The Snow Must Not Go On!

Ello!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a lil while. Honestly I have just not been "feeling it" as you will. Ya see, mother nature is a raging bitch. There's been over 2 feet of snow by me in past week or so. Not cool. All this snow has made for a very cranky, stir crazy Crippie. Not only has the snow been constricting me in terms of what I can and cannot do, it's also making me hurt like crazy. I can feel one of my knees swelling up as I'm writing this. Ugh, sorry to complain... it's just frustrating being trapped inside your home and inside your body. I want spring, also Crippie is pretty much set on moving to Arizona one day. As much as I hate scorpions and all that jazz, at this point I hate snow more.

Moving on from weather rants, here's what I've been up to since I'm pretty much trapped between work and home...

Watching "The Walking Dead" - So happy to have this back on. Normally I have little "Walking Dead Parties" with some of my pals, but the weather has prevented them thus far. Hopefully this weekend they shall resume.

"House of Cards" Marathon - *insert Southern drawl* oh my lawd I do love me some House of Cards. The only bad thing about this show is that it makes you crave ribs. It took me a little over a day to finish watching the second season. Last season my favorite character was Claire. While she is still super awesome this season, a new character came in and stole my heart... CASHEW THE GUINEA PIG! I don't want to spoil anything for those of you still watching, but Cashew is amazing and she makes the show.

grabbingsand.tumblr.com / Via Netflix

Listening to the soundtrack of "Frozen" - I have not seen this movie yet, but I really need to. I'm not exaggerating when I say I listened "Let it Go" and "Do You Want to Build A Snowman?" at least four times today. AT LEAST!

Listening to the soundtrack of "Inside Llewyn Davis" - I have not seen this movie either. But I adore the soundtrack. It's definitely one of my favorites. I wish it was longer like "O Brother Where Art Thou" but it's still amazing. If you haven't heard Marcus Mumford & Oscar Issac's cover of "Fare Thee Well - Dink's Song" or Stark Sand's cover of "The Last Thing on My Mind" you need to. As much as love soundtracks with original music, I love soundtracks like this that reintroduce classics. I like my music to have a history. And the songs on this album most certainly do. If you're a folky like me, you'll love this.

Reading - GASP! I know! I'm that bored. I finished reading Art Spiegelman's "Maus" last month and I LOVED it. It's so tragic and gave me all sorts of feels, but it's incredibly well written and well drawn. I cannot recommend it enough. I also read David B.'s "Epileptic". It's the story of the author's experience growing up with his epileptic brother. It got a little confusing at times but I absolutely loved how the author portrayed his brother's illness. Like a monster trying to consume him. Very good read. Also recommend it. To compensate for all the depressing feels I am currently reading Allie Brosh's "Hyperbole and a Half". I'm only one chapter in and I kid you not I was crying from laughter on multiple occasions. In my opinion, her visualizations of depression are the most accurate and relatable descriptions I have ever encountered. As someone who doesn't suffer from depression I read it and go "Oh... I get it now". I haven't even finished this book and I can already tell you that I freaking love it.

Watching Teen Mom 2 - Don't judge me, it's my guilty pleasure. Apart from seeing all of the stupidity and it making me feel better about my life, this season in particular is actually quite poignant. The daughter of one of the girls was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. The contrast of seeing her deal with fitting her daughter in a wheelchair, coming to grips with how she will not be able to things a lot of other kids will go, still clinging to hope that she'll walk down the aisle when she gets married, etc while the others deal with such meaningless "drama". It's compelling, it's real, and it's something that doesn't get featured on TV often.

Snuggles with the Animals - Obviously all of my furbabies have been getting oodles of loves.

Well, that's about it around here. The weather is supposed to warm up for a few days. I'll enjoy it while I have it.

Crippie's Tippie - Use a cane or a walker? Obtain ice picks for them.

Thank God February Is A Short Month

Ohai!

WOW! I suck! I'm SO sorry about my lack of posts. All I can say is that the weather has been royally kicking my ass. How much so? Well, I was able to post after having a damn surgery, but not while it's raining, or when the weather is changing... which has pretty much been every freaking day. >.<

I also realized that I missed this blog's 2 year "blogversary" thing! Can't believe I forgot that. I swear this weather is making my whole system go outta whack. Either that or I was just too uncomfortable to remember/care.

Moving on, I hope all of my crippled comrades had dandy valentine's days. I ate copious amounts of chocolate with peanut butter and watched "As Told By Ginger" on YouTube (pro-tip... do NOT watch the very last season of As Told By Ginger, it will destroy your childhood). These days when I'm not distracting myself with 90's cartoons I'm either a) watching "The Walking Dead" (GOVERNOR Y U KILL AXEL) b) painting my nails and reorganizing my collection c) browsing reddit d) playing with the animals. So yeah... not much doin' here.

To make up for my total lack of posts... here's some pics!

I turned Angel into a walker

Valentine's mani

Random dot mani

Helen keeping me company

I've actually got a busy day ahead of me tomorrow, I should get some sleep. I'll try to post regularly again. I SWEAR! 

Crippie's Tippie - Heat packs are freaking awesome when the weather is anything but 

Seriously, I Want Spring

Howdy Y'all

Yup, the weather still sucks. A lot. A whole lot. I'm still in a fair amount of pain and it looks like it is going to snow some more on Wednesday and again on Saturday. It's pretty safe to say that I have a hate/hate relationship with the weather right now. Oh, if any of you guys were wondering, this is how much snow Nemo left us (also, what kind of name is Nemo... storms should not be named after crippled fish)

On the bright side, I've had oodles of distractions to somewhat take my mind off the pain. This weekend it was the "The Walking Dead" Marathon on Saturday followed by the season premiere on Sunday. Needless to say I was pretty damn happy about that. So happy that I decided to make another playlist for y'all... enjoy!

As always my animals somehow manage to lift my spirits. Yesterday I caught Mama Pig being greedy.

Head under one bed, butt on another. My word Mama Pig! Save one bed for your babies... or don't...

And even though I no longer have a massive bag of jerky in my room, Angel still thinks that she'll get some if she smiles enough (I never gave her any btw). 

Well, I reckon that's it for tonight, I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I hope y'all have an awesome, pain-free day :D

Crippie's Tippie - Too crippled to shovel snow? Try to blackmail befriend some normals so they'll do it for you! 

Weather You Like It Or Not

I made a punny! YAY CRIPPIE!

I don't know about you guys, but HOLY CRAP I HATE THIS WEATHER! The pressure's been changing like crazy, thus making me a very achy little cripple. I've been pretty damn useless over the past couple of days. I go to work, and then go home and snuggle with Glenn the heat pack, that's it. We're supposed to have snow and ice tomorrow, and I am definitely feeling it. Yeaaaaahhhh... moving is not fun right now. On the bright side, my pain medications have kicked in so I am temporarily a very happy camper.

Just a friendly reminder to all my cripples out there facing similar wintry conditions... SHARP OBJECTS ARE YOUR FRIEND! Ice picks on your cane... DO IT! Those ice-grip things for your shoes, go for it! The last thing we need is a downed cripple on the ice. Just be careful and be safe y'all.

In other non "OMG I HATE MOTHER NATURE SO MUCH" news... my guinea pigs are evil little bastards. Apparently while I was at work they all got together and formulated a plan. First, they would scream until my grandmother gave them salad. Then when my mother got home they would start screaming for salad again without telling her that they had already eaten. Their diabolical plan worked and they got double salads tonight. Needless to say the food comas were adorable.

 

It's a good thing they're cute, what can I say. They're cute, evil, well-fed creatures ;)

Crippie's Tippie - Seriously, put spikes on ALL THE THINGS!

Crippie Fights Old Man Winter

Nihao!

Happy Chinese New Year everybody! 

I dunno about you guys, but whenever winter rolls around it seems to make my crippledness worse. Whether it's walking insanely slow with my crutch while holding on to one of my parent's arms just to walk outside or barely being able to move my fingers because they are so stiff... winter sucks.

That being said, Crippie has gotten pretty good at fighting old man winter. My first problem is walking outside when it is snowy/icy. I have said problems because my right leg drags when I walk and because I cannot always see the irregularities on the ground, thus I am more prone to slipping or tripping. The solution to this (for my situation anyway) is...

1- Walk reallllllyyyyyyyy slowly and make sure that your feet are firmly planted on the ground before taking a step. When I was in college and walking to classes it would take me twice as long to walk there when the weather was bad.

2- SPIKES! When it gets icy I wear extra grips on my shoes and I use a cane with an ice pick on it. I obtained my ice pick by ordering it from my local drug store, but they can be found on the internet as well.

My second issue is that the cold weather hurts my joints, the main areas where this effects me are my knees and my hands.

1- HEAT! I have a giant basket of single use hand warmers. When it gets really cold I keep one in my pocket so I can warm my hands when they get stiff. When my legs get stiff and sore I use thermacare knee wraps. Heated blankets and throws are also great for when I'm home. 

2- I try to keep a pretty strict pain medication?NSAID regime. 

There ya have it folks, these little tips and tricks don't make the problems go away, but they definitely help minimize them and make them bearable. 

Now, I have a question for my readers. Do any of you have any internal metal hardware and do you think it reacts to cold weather? The reason I'm asking this is because I have several staples in my right knee. Whenever it gets realllllyyyy cold (think single digits and under) it hurts my leg to bend. I wonder if it is the staples in my leg contracting. Is this possible? 

Crippie's Tippie- Be super careful when winter weather strikes, Crippie doesn't want any of her awesome readers to get hurt.