Our Left Feet
Sep. 27th, 2008 06:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morrigirlMy friend Claris is in the burn unit at New York Hospital. Tuesday evening she was making pasta for dinner and dropped the pot of boiling water on her left foot as she was carrying it over to the sink to drain. Elisabeth has been staying with Claris until she can find her own apartment, so together the two of them doctored Claris's foot up - ran it under cold water, put burn ointment on it (Claris is a nurse so she has a stash of hospital grade remedies in her house,) and all that good stuff you're supposed to do for a burn. Elisabeth said Claris's foot looked fine when they all went to bed that night.
By the next morning Claris's foot had swollen up into one gigantic blister, and Claris had to take herself to the ER where she was placed in the burn unit. They popped the blister and are keeping her in the hospital just to make sure it doesn't get infected. Elisabeth says the doctors are talking about giving Claris a skin graft. In the mean time Elisabeth is looking after Claris's eight year old son, Dimitri, and Claris is being her typical bull headed self, saying she really doesn't have the time to be in the hospital because she needs to go to work and earn money to pay the rent and keep the electricity on.
In an interesting parallel, Tuesday after work I went up to White Plains and bought the third Quantum Gravity book. Sure, it required a little more walking than I normally do, but it was nothing strenuous and I was home by 7:00 PM.
I grimaced as I got out of bed the next morning. When I put weight on my left foot this horrible pain shot through the side of my foot up the arch and into my ankle. My poor sole wailed with every step I took. I could not figure out what the problem was. It looked totally normal - no swelling or discoloration; no pain when I pressed my fingers against the tender spots. I didn't remember tripping or stubbing my foot on anything, or my foot coming into comtact with anything that might cause it pain. My guess was that I pulled or bruised something under the skin and it would right itself eventually.
I spent two days in utter agony walking around at a speed that would make a tortoise look like a motor cross racer. Every few steps I had to rest and take the weight off my foot for a moment. Today is actually the first day I've been able to put weight on it without thinking life would be easier if I just chopped the darn thing off. I was able to walk to and from the store today without much pain. If I continue to rest up I should be okay by Monday, which is good because on Tuesday I have to go back up to White Plains and by the latest Kelley Armstrong book.
Speaking of books, I finished Going Under last night, so now I have to wait until next year for the fourth book in the series to come out. Why do I have to devour these things? Why can't I pace myself? Now, what's going to happen is I will forget large parts of the multiple plots and sub-plots between now and the release of the fourth book, and I'll spend the first half of the next book scratching my head and trying to remember everything.
Justina Robson didn't even dive directly into the book's main adventure because she spent the first one hundred or so pages bringing the reader up to date on the seven sub-plots left over from the first two books. Even though I would have liked the adventure in Faery to start a little sooner, I was happy that she spent time going over the loose ends. It showed that she hadn't screwed up her own mythology by dropping any of them, and it did help bring me up to speed since there were a couple of plot points I'd forgotten.
She left the end WIDE open for another book. Even though she tied up three of the seven plots, she opened about three more through the tying up of the others. I figure Robson is going to write at least three, maybe four more books in the series, each detailing an adventure in one of the seven worlds. So far she has taken us to Alfheim, Demonia, and Faery, which leaves Zoomenon, Thanatopia, and the as yet undiscovered seventh world. If she wants to be really thorough she could write one that takes place exclusively in Otopia, but I'm not sure that's going to happen since parts of all the other books take place in Otopia.
Overall, I liked Going Under. It was kind of the "Empire Strikes Back" of the series, and was a hell of a lot better than Selling Out. I can't wait to see what our merry band of trouble makers will be up to in the next book.
I have pretty much given up on finding any more urban/dark fantasy books or series' to consume. All the new ones I sample taste dry and cliche ridden. I can barely make it through the initial chapters. I figure I've already found all the authors and characters that appeal to me, at least for now. So, I'll stick with those and put the brakes on trying to find even more. Maybe now I'll start seriously considering all the recommendations you all have so generously offered.
By the next morning Claris's foot had swollen up into one gigantic blister, and Claris had to take herself to the ER where she was placed in the burn unit. They popped the blister and are keeping her in the hospital just to make sure it doesn't get infected. Elisabeth says the doctors are talking about giving Claris a skin graft. In the mean time Elisabeth is looking after Claris's eight year old son, Dimitri, and Claris is being her typical bull headed self, saying she really doesn't have the time to be in the hospital because she needs to go to work and earn money to pay the rent and keep the electricity on.
In an interesting parallel, Tuesday after work I went up to White Plains and bought the third Quantum Gravity book. Sure, it required a little more walking than I normally do, but it was nothing strenuous and I was home by 7:00 PM.
I grimaced as I got out of bed the next morning. When I put weight on my left foot this horrible pain shot through the side of my foot up the arch and into my ankle. My poor sole wailed with every step I took. I could not figure out what the problem was. It looked totally normal - no swelling or discoloration; no pain when I pressed my fingers against the tender spots. I didn't remember tripping or stubbing my foot on anything, or my foot coming into comtact with anything that might cause it pain. My guess was that I pulled or bruised something under the skin and it would right itself eventually.
I spent two days in utter agony walking around at a speed that would make a tortoise look like a motor cross racer. Every few steps I had to rest and take the weight off my foot for a moment. Today is actually the first day I've been able to put weight on it without thinking life would be easier if I just chopped the darn thing off. I was able to walk to and from the store today without much pain. If I continue to rest up I should be okay by Monday, which is good because on Tuesday I have to go back up to White Plains and by the latest Kelley Armstrong book.
Speaking of books, I finished Going Under last night, so now I have to wait until next year for the fourth book in the series to come out. Why do I have to devour these things? Why can't I pace myself? Now, what's going to happen is I will forget large parts of the multiple plots and sub-plots between now and the release of the fourth book, and I'll spend the first half of the next book scratching my head and trying to remember everything.
Justina Robson didn't even dive directly into the book's main adventure because she spent the first one hundred or so pages bringing the reader up to date on the seven sub-plots left over from the first two books. Even though I would have liked the adventure in Faery to start a little sooner, I was happy that she spent time going over the loose ends. It showed that she hadn't screwed up her own mythology by dropping any of them, and it did help bring me up to speed since there were a couple of plot points I'd forgotten.
She left the end WIDE open for another book. Even though she tied up three of the seven plots, she opened about three more through the tying up of the others. I figure Robson is going to write at least three, maybe four more books in the series, each detailing an adventure in one of the seven worlds. So far she has taken us to Alfheim, Demonia, and Faery, which leaves Zoomenon, Thanatopia, and the as yet undiscovered seventh world. If she wants to be really thorough she could write one that takes place exclusively in Otopia, but I'm not sure that's going to happen since parts of all the other books take place in Otopia.
Overall, I liked Going Under. It was kind of the "Empire Strikes Back" of the series, and was a hell of a lot better than Selling Out. I can't wait to see what our merry band of trouble makers will be up to in the next book.
I have pretty much given up on finding any more urban/dark fantasy books or series' to consume. All the new ones I sample taste dry and cliche ridden. I can barely make it through the initial chapters. I figure I've already found all the authors and characters that appeal to me, at least for now. So, I'll stick with those and put the brakes on trying to find even more. Maybe now I'll start seriously considering all the recommendations you all have so generously offered.
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Date: 2008-09-28 03:58 am (UTC)Well, obviously I like Justina Robson's Quantum Gravity series. The first book, "Keeping it Real" is really fun. It's a nice blend of fantasy and sci-fi. And the series as a whole is one of the few that makes me laugh out loud as I'm reading. It's really witty in that fabulous dry british way.
I like Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series which kind of borders on paranormal romance, but I can forgive her for that because she's such a good writer. The first book in the series, "Bitten" served as my introduction to urban fantasy. It is the book that sucked me into this vortex to begin with.
And I'm really fond of Justine Musk's two Summoners books, "BloodAngel" and "Lord of Bones." Demons, angels, psychotic musicians, and psychic painters. Good stuff.