Learning to be flexible

So I'm kind of bummed. I was running my five miles yesterday through Hendricks park and then all of the sudden *WHAM!* and I got this huge amount of shooting pain through my upper back. I almost had a panic attack actually, because I was still more than a mile away from campus pretty much in the middle of nowhere and I didn't have my cell phone. I know, I should always carry my cell phone. I don't usually because its so bulky and I usually stay in residential neighborhoods.

Anyway, I actually continued jogging back to campus because it hurt more to walk than to jog, plus it was faster, but in the long run I might have hurt myself more by doing that. When I got back to my dorm I asked my friend Nora to get me some ice from downstairs, took ibuprofen, and called my mom.

Yesterday morning was an extremely inconvenient time to get hurt. I had two midterms yesterday and I was on a pretty tight schedule for studying for them. It all worked out though I guess, because I had the foresight to study for FHS before I left to go run, and then I left FHS class right after the test, which only took 15 minutes or so, and took a two hour nap. The New Testament midterm went pretty well also- I think with all the extra credit I got a pretty solid A. It felt pretty good to take that test, because I knew that I had actually prepared pretty well for it.

However, I also went to bed early, right after class. Now I have only so many hours left to write my Intl Negotiation essay before class at 4. I'm supposed to have class at 2 also and a meeting at 12. I want to crawl back into bed and not think about it anymore. My back hurts really bad this morning and sitting at my desk hurts. I took a vicodin instead of ibuprofen this morning, so we'll see how effective I am at writing for a while...maybe I'll feel happier anyway, 'cause I'm in a pretty bad mood right now.

Plus, it is ash Wednesday, the start of lent, and I cant have coffee for 47 days. Not a huge issue right now, but don't come near me around 3pm or I'll bite your head off. Oh yeah, I am definitely PMSing this month. The hormones+cortisol+pain-caffeine combo is really upsetting my chemistry.

Fortunately, God is good. I need to remind myself of this more often, but my body freakin' out right now is making that really hard. Me and God had a pretty long talk last night and I think we worked some things out. If I hadn't been in pain yesterday I definitely could have seen what an awesome day it was and how many really good things happened. I had an very fun, very late night with my friends, I woke up on time, I ate a yummy warm scone, I actually enjoyed 199 class because we were talking about AIDS in Africa and it was very interesting, I felt pretty good about my studying for FHS, it was actually a pretty nice day for a run and I didn't get too lost like I did Monday, I got to read the past few days of the Emerald (while lying on my back on ice), I finished the crossword puzzle really fast, I took a long nap, me and Caleb quizzed each other on NT stuff that actually showed up on the test, I had a really good time in New Testament last night with my friends hanging out after the test (there's always so much laughter with that group), I found out that Tony might come to Wednesday night small group, I talked with Fred online for a while and we commiserated about our bad days, and I actually did get to watch a decent amount of Super Tuesday election coverage. Plus, I read a really amazing Psalm last night...I actually can't remember what number it was but it was amazing. Yeah okay, when I look at that list I'd say yesterday was pretty awesome.

Now I need to take some initiative, show my character, and Just Do It! (haha inside NCM joke) and get to work on my paper. I'm trying to convince myself that I want to write it. I need to critique one framework for understanding international negotiation and talk about it in the context of a real life example. The example should probably be Israel-Palestine because that's what my huge project is about. History is complicated and not that interesting to me, game theory is weird, but it might work, especially since its the most theoretical and the least specific of the frameworks, and politics is professor Brady's favorite, in fact she wrote a book on it, but I didn't actually read it like I was supposed to. I choose.....politics, because it sort of makes sense to me.

Okay, I'm going to make my last bag of Irish breakfast tea and hope that this vicodin induced haze/dizziness doesn't impair my ability to focus and type (yeah right...).

Update: 10:48 am- the Vicodin finally kicked in and I can still tell that my back hurts but the pain isn't bothering me anymore...does that make sense?

Also, the paper is coming along all right. I shouldn't be too terribly hard. Linda's book is surprisingly very helpful and easy to read. She writes about political theory as if she is doing this very assignment...its perfect, I don't actually have to think much. I would actually recommend it for general light reading. It's called "The Politics of Negotiation," by Linda Brady (1991).

Update: 12:02 pm- I just got a text from Ryan saying our meeting is canceled because Shantell and Lindsey can't make it. Yay! Well, not yay that Lindsey is really sick, but now I have a whole extra hour and a half or so that I wasn't planning on. I might be able to make it to 260 at 2 after all.

I'm mostly done with the reading and the outline. Now I just have to write this bugger. I pretty much decided not to use Israel-Palestine because I have a lot more relevant information about US-Soviet relations from actual lecture notes and wont really have to research.

This update deserves a woot. *wOOt!*

Update: 2:26 pm- I actually did make it to 260 class. I also got yummy healthy lunch. I wish I could have some coffee. I'm nearly finished with this essay. I found out that I can't use the US-Soviet example though, because the assignment is to find a current events example. I chose US-Iran, even though I don't really know much about it. Ah this brings back memories of working on other homework during class...

I bought a "peanut butter cup brownie" to reward myself when I finish.

The vicodin is still working, but I hope it lasts. I don't want to take more than one day because I only have a couple left.