Monday, August 27, 2007

One-year anniversary coming up!


Smothering my nephew in Naples, Florida.



Come September 16, it will have been one year since I have come to know life in a halo.

Here's an update:

--I pretty much enjoy full mobility in my neck and have no physical restrictions. I still can't turn it as much to the right as I can to the left, but it's really no big deal. It's enough to be able to back out of a tight parking spot and/or ogle a hot person walking by.

--I still experience pain in my neck now and then, especially if it's really humid or cold. Swimming always makes it feel better. So does Pilates.

--I still itch myself with a chopstick.

--Halo scars are very faint. Almost too faint. I kind of like the reminder.

I returned back to work in January at the ad agency at which I work, but have not been happy there for several months since. Despite all my longing for everything to return back to normal, my heart just wasn't in it. I was working crazy hours on work I just didn't care about, and the great people I work with weren't enough to sustain me anymore. After spending several months trying to fit a circle in a square (make it work! I can do this!), I recently took a leave of absence. It seems this halo business was a life-changing event after all. Life is too short not to love what you do. I wasn't McLovin' it anymore, so I left.

So I've spent the month of August becoming a nice little cliche: relaxing, playing tennis and working on my novel. The money I've saved won't last forever and I imagine I'll be freelancing soon, but it feels good and right to have left. I was so burned out. I'll let you know when I do what my next step is.