ALL SHAKE AND HAPPY...

My, my, my, my, my, it's been awhile. It's not so much "where to begin?" as it is "how". A weak excuse for my tardiness? A written note from my doctor? An alibi as to my whereabouts from the night of August 7 all the way through to last night, September 17? Does it all need to be signed "Epstein's Mother"?

Sure, I mentioned in the last post of my depressive state since my vacation, and I will get into that (because it directly ties in to my movie-going habits, hence it's inclusion on this site). But so many other things have played a part in my lack of blogging, that it is hard to pin down the exact thing that led to this point. Well, not exactly "hard" -- certainly my illness of the past three-plus weeks has played the largest part. In fact, there were moments when I greatly desired to jump back onto the Pylon and start posting again, but my condition did not allow such a thing to occur.

What condition, you may ask? First it was a bronchital cough that I either may have gotten from Jen or from one of my co-workers. After a week of hacking up phlegm, the sinuses kicked in big time and then, three Sundays ago, one monstrous coughing fit shook me to the core enough to throw my lower back out completely. Unable to walk, unable to sit, unable to even take a decent and luxurious crap. Then, an ill-timed trip to the store in the car the next day provided the final blow: sciatica. Or pseudo-sciatica... whatever it is, I have pain that shoots from my lower back straight down to the toes in my left leg and at all points in-between. Oy!

Of course, in true Rik form, I had neglected to go to a doctor for a couple of weeks of utter pain, but finally I did, and now I am on four different medications, all of which make me loopy as a lasso. I spent this past weekend (a time when I wished to be writing again) sleeping about 75% of the time and blazingly incoherent for the other 25. Work yesterday was interesting, because while I did not fall asleep on the job, I did feel like putting my head down about a hundred times, and I only heard about half of what people were telling me. (I should take time off, but it would be unpaid leave, since I have eaten up all of my time.)

This morning, however, the back and leg are only aching a little, and the cough hopefully is finally started to recede. It is enough for me to pop onto the computer and knock this post out. Perhaps tomorrow I will finally be able to catch up on my posts. I have seen a zillion movies since this whole thing started, so there is much catching up to do.

(P.S. Thanks to everybody for sending birthday wishes, and especially to Egg-or for sending me the swell volume of recent and cherished Mieville lore. You rocketh!)