The Whole Wide World

We celebrated the 4th of July here the day before yesterday. After my coffee shift on Saturday, I grabbed a quick omelet at brunch and then it was time to open the store. With the station-wide party for the 4th in the evening, I was allowed to close both the store and the bar for the evening. My work wasn’t done when the store closed after lunch though as I had to get the bar set up over at the MEC (Mechanical Equipment Center) where the party was held. It didn’t feel like work at all though as it was fun helping to get everything set up for the evening event.

The galley was closed for the night and the entire station plus our friends at Scott Base headed over to the MEC for an indoor cookout from 6-7PM. At 7PM, the bar service opened along with all the games. The games were fantastic; human jenga, human hungry hungry hippos, a full bowling lane, cornhole and a dunk tank. I spent most of the night bouncing between watching people get dunked in the dunk tank and watching people balance on a tower of boxes to see who could get to the two story ceiling. I bowled, steered my friend Shelby in a round of hungry hungry hippos, and threw a couple softballs at the dunk tank in an attempt to send the station manager into the tank of water he was sitting above. I had to spin around a stick five times before throwing and it really made me dizzy. My throws came super close, but I didn’t dunk him.

At the end of the evening I had to breakdown the makeshift bar and recruit assistance carrying everything back over to the building the store is in. It was good to have a purpose and be busy. And while most were getting tipsy and drinking the night away, I didn’t feel so out of place especially with all the games that were great viewing spectacles, so just walking around watching kept me entertained and out of my head for the evening. Before the event, while getting ready, I definitely had a few thoughts and urges to have a couple drinks before heading over, but I played the tape forward and reminded myself how yuck I would feel if I did, and then I played it back reminding myself of the also yucky past week and I let the wave pass.

I am late to post this, but it’s with good reason. I am currently laying on my tummy on my yoga mat on my bedroom floor as I type. Fifteen minutes into work yesterday I picked up a box and when I went to pick up the next box I had a sharp pain in my lower back that immediately locked me up and I have been in relatively strong discomfort constantly ever since. I have a really high pain tolerance. This is well above it. I’ve also had back tweaks before, but nothing like this. I have pain radiating around to the front of my left hip. I didn’t sleep much last night because no position allowed me to be comfortable. Sitting hurts, standing hurts…the floor is the only reprieve at the moment. I am heading over to medical in a bit to see what they say, but I have a feeling it’s a case of time and rest. Yucks.