Sometimes I can’t help but feel like Liz and I are stuck with bad luck. While things this year are not going anywhere near as poorly as in years past, I’m just struggling lately. I know life is about challenges and dealing with them… I keep moving forward, so I guess I’m doing alright, but a break sounds very appealing. If I start being really, really nice to everyone, do you think I can have a ’smooth summer’? I’d refer to it as my SS, but that particular acronym has a very bad connotation…

Liz is having surgery on her broken foot tomorrow at 12:30. We have to be there at 11:30 and she should be home by dinner (or supper, if you’re from the country). I’m excited about her getting her bone fixed, and excited about her getting back to walking and chasing Ben around. It hasn’t been a walk in the park helping her or Ben… but I relish it. I’m grateful to even have Liz here at all. I almost lost her last summer, and since then I’ve had a deep appreciation for her. I may not always be the nicest guy in the world to her (as she’s so very fond of pointing out) but I didn’t think I could love anyone as much as I love her and Ben. It isn’t easy or fun taking care of everything (she’s not allowed to walk on it for at least six weeks after surgery) but I do believe our wedding vows said something about ‘in sickness and in health’. If they didn’t (I’m looking at you, Brian) then they should’ve. I’m sure when I’m old and crusty and she’s changing my diapers she’ll think about how I helped her out for those seven weeks back in ‘09 (before promptly resuming my life of sitting on the couch and playing in Madden tournaments) and smile as she wipes dingleberries from my gray, hairy ass.

Ugh, that image hurts my eyes.

Everyone wish Liz a speedy recovery and know that Ben and I (and our bellies) are looking forward to Liz getting back on her (two) feet and cooking us some dinner.

Seriously, I miss her cooking. It made Weight Watchers much easier.

Note: I know where these quotes came from, and they are not actually Obama’s words, but the words of a friend of his. The audio clip is from the audiotape of his book, read in its entirety by Obama.

Now, buy your own damn fries.

Today was a pretty good day.  We got a decent two hours of basektball in, I had a beer at Dave’s house, and had a barbeque with my friends this evening.

-Correction- I attempted to have a BBQ.

Liz fell down a short flight of stairs tonight, and broke two bones in her foot.  One of those bones is connected to her big (or, in medical terms, great) toe and is a weight bearing bone.  What does this mean?  Crutches, and an interesting set of challenges.  Everywhere you go in my house involves stairs.  If you want to go pee, and you’re in bed, then you’re in luck, no stairs.  But if you’re hungry?  Stairs.  If you want to leave?  Stairs.  To get back to bed after watching TV?  Stairs.  This is going to be a pain in the ass, but we’ll manage.  She got everything taken care of in the ER tonight, but they said it was displaced and we’d need to see an orthapedic surgeon on Monday.

They’re thinking they may have to do something to repair some tendon damage that usually comes with these injuries, but we won’t know more until later in the week.  It’s kind of strange, however, how little all of this bothers me.  Don’t get me wrong, I feel terrible for Liz that she’s in pain and feeling down… but, really, this situation isn’t bad in the scheme of things.  I’m sure two  years ago, if you’d told me that Liz would break her foot  and we’d have a toddler running around I’d have pulled out my hair from the stress of it.  However, given the experiences we’ve had… we’ll manage.  Broken footses heal, the pain will go away over the next several days (having broken a few bones in my day, I can say that the worst of hte pain is gone quickly compared to the time it takes to heal, as long as you don’t knock it against things or jam them).  I just keep thinking that nobody died, nobody almost died… and this isn’t that bad.

Liz keeps apoligizing and telling me how guilty she feels, but she doesn’t need to worry about it.  I’m going to make jokes about the situation, because I think our luck is terrible, but I really don’t feel like this situation is that bad, even if surgery is involved.  I’ll help her out as much as she needs and we’ll be good.

I think the lack of stress is associated with Liz’s pain pills, which I have taken most of (I’m lying, I haven’t touched them).

http://fc51.deviantart.com/fs28/f/2008/061/8/9/Reality_1440×900_by_pyxelated.jpg
Too bad you can’t alt+tab out of WoW :(.

• The more I read about this economic crisis, the more I start to think that it is going to get worse before it gets better.  I may be a listener of ‘doom’ but I am not a spreader of ‘doom’.  I am extremely happy Obama got elected, but I don’t know how much he can do.  We really fucked ourselves in the ass on this one.  I can’t help but notice that a popular conservative talking point is that we ‘over-regulated’ the financial industry by making Fannie & Freddie loan money to under qualified candidates.  That may or may not be true, but I can’t help but point out that banks are shitting themselves globally, not just here.  If it was *all* Fannie & Freddie’s fault, then wouldn’t we be the only ones in the shitter?  As a society, we really fucked ourselves on this one.  I have a feeling I will be telling Ben, in many years, about the Greater Depression.  I’m happy to have a job, and hope I can keep it.  It’s still a job, but I like it.
• I like the things Obama is doing to shore up the economy.  It is a bitter pill, but it is a bad idea to roll back the tax cuts to the rich right now.  They can wait and expire in 2011.  The stimulus plan on the table now is definitely a step in the right direction.  I really love the conservative pundits that argue that FDR made The Great Depression much worse through his actions.  Yeah, because Hoover did such a fantastic job.  I need to quit flipping through and stopping at Fox News.  All it does is raise my blood pressure.
• I have lost over 20 pounds via Weight Watchers.  This shit really works.
• I got a bit of disappointing news at work today.  I was touched by the concern a coworker showed me, but… its kinda funny.  My life has steeled me to bad news.  It’ll take a lot to knock me off my stride now.  I’ll be disappointed, but don’t expect me to take it too hard.  I may be 23, but I’m wise enough to realize what is and isn’t a big deal, and worth letting get you really down.  All we can do is keep moving forward.
• I know that we’re all so smart once we know the answer, but I’m shocked at how many people were so stupid.  I remember thinking back in 2005 that housing prices couldn’t keep going up.  Over the past eight years, the gap between rich and poor has increased dramatically [I know, citation needed... look, you know how to use Google, if you care that much look it up].  The price of housing kept going up, but I saw people like my parents struggle to maintain their lifestyle (with a combined income above six figures).  The price of things can’t keep going up when our wages keep buying less and less.  Eventually, things will come to a head, like they have now.  I know people that get ‘excellent’ reviews, and get a 3% bump.  3% doesn’t pay for gas that has gone up 200% (look, I know it is back down now, but it’ll go back up.  Oil is finite, and as it becomes increasingly scarce it will shoot up in price, beyond anything we’ve ever seen) or groceries that have gone up 10% (related directly to that gas price spike).
• Hopefully we can get our collective heads out of our asses before its too late.  I don’t see a thermonuclear war, or massive starvation, but I do see our lives changing.  Someday we’ll tell our grand kids that we used to drive SUVs that got 15 miles to the gallon. “Gallon of what, Paw?” they’ll ask.  “Gasoline.” we’ll respond, our wispy white eyebrows raising in surprise as we realize we haven’t talked about gas in years.  “What’s that?” they’ll ask, and we’ll answer “The worst thing that ever happened to us.  Now go get in your solar powered flying car, we’ve got to get to your parents house to watch President Shia LeBouf’s inauguration (oh snap, Reagan reference).
• That last bullet kind of flew off into dream land.  Goodnight.