"I feel achy"... "My body is sore..."

Neither of those is even close to being accurate. Those are the words that I say, but they don't come close to describing how I feel.

Yes, my muscles ache.

Yes, my body is sore.

Those short statements do not even touch the depth of how much things ache or how sore things can be. I was tired today from taking a shower. The very act of standing in the shower and moving my arms around my body as I washed tired me out. Sitting on my bed and holding a blow-dryer in one hand and running my fingers through my damp hair... well, it made me tired too. But at least I was sitting down and I had my elbow resting on my leg to ease that muscle tiredness.

Pulling my clothes on caused my skin to send little jolt-y electrical-y shocks through the muscles underneath. I didn't put shoes on again today- which I know I'll regret in the morning, but for today it just hurt too much. The very thought of trying to lift my feet with the weight of my Docs on them was enough to make me tolerate the pain in my spurred feet. I considered putting on my Converse sneakers, but that would have meant I would have to stand up and find socks, then sit down and put the shoes and socks on my feet. And I just didn't want things touching my feet today.

Today was one of those days where I felt like a big bruise. My bra hurt for me to wear, but I wore it anyway because I don't like to go braless in the daytime. I'm somewhat well-endowed and going bra-free is just... well, incredibly noticeable. I finally gave in and took two Vicodin pills. I didn't want to, but I had stuff to do today (I didn't get half of it done, but it wasn't end-of-the-world important). About an hour later, I felt better. More like "flu-achy" and less like "Pull off my skin and scream" achy. Two 5/500 Vicodin pills muted the pain, but it made me feel the itching under the skin in my hands. At the moment, I'm two hours past three Vicodin pills and an hour past one muscle relaxer (10 mgs) and while I'm feeling pretty good overall, I still have the itching under my skin. As the Vicodin wore off after a few hours, the pain didn't come rushing back. Instead, I felt my muscles tightening. You know that feeling you get after you've sat at your desk, sort of hunched over, working on a project for a few hours? Its like that, but there's a constant pulling and a slight burning feeling in the muscles. And it isn't just in my neck or my shoulders, its all over. From my fingertips to my toes. I just happen to feel it in my shoulders and neck first.

It wasn't a total loss today. I took advantage of my slight Vicodin buzz and the easing of my pain levels to put my dog Gypsy in a headlock and force her to be in my photo of the day. I'm doing a 365 Days Self-Portrait project. The gist of it is that you take a photo a day- every day- of yourself. It can be a portrait or abstract or anything, as long as YOU take the photo and YOU are in the photo. Even just a fingertip. I've done two fingertip photos (in the same week). I like those because when people do them, they're damn near playful. Mine was, anyway. But Gypsy, my German Shepherd, hates the camera. It comes from my near-constant cataloging of her life with a little box with a bright and annoying flashy light on it. She always turns away at the last moment. I take great photos without a flash, but she's having none of it. I managed to get four shots of Gypsy in various types of choke-holds for the camera. And because I can, and because it makes me feel as if I've accomplished something, I share them now. Three were rejects and one was my submission. My daughter chose the submission because she said it was funny.







And here's the submission that Christine chose because she thought it was funny. Gypsy was watching people through the trees and I sort of popped up behind her for the photo.



And because I mentioned it- here's my first "fingertip" photo. My mouse pad is the map of the world with water droplets.