been pretty quiet all around. I've been working counselor duty at the Day Camp the rink is hosting, which is tiring but otherwise not bad. All the little kids really like me now, and (at least for the most part) they listen to me, too.

Dad and Mimi have both been out of town (Dad's on a business trip this week and next week, while Mimi's in Arizona, dogsitting for our Uncle Mike while he's in the Ukraine), so it's just been Mom and me at home, both of us working, which makes for seriously quiet days. That's been rather nice. I enjoy a nice quiet day.

The knee's doing really well, with no problems. Now I just need to get the rehab exercises and shouldn't have any more problems at all (hopefully).

Yup, I'm ready to get back to school -- if only because my blog entries have gotten so short.

Random Quote of the Day

"That's enough, John Mayer!"
--Graffitied on the side of a building
  on yesterday's episode of Family Guy

Capturing my musical sentiments...

Breaking (or, more accurately, Dislocating) News

Okay, so I've been back to the orthopedist, and I'm sorry to disappoint John Kartzinel, but he does NOT have a torn meniscus buddy.

Some good news has come through. Apparently, the MRI did not turn up any evidence of damage to the meniscus, but, rather, of past injuries that has left the top of the bone bruised. Apparently, it looks rather like when I tore that muscle two years ago, I also tore a ligament, and, thus, have weaker ligamenture on one side. With more tension on one side than the other, the knee has tended to give way, and, two weeks ago, dislocated the kneecap (it was apparently bound to happen - according to the doctor, my femur provides a very shallow bed for the kneecap and it doesn't fit in there very firmly).

So, the good news is that there will be no surgery; the bad news is that I still have to take it easy on bending the knee (even though it's gotten back to bending fine) - including wearing the itchy nasty splint thing while I sleep - for a few weeks to make sure the ligament heals properly, and then, after doing a little rehab exercise to build up the muscle, simply hope that it doesn't happen again.

Rather irritating, but overall, the news is good. With everything from a splintered tibia to a torn meniscus bandied about rather convincingly, it's relieving to know I don't need surgery. But with no guarantee against further problems, it's also a bit aggravating.

Oh, well. Something tells me I'll survive.

A Blogging Breakthrough

Currently Watching The X-Files - The Complete First Season Episode 1x12: Fire see related

Apparently, I'm up to 9 comments (though a couple are my own, in reply to those I've gotten) on an entry I posted YESTERDAY - and not even from Bloggers, but from friends who are primarily on Xanga! So to all you people who are plagued by a lack of comments - especially those who threaten to shut down their sites unless someone replies - I've discovered the secret to feedback: Injure yourself!

Okay, perhaps that's a bad idea.

I'm working on updating the Photo Project - I have a lot of pictures from our family reunion, and PhotoBucket isn't liking my slow dial-up connection, but I should have a good update ready soon.

Knee Knews

Currently Listening Hot Fuss By The Killers Track 5: All These Things That I've Done see related

No, I don't have that CD, but that song was the only one I recognized on the radio as I listened to the headphones that let me know when the MRI was over.

I saw the orthopedist on Thursday, and he offered a new guess as to what's wrong with the knee (one that makes perfect sense and is probably absolutely correct), and I had an MRI this morning so he can confirm it. The new guess is that I did most of the damage TWO YEARS AGO when I tore the muscle in Russia, and I tore the meniscus.

Of course, I had no idea what a meniscus is, so I looked it up on-line:

The meniscus is a term used to refer to one of two parts of the human knee. The knee contains a lateral meniscus and a medial meniscus, and both are cartilaginous tissues that provide structural integrity to the knee when it undergoes tension and torsion.
--From Wikipedia: The On-Line Encyclopedia

Apparently, once the meniscus is torn, the fragment can become dislocated and jam the joint, causing swelling, bruising, soreness and stiffness.

That sounds about right.

The bad news is that the meniscus doesn't heal, so if the diagnosis is correct, the fragment will have to be surgically removed. Thankfully, the standard for such a procedure is arthroscopic, so less muss and less fuss than it would have been a few years ago.

So we'll find out the final word on Monday, when the orthopedist has looked over the MRI scans. In the meantime, I can hold on to my record of never having broken a bone (it's not feeling like it anymore anyway; I can put weight on it without the splint and even bend it a little more).

The Open-MRI itself was little weird, though. Just being electromagnetic radiation, you wouldn't expect to feel anything, but after a while, it gets tingly. And the table you lay on moves - very slowly and automatically, so you're not sure if you really are feeling something move until you're in a different part of the machine. It wasn't bad, just... weird.

The situation is still rather bizarre - though the give-outs that the knee has had since 2003 (mowing the lawn last summer, carrying my laundry last fall, and now the bad incident last week) can be accounted for by the lack of structural support for the joint, I still can't explain the original tear two years ago. The orthopedist did say that crouching or kneeling does lend itself to meniscus injury, but it's not like there was any strain on the leg that would have caused a tear when it happened. Some of the other Золотьия щищки (our camp "team" name - it's pronounced "Zolotiya Schischki" and means "Golden Pinecones") had said that, given what we were rehearsing when it happened, maybe the devil just didn't like being mocked.

There's a detail in the Space Trilogy I've been re-reading which, after occuring in Perelandra, remains significant in That Hideous Strength: At some point in a hand-to-hand battle with a possessed agent of the devil, the hero, Dr. Ransom, was apparently bitten on the heel (though the character himself does not recall it happening), and the wound never fully heals, even continuing to bleed after he's travelled all the way back to earth. Back in May, Kyle, my future roommate, apparently stepped on something sharp (though he himself does not recall it happening), and his heel refused to stop bleeding. He compared it to Ransom's heel (apparently having found me, who knew the books, just so he could make the reference). Well, Kyle, I've got you beaten - my diabolical injury really and truly can't heal!

Okay, that was a weird little spiel. Sorry about that.

Anyway, the knee's feeling better and we'll see what has to happen with it before I go back to school after the follow-up on Monday.

In other news, life is good. Things at home are quiet and work continues to go pretty well. I grilled lunch for the campers yesterday, making two dozen pieces of chicken that apparently turned out really well. Grilling is great... it's a completely productive way to basically play with fire.

So things are quiet and good and something like getting better, so I'm happy, though, as usual, I'm excited for school to start again. Only a month until it's time to go back, move into my room, and start a new year. Woohoo!

For a Second Year of Blogging...

A quick update for now: Since July marks a full year that this blog has been in operation (through update-heavy months and one-update months), I've adapted the logos and links for a new Blogger template. Presenting the new Further Up & Further In, with an extreme makeover!

Let's Just Call This Post "Ow"

Currently Reading (for the Third Time) That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy, Book Three) By C.S. Lewis see related

Well, I managed to go nearly twenty years without ever having broken a bone. There's still a possibility that I can hold on to that record.

Personally, I'm just going to cling to the "never had a cavity" distinction.

We still have to consult an orthopedist about the X-rays I had taken, but Wednesday may very well mark the first time I ever broke a bone. It happened almost inexplicably, though if I was ever going to get an inexplicable injury, I could already have told you which part of the body would be affected.

I suppose this entry needs to have a bit of the backstory filled in.

Two years ago, while I was in Garden Valley, Texas, in preparation for my second trip to Russia, we were learning this drama-thing. We would be doing a lot of personal evangelism on the mission trip, but lots of groups would probably have the opportunity, at some point, to put on some sort of show (the Americans were asked to participate in camp stuff in Russia, for example), so there were a few dramatic skits set to music that were being learned by all these huge groups. For some reason or another, on our team, I was cast as the Devil. As we were practicing, there comes a point where all my minions are cast out of the scene, and I have to follow. As we set it up, I was to lash out at Luke Grcich, the Jesus figure, who would catch me and force me to kneel down before casting me out. As I knelt, the knee that was still out in front of me popped, and when I tried to stand up, it wouldn't hold me.

After that, though, I got up pretty quickly, and I seemed fine, so after a quick break, we all got back to work. That night, it swelled up, and the nurse in residence there decided it had been hyperextended (when I called Mom, she laughed, saying "YOU got a sports-type injury?"). However, apparently, the swelling didn't go down on Ibuprofen, because on our first free day in St. Petersburg (the first time on the trip that I had worn shorts), our Project Director, Marcus Ripp, noticed a limp and my so-called "Popeye Leg." From the Kazan Cathedral, we took a little trip to the British-American Family Care Clinic, where a doctor decided that I had probably torn a muscle (a reasonable diagnosis, since once he got to looking at it, I noticed all the muscle was sort of dumped down the leg and there was a bulge down toward the ankle), but, to make sure it wasn't broken, we made a trip to a Russian hospital to use their X-ray machine. (As we went in, the doctor said - if you'll pardon the language - "Now, this isn't going to look like an American hospital, and it's not going to smell like an American hospital, but next time your friends complain about getting hurt, you can tell them to shut up because you've seen how shitty Russian hospitals are." In all honesty, I kind of preferred the smell of old building to the nasty smell typical of American hospitals.)

It wasn't broken then, so the diagnosis of having torn the muscle proved pretty accurate. It was pretty much fine by the time I got home (with the help of a good ol' Ace Bandage and a prescription for what was, apparently, a very very weak muscle relaxant). Twice since then, though, it's popped unexpectedly, causing me to lose my balance. Once over a year ago, when I was mowing the lawn while my dad was gone - turning around at the end of the row, it sort of gave out, so I limped into the garage, rested about five minutes, then resumed life normally. Nothing happened to the leg. Last September, headed out of my dorm to put some underwear in the washer, it popped and I had to collapse into the chair next to the door (it was rather conveniently placed), but I was able to get right up, and nothing happened to the leg. In fact, when I went to the Wellness Center in the PAC, I took particular care to make sure I worked out those muscles (when I worked out here in town with a trainer, the leg press was always one of my best exercises, so on the machine at the Wellness Center, I always feel really tough loading up that machine).

Yet it happened again, this time at work, as I crouched down to put a box under a shelf (we had just restocked the cooler, and the box had two bottles of yellow Gatorade in it, so it's not like there was any strain involved). Again, I got up, feeling pretty much fine, though it hurt a little more than the last time it happened to try to bend it all the way (you know that stretch where you grab your foot behind your back? It's good if you've got a torn muscle, but DON'T EVER try it if you splinter your tibia). It had also developed a pretty good bruise (which has gotten smaller but not completely gone away). I kept working through the day, since was had more than 500 people there that afternoon, but as they were leaving, apparently, it had swelled up and my boss had me do jobs that I could do sitting down, and when I left, it had seriously stiffened and I was limping really badly.

So, anyway, we ended up going to an "After Hours" clinic from one of the local hospitals the next night, where I had lots of fluid in the joint, and what looked in a side view of the X-rays to be a chunk of bone splintering off the top of my tibia. I've now got it in a splint/brace/ugly green thing that keeps the knee pretty much immobilized while we make an appointment with the orthopedist. The good news is that if I keep it from bending and twisting, it really doesn't hurt, and I can even put some weight on it (so I can even go back to work on Tuesday)! Thank goodness for the small miracles. I even have some prescription painkillers in case I need them, and I've skipped almost all the doses I could have taken. (I've had wisdom teeth taken out and something like six ingrown toenail removals, and I've never finished a bottle of prescription painkillers. Guess I don't need to load up the leg press to feel like a tough guy.)

So, anyway, I've been a little bit confined to home the past few days, having gotten back to a nickname I had left behind two years ago ("Gimpy"). Thankfully, I enjoy quiet time at home, so even with what may be a broken leg, I'm fairly happy. I'm still looking forward to the start of school, though spending days with my mom and dog are a great time to spend the meantime.

All in all, the problem with my leg has done nothing so much as make me think of Russia more, and make me want to do more short-term mission work. See, this is why I love my life. Even something as much of a pain as a broken leg can be kind of happy, too.

Oh, and last night, I managed to talk on Instant Messenger to one of my great friends from ISLAS for the first time in a while! I have to say I'm a little jealous - this last year, she saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway (from the theatre's Box Five, no less), and this January, she's going to ITALY. Okay, so I'm a lot jealous. But I'm glad Alexandra is having such a cool time with her college experience, too. :-)

Oh, and Sarah McMenomy, another one of my ISLAS friends, is trying to promote her shortstoryblog, which presently has only three contributors (herself, me, and my friend Renee Roberson), so I thought I'd put a little plug up on this blog. Bloggers with a short story to tell - and this includes you, "Union Novelists" bloggers - might want to check this out.

Chapter 11

Currently Reading (for the Third Time) Perelandra (Space Trilogy, Book Two) By C.S. Lewis see related

I've been reading quite a bit this summer, and I absolutely love it. Unfortunately, it can be slow going (between eight-hour workdays and falling asleep at the end of them, it's hard to get more than a few chapters at a time), but I've really been enjoying the literate summer.

I mentioned earlier that I was re-reading the Space Trilogy, which I like to do. I absolutely love these books (and I was surprised to find that one of my future roommates brought them to college, too).

C.S. Lewis is "the man."

Tonight, I got around to the eleventh chapter of Perelandra, roughly the middle of the trilogy, and just about my favorite bit of writing out of all the fiction I've ever come across. It contains so many of the things that I've found absolutely brilliant in some of Lewis's theological works, wrapped up in a great story and written from the perspective of Elwin Ransom, a character with a linguist's love of words.

It addresses everything from the debate over predestination and free will ("He could no longer see any meaning in the many arguments he had heard on the subject.") to the Truth not as a distinction between myth and fact but the junction of them ("Even on Earth the sacraments existed as a permanent reminder that the division was neither wholesome nor final. The Incarnation had been the beginning of its disappearance. In Perelandra it would have no meaning at all.") to the position of mission work ("And then - he wondered how it had escaped him till now - he was forced to perceive that his own coming to Perelandra was at least as much of a miracle as the Enemy's. That miracle on the right side, which he had demanded, had in fact occured. He himself was the miracle.").

And it also speaks to the improbable nature of small miracles and the intricacy of God's plan in a passage which I've mentioned - at least indirectly - on this blog before. Let's see if I can find it...

Then there's the rare case of someone who thinks so much like you that it stops becoming surprising that you agree on something, and reactions in those cases are amazing. For example, earlier this fall, after the Andrew Peterson concert at Bubba's Bagels (during which he sang my current favorite song, as-yet-unreleased on CD, which contains a lot of lyrical references to Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series), I was talking to Abby Carpenter and David Kartzinel, and we started talking about Lewis' books, and I asked if either had ever read the Space Trilogy (great, great books). David had, though he didn't remember them very well. The second book of the trilogy, Perelandra, contains one passage in Chapter 11 that constitutes my favorite piece of writing, perhaps of all time. When I first read it after getting the trilogy for Christmas a few years ago, I had to stop and look over it a few times; when the final line of the passage hits, it honestly hits you in a way that you stop to look over it again. Doing my meager best to describe the passage in brief, I got to the final line, and David physically staggered backwards, with the lone comment of "Wow." If he ever gets some time for extracurricular reading, I'll have to loan him my copies of those to thank him for loaning me some of his Discworld novels.
--Originally Posted 7 January 2005

'It is not for nothing that you are named Ransom,' said the Voice.
And he knew that this was no fancy of his own. He knew it for a very curious reason - because he had known for many years that his surname was derived not from ransom but from Ranolf's son. It would never have occured to him thus to associate the two words. To connect the name Ransom with the act of ransoming would have been for him a mere pun. But even his voluble self did not now dare to suggest that the Voice was making a play upon words. All in a moment of time he perceived that what was, to human philologists, a merely accidental resemblance of two sounds, was in truth no accident. The whole distinction between things accidental and things designed, like the distinction between fact and myth, was purely terrestrial. The pattern is so large that within the little frame of earthly experience the appear pieces of it between which we can see no connection, and other pieces between which we can. Hence we rightly, for our use, distinguish the accidental from the essential. But step outside that frame and the distinction drops down into the void, fluttering useless wings. He had been forced out of the frame, caught up into the larger pattern. He knew now why the old philosophers had said there is no such thing as chance or fortune beyond the Moon. Before his Mother had born him, before his ancestors had been called Ransoms, before ransom had been the name for a payment that delivers, before the world was made, all these things had so stood together in eternity that the very significance of the pattern at this point lay in their coming together in just this fashion. And he bowed his head and groaned and repined against his fate - to be still a man and yet to be forced up into the metaphysical world, to enact what philosophy only thinks.
'My name also is Ransom,' said the Voice.
--From pages 147-148 of my paperback edition, emphasis mine

I'm sorry for being so quote-happy this evening. Things are quiet, so that passage is about the biggest excitement of the week thus far.

But you know what? I love having a quiet summer at home with my family, and I've been loving my very literary break.

Oh, and just for Dad: Check out the new e-mail answered by Strong Bad at Homestar Runner, which makes a little joke out of "Feed the Childrens."

Random Quote of the Day

"Hulk smash indeed."
--Mimi Whetstone, upon getting irritated

Displaying an Old Favorite

Currently Reading (for the Third Time) Out of the Silent Planet (Space Trilogy, Book One) By C.S. Lewis see related

Okay, in all honesty, there's a part of me that's posting this just because having Maskerade in my "Currently Reading" spot keeps making Mom get "Masquerade" from Phantom of the Opera stuck in her head. Maybe this will help, Mom... now you can start your day off with any Phantom song you like.

So I've stuck up the book I'm re-reading, Out of the Silent Planet. I think this is in keeping with my recent mission-trip itch (both because the second book of the trilogy, Perelandra, deals with the principal character becoming the first interplanetary missionary and because the last time I re-read the trilogy was two years ago on my last trip to Russia).

Speaking of mission trips, I heard from the Union Campus Ministries office, and the GO Week leadership team gets to move back in early, on August 21. Now I'm even more excited to get back to school... and I need to e-mail Gypsy about the newspaper retreat this year.

Today was a good day; we watched the pirated DVD of Revenge of the Sith that Dad picked up in Indonesia after going to Home Depot for TWENTY light bulbs. Fun times.

On a side note, I've been told that my blog is too well-written to be read by some bloggers.

Muahahahaha.

Sorry. I'm just very glad to hear that people think it's well-written. Journalism majors aren't your average bloggers, after all.

Things have been quiet, so it's not a long blog entry. But things have been nice, as well, so that's good.

I'll be going to bed now.

G'night.

It Was Bound to Hit Me Some Time

Currently Reading Maskerade (A Novel of Discworld) By Terry Pratchett see related

Have you ever had a dream in which nothing happened?

Of course, given the strange dreams I've had, I could ask any number of odd questions here. "Have you ever had a dream you weren't a part of?" "Have you ever had a dream where random people bore remarkable resemblances to actors?" "Have you ever had a dream taking place at a taping of Celebrity Jeopardy!?" I could even branch out into my mom's experience and ask, "Have you ever had a subtitled dream spoken in a language you don't know?"

However, I'm not going there. The question I started with has slightly more of a point to it.

Last night, I had a dream in which nothing happened. There wasn't really even anyone in it. I just dreamed of being places, but in great detail.

Of course, those places were all over. There was school at Union in Tennessee. There was Garden Valley, Texas, the home of Teen Mania Ministries. There was a hotel in Helsinki, Finland. There was the orphanage in St. Petersburg and a camp in Luga, Russia, as well as dozens of locations from downtown St. Petersburg. There was a house in Ghent, Belgium, and a camp in Reutte, Austria. There was a hotel, a church, and a university in Bangkok, Thailand.

Have you ever had a dream like a montage?

Yes, somehow, I managed to semi-coherently remember TWO dreams I had in one night, though I can only imagine they were related. You know in cheesy movie segments, a few seconds of film becomes a snapshot in a touching collection of moments? I had one of those plucked from memory. And I was impressed by them, really... I remember thinking how perfect everything looked, since there's no way I could call up such details if I tried to remember.

Again, the moments came from Austria, Russia, and Thailand.

I've got the itch for short-term missions again.

This is good. This is a lot of energy I can put into preparing for GO Week in the fall, when we'll announce the trips Union will be offering next year. I'm on the GO Week leadership team, so I'll be helping organize the events of the week. (Maybe Suzanne Mosely will give us a preview of the trip list a little early?? Probably not. I guess it's time to be putting away money from my summer job to save up for traveling.

I'm currently listening to my iTunes, to a mix from my "Traveling Music," "Worship Music," "Thailand Mix" and "Garden Valley Mix" playlists. It's currently on a Russian Christian rock song.

Then I heard the voice of the LORD, saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for Us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
--Isaiah 6:8, NKJV

The job at the rink continues to go well. It can be a pain putting up with the camp kids (there can be good children coming in, but as a group, camp kids are by default bad, I think), but otherwise, things are nice. It's a lot of hours, and fairly good work.

Over the Independence Day weekend, we went to a family reunion in Southern Illinois. I love Mom's side of the family; it's so much fun! We had somewhere around 50 people there, all from Mom's mom's side of the family.

We're very close for such an extended family. It rocks.

Otherwise, things are quiet. I'm plowing through summer fairly uneventfully. I've been averaging about two new books a week (plus I re-read Carpe Jugulum and my entire old collection of Calvin & Hobbes treasuries), and then I've been working, sleeping, and spending time with my wonderful family and our almost-human pets. It's been a nice summer, though I'm a little surprised it's almost halfway over.

Ah, well. No offense to Oklahoma, but I'm excited for school to start again.

Here's to getting back to school, to going back to the mission field again this year, and, while we're looking forward to things, to Christmas, only 170 days away now. :-)