Tuesday Tangents: The Complaint Department Edition

I promise this isn't going to be a major whine-and-cheese party. There are just a few things making me grumbly lately, so I thought I'd inflict them on share them with y'all.

Twitter is blocked at work. Well, twitter.com has been blocked for awhile, actually (as has Facebook), but I've been able to keep up with the conversation via Twittergadget through Gmail. No more - the firewall discovered TGadget last Tuesday and kicked it outside. I completely understand why my office would want to block access to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc., of course, and can't really fault them for doing it - I've wondered when and if they would figure out how to block the various Twitter apps, since many people don't seem to use Twitter via its own website anyway. But it's definitely going to cut down on my own presence on Twitter, for the same reason that I'm barely present on Facebook - and given that I was cut off while I was trying to keep up with Book Blogger Appreciation Week activities, it was highly undesirable timing. Also undesirable: the erratic cell-phone reception in the neighborhood where I work, which will help keep me from much tweeting by phone.

It may all end up being for my own good...once I stop fretting over all the stuff I'm missing. I've been trying to reduce my Twitter time anyway, but doing that by choice is very different from having the choice made for you.

I've had a setback in the shoulder healing. The physical therapists had told me that soft-tissue injuries like my shoulder dislocation usually take around three months to heal, but I'd gotten a good evaluation from the orthopedist and seemed to be making very good progress. It was just two months after the injury when I was informed I no longer needed PT sessions three times a week, and I was excited to be doing so well.

But apparently I got ahead of myself. I may have done my PT exercises a little too enthusiastically, and Labor Day weekend was probably too soon to resume my Wii Fit workout (especially for three days running). It took a few days for the effects to show, but I was in serious discomfort by the weekend after Labor Day, and a few days later, I had to take a sick day to give my right shoulder and arm some rest. I'm wearing the sling at night again, and while I'm still typing with both hands, I'm back to left-handed mousing. I'm also back to my very earliest PT exercises, and I guess I'll be doing them for longer and building them up more slowly. I've been doing better the last few days and am hoping I won't actually have to go back for more sessions, but apparently I have something else to work on: patience.

We finished all the Mad Men DVDs. We just started watching Mad Men on DVD early this summer, and finished Season 3 last week - too late to join Season 4 in progress, so now we'll have to wait for that one on DVD. (I am reading the recaps of what sounds like an excellent season, though.) And I am in serious withdrawal. I wish we'd caught this show back when it started, but am so glad to have finally gotten with the program, and loved being able to immerse myself in it; even though part of me wanted to stretch it out and savor it, we almost always watched two episodes at a time. It's JUST THAT GOOD, at so many levels. But my husband reminds me that with the fall TV season starting up, we'd have a lot less time for it anyway, so it was a good time to wrap it up...and we still have about half of Battlestar Galactica left to feed my TV-on-DVD cravings. But Mad Men is a show of a different kind, and it's one of a kind - I hope they get those Season 4 DVDs out quickly once Season 4 is actually over!

Back to school=back to traffic. I really hate my commute this time of year, between the fact that my drive to work is almost directly into the sun and the multitude of cars that seem to materialize from nowhere in early September. (And now when I get to work, I can't even complain about the traffic on Twitter! But I complained about that already, didn't I?)

I can't really complain about one thing, though: my results on this Blogthings Quiz of the Week. They're accurate and exactly what I would have expected, including the ways in which I'm not "typically" adventurous.

Are You Adventurous?

You Are Not Adventurous

The thrills that other people seek don't really hold much appeal for you. Bungee jumping? Skydiving? No thanks! You prefer to stay with what's tried and true. There's a reason why you love your old favorites so much. And while you aren't typically adventurous, you're probably adventurous in ways that go unnoticed. Maybe you read voraciously - or watch a lot of independent films. You get your thrills in a more peaceful, sustainable way.

Have you got anything you'd like to complain about? Feel free to vent it here (as long as it's not about me)!