Firsts.

There have now been a few things that I've done on this island that I either haven't had the chance to do at home or never got around to doing (or forced to do).

I went for a run for the first time the other day up around the island. And when I say 'went' for a run, it was about a quarter mile before i said, fuck this, and turned around. I knew the run was going to be difficult for a few reasons. One being that I haven't done any cardio in at least two months now, but mostly because I was running up a ridiculously steep incline - this is the same road hitch hiked along, and let's just say it didn't seem as steep in a car. I'd guess the incline was around 15-20 degrees the entire run (srsly), after a quarter mile of looping around the face of the mountain, I was already several hundred feet above from where I started. Several cars passed by while I was suffering through the run and then up came a car with this fat white kid with a Jew fro lounging on the back of a rusted pickup truck staring at me like I was an idiot, and while running up this road might've appeared like a stupid decision, that look coming from an obese 13 yr old with a pig face and the dressing fashion of some southern white trash's trashcan that got mauled by a bear raises the question of who's the real idiot. The next day I was walking back to my dorm from the convenient store near the foot of the mountain and realized just how high I actually got, then said to myself, 'I'm awesome.'

Another first that I haven't done in awhile was drinking soda. I may have had beer, Redbull, and other carbonated drinks somewhere along the road, but no coke or sprite, etc. I would've liked to have kept avoiding those drinks, but living on this island severely limits the choices given to you for beverages - and plenty of other shit. I managed to stay hidden from soda for nearly 4 months, but it finally found me. Going down to my stomach was rough, I don't remember coke and sprite having such a burning sensation, but I guess when you're out of the soda drinking business for a few months it sneaks up on you and fucks you in the throat.

So I'm pretty sure none of the locals on this island have ever heard of a haircut - or a shower for that fact. I've been around the town a few times now and never saw a barber or a hairdresser shit thing, so I took it upon myself to grab a pair of scissors and go at it Han style, solo. I ended up spending a good 2 hours in front of a tiny fucking mirror cutting an area of hair  I CAN'T FUCKING SEE. And looking at the back of your head requires 2 mirrors, but oh wait this island is too cheap to sell mirrors (I actually haven't looked but it's a safe assumption). So I used a little piece of reflective metal and well... I think it worked, haven't heard anyone ask wtf is up with my hair. I'll probably just end up growing it out like I always do during the semester.

I've also gone to every class so far (except 1 because of drinking too much and staying up way too late after the first block exams (plenty of others joined me for that one so no worries)) for the first time in awhile. But that's just due to the fact that we have fucking attendance in class. While it is reasonable that they don't want students missing class and failing out (failing out more easily that is ), 8 out of 10 people I've talked to don't even pay attention in class. The profs go way too fast and in too much detail to fully be able to keep up with them (and it's stupid to ask to go slower because we WILL fall behind and have class over the weekends). It's better to zone out during their lectures and learn the thing on your own in class. It's also quite difficult, for me at least, to pay attention when I'm falling asleep at my desk. That extra 2 hours of sleep I'd gain from skipping histo lectures would do me wonders for anatomy because I actually do listen to that shit. During my last semester at Umass, I went to a grand total of one lecture for my sociology class.

I also started doing my physical therapy exercises for my herniated disc for the first time in half a year. Since getting my third lumbar epidural steroid injection in June, my active 'fix my back' motive kind of went to shit since the pain was alleviated to some extent. But obviously there is no place here where I can really get another injection, and sitting for the majority of the day studying and listening to lecture is the worst fucking thing I can do my back right now; I need to delay the onset of pain again for as long as possible before returning to the states. I've always hated relying on medicine and drugs to relieve pain and to get rid of colds etc, but knowing that this herniated disc will never heal on its own is pretty depressing. Physical therapy will help but it's no solution, so I've started wondering if I should take a more invasive view on this whole ordeal. My doc recommended my other getting injections into the articular facet joints (for those of you who know some anatomy, these are structures on the lamina of the vertebrae which articulate with the adjacent superior and inferior vertebrae) or I can burn the sensory nerves (sensory nerves would probably be a better fix, and don't worry about spinal injuries because your spinal cord ends at L2 and this would be at the L4-L5 junction (I've already forgotten some of the spinal section and I'm much too lazy to go read it up, but the L4 nerve root (branches to dorsal rami at the level of T11) is still responsible for general somatic afferent and efferent (GSA - GSE) signals, so there could be risks involved. I honestly don't know enough about it to assume anything, but it helps to know a little bit.)) (*edit* - The sciatic nerve has root values from L4,5,S1,2,3 and so fucking this up will pretty much fuck over my legs; there are nearly 30 innervations from this nerve responsible for posterior and lateral parts of my legs). Anyways, I've drifted from the main topic of this post, but you guys now know that even on an island with such little to do and with plenty of studying to do, I've still got other shit to think about (like how the fuck am I going to watch the season premiere of House and How I Met Your Mother tonight? FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU)

Another first, missing tv shows. Anyone who knows me knows that tv shows are the most important part of the day to me. This is absolute torture and I want to burn, destroy, and flush this island into the sea for making me writhe in pain while 20 million viewers enjoy some of my favorite shows and 1 dedicated viewer ISN'T viewing.