Day Four Hundred and Seventy Two of Unemployment-Fifty and Unemployed

Woke up Early to Run to UBC

I changed my UBC volunteer gig to today because I am supposed to work tomorrow. It was a little chilly and overcast. I was just glad that it wasn’t raining. I know that once our rainy season starts, I will be running in the rain almost daily. It was a good run and I didn’t experience much pain.

Ran Past Running Accident Scene

When I ran past the scene of my running accident a year ago, it was packed with parents dropping off kids for school. Last year when I had my accident, it was later in the morning, so there wasn’t anybody around to witness my trip and fall.

Although I do feel discouraged over my progress in the year since the fall, in some ways I should be happy. For example, in addition to my dislocated shoulder which resulted in a fractured arm and shoulder, I had rotator cuff tendon tears. I think that those tears have healed well, I barely remembered that I had torn them. Even a whole year later, I still can notice little improvements in my range of movement. As long as I can still see those improvements, I’ll continue to do my home physiotherapy exercises.

Scheduled Voice Over Demo Session

I finally scheduled a time to work on my voice over demo session at my UBC friend’s home next week. I had postponed the session because my Dad had been visiting from out-of-town. But now that he has returned home, I really need to get going with creating my demo!

I do find that one of my biggest problems is that I get easily distracted from my career goals. Although the ultimate goal is to return to a full-time career job, I have been so concerned with getting any kind of money from survival part-time jobs, that I lose sight of that goal. I’d like to be able to give my job search my complete focus, but with my financial stress, I just can’t do that.

Email from Extras Casting Director

I was happy to receive an email from my extras casting director who confirmed that I would be booked for a third day on their movie. Originally, I had been booked for a single day but got a second day because of the rain. I thought that we had finished all of our scenes on that second day but here we are, being brought back for a third day! I’m glad to get the extra money.

Friend’s Home for Cooking Lesson and Dinner

My friends invited me over for a cooking lesson and dinner. I had complimented her on a cheese and onion bread she had made once. She gave me the recipe but when I tried it, it didn’t turn out well at all. So this time, she showed me how to make it in person.

My friends live in a really large house of around 5000 square feet. Their kitchen alone is quite large. Their kitchen island is approximately the size of the floor of my kitchen! Their house is like a model home, beautifully decorated.

We chatted about my new resolve to get rid of things. The husband is a real minimalist and can’t understand how people accumulate things. The wife thinks she has a bit of a problem and when she showed me her office with her ‘excess’ I had to laugh, I would be so lucky to get such a room!

As I explained my problems, they said that they would be happy to help me out. I have large items (two microwaves that broke down) and two really large heavy TVs that need to go to the recycle depot and she volunteered her SUV and her time to help me get rid of things. I was so happy to hear that! It’s good to know that I have this support from my friends.

So now I have another resolve, to be able to gather and sort through my stuff so that I can either throw away, donate or keep. I have given myself another deadline, since that seems to motivate me. I hope this will help.

Email from Extras Agent

I have been booked for a TV show tomorrow. I was waiting for word from my agent about what time my calltime would be. That’s the biggest pain for me with extra work, you never know what time you will be required to sign in the next day until the night before. I finally received the email after 9 PM.

My calltime was 2 PM. Crew call is 7 AM and my friend’s calltime is 8 AM. So my scene won’t be shot until after most of the day has passed. I will arrive after lunch (six hours after start time for the crew). Now that I know that I have the morning free, I can attend the UBC volunteer social before I leave for work, so I’m happy.

Day Four Hundred and Forty Six of Unemployment-Fifty and Unemployed

Ran to UBC Volunteer Gig

It was a beautiful sunny morning when I ran to UBC early this morning. I could tell that the summer weather is turning since it was a little crisp. It was not as hot this early in the morning as it had been even a week ago.

I was feeling a little guilty over skipping my long run on Sunday so I wanted to try to run as long and fast as I could today. I was only running a little over five miles to UBC but I tried to pick up my pace.

I could feel a twinge to my Achilles tendon and I wondered if I should stop. I had dug up an article on how to treat this type of injury in an old issue of Runner’s World. And they recommended stopping immediately, lest there be more permanent, long recovery type of injury.

I decided to ignore that sage advice and soldier on. As I ran past the scene of my running injury, where, eleven months ago I tripped on a sidewalk crack and landed hard on my elbow, dislocating my shoulder, fracturing my arm, shoulder, rotator cuff tears and having assorted road rash all over. I’m still not fully recovered from that injury, so you’d think I’d want to err on the side of caution this time, but apparently not.

Instead, I did exercises every time there was a light where I’d have to stop. I’m not sure if that helped or not. When I got to UBC, the marathon runners there advised me to do pool running, so I’m going to look into that. She said that as an alumni, I could even get a really good discount, too.

Discussed Voice Over Demo

I was assigned to read more of the Canadian Criminal Code today. This is the first time that I am in the recording booth since taking my commercial voice over workshop last week. I was more aware of how my voice actually sounded like, when I did playbacks.

I was chatting with my friend and asked him if he could help me with my demo. He said that he’d be delighted to help me. I knew that he was familiar with that type of work. I had also forgotten, he had worked in radio for years, so he was really, really familiar with what I needed. I was so relieved to hear that. I can’t afford the $300 it would cost if I had to do it with a studio like the one our class had used. I feel really optimistic about this now!

Ran to Free Downtown Nooner Yoga Class

I had already run over five miles this morning to UBC. I gave myself less than 90 minutes to run from UBC to downtown, nine miles. That in itself is not that big of a deal, but I had already run earlier today. Despite the sun and heat, I managed to do it. I didn’t have much pain either. My total mileage today was over 14 miles.

I missed last week’s yoga class but I did make this one. There is only one more class after today’s class, so I really don’t want to miss them. It was another sunny and hot day with clear blue skies. I loved the view of the mountains and the water.

I thought I’d be late for this class, but I made it. I was pretty tired but I was determined to do the class. Because I was so tired, I know that I didn’t do as well as I should or could have. This class had quite a few really good yogis who could do the more advanced poses, too!

There was an outdoor patio of a restaurant that was adjacent to the class area for the first time. I wondered why they hadn’t been set up when the yoga classes started in July? Anyway, it was quite noisy and distracting hearing these diners and I’m sure that some of them might have thought the same thing with us and our class!

Sunrise Market Visit

After class, I walked over to the Sunrise market to get fruit and vegetables. I’m getting a lot more than usual while my Dad is visiting. I had so many heavy bags, I had to take a bus home. If I weren’t so tired I would have run or at least walked home with them in a backpack. Once I got home, I was really tired. But I feel as if I had a really full day, too.

Day Three Hundred and Seventy Six of Unemployment-Fifty and Unemployed

Ran to UBC

I had to set two alarms to make sure that I could get up early enough to run to my volunteer gig at UBC this morning. I barely managed to wake up because I had yet another late night last night where I couldn’t fall asleep so easily. I had to rush to make it there.

Nine Month Anniversary of my Running Accident

Coincidentally, today was the nine month anniversary of the day of my running accident where I was running this very route. On that morning, I was running uphill and had tripped on a sidewalk crack and went flying, landing on my elbow, palms and knees. I ended up dislocating my shoulder, breaking my arm and shoulder, tearing my rotator cuff tendons and ending up with a lot of bloody road rash and bruising to my palms, knees and arm.

I remember when I was researching forums to see how others with the same injuries were progressing and was shocked when they were still recovering months later. Now that I am in that position, I can understand. Although it has been months of visits to the orthopedic surgeon and physiotherapist, I am not completely recovered. I know that I have been warned of this long recovery process and yet it still frustrates me at times.

I think what bothers me the most about this recovery process is that I’ve been told that a big factor is my age. I wonder how much shorter the recovery period would be had I been a lot younger? I have had sports related injuries in the past and it did seem like I did recover a whole lot faster. In the meantime, I will continue on with my home physiotherapy exercises so I can hopefully recover as much as I can, as soon as possible!

Volunteer Reading

Today, there wasn’t much choice in the readings. There was a lot of fantasy fiction but I’d rather do most anything but that. When I expressed my dismay with the choices, they found a book that had just been brought in, a book on Hurricane Katrina. I was eager to read that because I had been quite moved by that event, so much so that I went to New Orleans for two weeks to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.

This book was so interesting, even if just for the first two hours of reading that I did. I hope that I’ll be able to read it next week, too. I may like it so much that I’ll try to find a copy to read myself.

Problems with Drivers

When I was running home, I encountered at least a couple of incidents with drivers who almost hit me! I run on the sidewalk and only cross with lights. I had the green light and I was running but the driver was distracted and almost drove into me as she was turning right. I gave her a dirty look.

The second incident was when a driver was turning left and almost into me even though I was already running across and in the cross walk area. Again, I gave her a look. This time, the driver was indignant and even stopped and yelled at me through her open window. I didn’t realize this until a little late but I did try to run after her. I couldn’t believe that she had the gall to yell at me when she was totally in the wrong!

I know that I probably shouldn’t react to bad driving when I am running but I just can’t help myself. I always run defensively and am always really alert because of these idiots. I do listen to music but I only have one ear bud in so I can hear everything around me. I always make sure that the driver sees me before I even proceed, too. And yet, despite all of this, I still ‘run’ across idiot drivers. It’s so frustrating!

Elder Planning Counselor Course Reading Continued

I read a horoscope in one of the local newspapers today that said:

Make this a relaxed and easygoing day. Certainly don’t use up all your energy on career and financial issues.

I have to admit that I laughed when I read this. I am not a horoscope person at all. But for whatever reason, I did end up not working very hard at all today. I couldn’t seem to get into the groove of reading. I kept getting distracted and losing my concentration.

I did get some reading done but nowhere near enough to keep to the schedule that I had planned for myself. I guess this means that I will now have to double up tomorrow. I will have more pressure on myself because I will only have one day left in which to do it, too.

I have no idea why I couldn’t get motivated today to do this studying. I tried to switch topics thinking that maybe I was just ‘stuck’ on one, but that didn’t seem to help much either. I guess I’ll just have to be cramming tomorrow so I can get it all completed by Friday.

Day Two Hundred and Ninety Six of Unemployment-Fifty and Unemployed

Ran to Yoga and Back

This morning I was glad to have the chance to run. I haven’t run since Wednesday and I missed my usual long run on Saturday (which I had to miss because I went across the border) so I felt like a total sloth. I ran the four miles to my free yoga class at Lululemon in no time.

Within a few strides, I felt fine. It’s like I have this muscle memory that makes it seems like I didn’t take those few days off. Even after my running accident when I didn’t run for weeks and weeks, it didn’t take too long for me to get back to my familiar form.

New Yoga Instructor

Last week’s yoga instructor was only for that one time. This week, a new instructor began a four-week run. I thought that she would be like almost all of the instructors that they usually engage but she was so much more fit. She wore the usual Lululemon yoga top where we could see that she was totally ripped! She also had a lot of muscle definition in her arm and shoulder area and even her back! I’ve never seen any yogi as ripped as she is!

She was a great teacher and offered alternatives to those of us who needed to modify. (I had told her about my running injury that resulted in my broken arm, shoulder and torn rotator cuff tendons) She really motivated everybody to try to push ourselves, too. She runs some kind of national yoga program, and it’s really apparent in her teaching. I’m definitely looking forward to the next month of her instruction!

Free Japanese Junior High Orchestra Concert

My Dad sent me a video online months ago that featured young Japanese girls playing jazz. They were amazingly good. I saw an ad for a free concert of the Soshin Girls Wind Orchestra so I thought my Dad might enjoy it.

I was surprised to see the theater fill up. I was pleased to see that there was such a good turn out. Then, I read the program and saw that the girls were not university students or high school students but in junior high! I groaned, thinking that we had wasted our time coming to see such a junior orchestra.

They were introduced and out came very grim, serious looking girls. But to our delight, they were excellent! They exceeded our expectations by many fold! I couldn’t believe that such young girls played of such high calibre! I have never seen any Canadian or American students of that age anywhere near as good. They reminded me of those young Suzuki taught violin prodigies. We were both so glad that we came to see them! We’d gladly see them again, and pay for the privilege, too!

Dress for Success Wardrobe

I had been thinking about attending tomorrow’s AGM for the firm I want to work for. It’s been a while since I’ve worn business attire. I’m not sure what will fit these days! After my running accident six months ago when I tripped on a sidewalk, flying and landing on my elbow, dislocating and breaking my arm, shoulder and tearing my rotator cuff tendons with lots of road rash, I was not able to do much and I gained some weight.

I didn’t really have any reason to try on my suits either. If I had to dress up, it was more for parties rather than for any business occasion. I went through my suits and hoped that I wouldn’t have to iron anything or clean anything.

I did manage to find a nice navy and white suit. I remember the last time I wore it at my old firm. Luckily, it fit fine and didn’t need any cleaning or ironing. I put it aside, ready for me to wear at tomorrow’s AGM.

I know that once I get into the interview mode, or rather, hopefully get any interviews, I will have to have more than one suit on hand. Most firms require at least two or three interviews before make a job offer. I can get away with wearing a dress if there’s a fourth interview. I think it’s easier for guys, they can wear one suit and mix and match with ties and different shirts.

I am excited and nervous about tomorrow’s AGM. This is definitely a different kind of opportunity–I can meet those who work there, those on the executive and even those on the board of directors. But I’m worried that it can be a disaster, too. I want to focus on the positive right now though.

Day Two Hundred and Sixty Eight of Unemployment-Fifty and Unemployed

Woke up Early to Panic

I woke up fairly early this morning and had feelings of panic. I’m not sure why I would feel so panicky this morning. I usually have feelings of doom or anxiety when I have a difficult sleep but panicky feelings, not as often. I didn’t set an alarm last night and told myself that if I woke up early enough, I would consider going to the free yoga class at Lululemon.

Not Ready for Yoga Yet

My arm and shoulder were aching when I woke up this morning. That in itself would not be a reason for me not to go to yoga. It has been over five months since I had my running accident and tripped on a sidewalk crack and went flying, landing on my elbow, dislocating my shoulder, breaking my arm, shoulder, tearing my rotator cuff tendons and having road rash on my knees, elbow and palms. Although I have been assured that my recovery is coming along as to be expected and I have resumed running, I have not returned to yoga yet.

I have tried several poses at home to see if I am physically able to withstand them. For the most part, I can do them for a short amount of time, however, I don’t know if I can do a whole hour of poses, as I would be doing in a class. Although I was up early enough to run to the yoga class (as was my usual Sunday ritual pre-accident), I started to feel really scared. I kept having images of me being in class and hearing a snap of a bone and then collapsing on the mat.

Rationally speaking, that would very unlikely be the case. Although I am 50 years old, there has been no sign of me having brittle bones or osteoporosis. I would like to think that my broken arm and shoulder was a fluke running accident and not because of weak bones. I think that this fear is psychological. I experienced the same fear after I had torn my anterior cruciate ligament when I was in a ski accident at Whistler mountain. I never did regain the fearless sense of adventure I used to have when I skied again. I hope that this is not the case with yoga. I think I’m too young to throw in the towel!

Run to Zoomer Show

Although I didn’t do yoga today, I did decide to run downtown to the convention center to attend a show called the Zoomer show. This is a trade show aimed at adults from 45 years old and up. They have a number of displays, exhibitors and shows which may appeal to that age group.

I have been going to the show for three years now. And at 50 years old, I am one of the younger attendees, most are in their 60s and up. I became familiar with this show because of a friend who is on the board of CARP, which is the Canadian association of Retired People. When I joined, I started receiving a magazine, Zoomer magazine which advertised this trade show.

A lot of the exhibitors are in these areas: health (eg: chiropractors, nursing services, hearing aids); lifestyle (volunteerism, dancing, electric bikes, golf); money (BC securities commission anti-fraud, funeral planning, financial services); and travel (cruises, voluntourism, casinos). I was also thinking of good ideas for career paths, too. Now that the baby boomers are retiring, there may be some entrepreneurial ideas to think of.

Some of the exhibitors that appealed to me the most: Iris Optical, the www.thirdquarter.ca website, Sun Life Financial, AM 650 radio and the BC Securities Commission Anti-Fraud area. They also had concerts (legendary Dan Hill, Sometimes When We Touch), seminars, dog shows, dancing, and fitness.

At Iris Optical, I talked with Dr. Kim, an eye doctor at length about laser eye surgery. I have toyed around with the idea for years. I was under the impression that because I have astigmatism, I was not a good candidate. I was also told that at my age, I wouldn’t have many years before my vision would deteriorate and I’d need reading glasses still. He patiently answered all of my questions and assured me that having astigmatism no longer ruled me out.

At the Third Quarters exhibit, I was told that their goal is to help companies and job seekers 45 years and up find the best match for the available position within the shortest time possible. Obviously, as a job seeker, I was most curious about this firm. I had never heard of it before. The reason why it is called ‘third quarter’ is because it specifically targets those in their ‘third quarter’ of their professional and working careers.

I went to their website and tried to see if it was useful in a practical way. Yes, it would be nice if there were employers out there that valued those of us in our third quarter (with experience, positive work ethic and attitude and maturity) and went out of their way to seek us. Employers do pay to place their listings on this website.

I tried to search for jobs without actually joining and submitting a resume. (free to job seekers as other websites) Unfortunately, I was a little discouraged with their search function. I could not seem to find a place to enter my city. I did not want to have to scroll through jobs all across Canada. I don’t know if it will take off without that, notwithstanding the attractiveness of having employers actively seeking those 45 years and up.

I enjoyed the Sun Life Financial area. They are a financial services firm which is best known for insurance products. They had a photo area where they could take a photo in front of a green screen and then place us in different scenes. I chose to be a safari tourist in Africa. They gave us our photo in a paper frame that said, Money For Life, Retire with Confidence. That was fun!

They also took similar photos at a TV station booth. I got a photo of me with the Absolutely Fabulous Girls at the Zoomer TV area. I could also get my photo with Downton Abbey, Lucy and Desi or Mary Tyler Moore. One of their stations screens the old sitcoms from the 70s that I so loved.

At the BC Securities Commission, they also had a photo area. I chose the Taj Mahal as the background. They said they will email the photo. There was lots of information about avoiding becoming a victim of financial fraud, since many seniors are vulnerable to this.

My favorite was a wine, liquor and beer tasting area. There were several spirits distributors who gave samplings of their product. I started chatting with an older lady who was in the same circuit as me and before long we were tipsy friends. It gave me a great opportunity to try a variety of products all at once, in one place.

I’m glad that I came to this show. I got a lot of free pens, shopping bags, CDs and other samples. I got a lot of information as well, all in one place. I tried to rest up a bit before I ran home. Despite all the liquor, I was able to run home, albeit a little slowly!

Day Two Hundred and Forty of Unemployment-Fifty and Unemployed

Better Sleep This Sunday!

This morning I was feeling better. I managed to get a fairly decent sleep. I am still coughing but I don’t wake up because of it. My arm and shoulder still hurt but not to the same extent as before. I wonder if I’m feeling better or if I’m just learning to be a more sound sleeper?

I even got to sleep in a little, too! A lot of times, my neighbors will be early birds on the weekends, particularly Sunday for some odd reason, and decide to do their laundry so I’ll wake up to the grind of their washing machine agitator. Our strata rule is that they are not to be noisy before 8 AM and after 11 PM, which I think is reasonable. However, there are some neighbors who wake me up either really late or super early. I hate those people with a passion. Luckily, I got to sleep in this morning without disruption.

Did a Short Run To and From Downtown

I decided that since I was feeling okay, I could run to and from to a downtown movie theater. I had gotten a $10 off Les Miserables movie gift certificate from Banana Republic in December as a promotion and it will expire soon. The only theater that is showing the movie, Les Miserables, is downtown so that is the only place I can go.

I usually do this run on Sunday mornings to attend a free yoga class at the Lululemon store. It is a good warm up before the hour yoga class. It has now been over four and a half months since my running accident where I tripped on a sidewalk, went flying and landed on my knees, palms, elbow, dislocating my shoulder, breaking my shoulder and arm, tearing my rotator cuff tendons and lots of road rash. So that’s the last time I had my yoga class.

Now that I can do short runs, I will work more toward gaining enough strength back to resume my yoga classes. I know that four and a half months seems like a long time in a way, but according to my orthopedic surgeon and physiotherapist, it isn’t that long at all. I’m hoping that I will be able to look at next month as a possible return to Lululemon yogas classes!

Les Miserables, the Movie

So the gift certificate was for only Les Miserables. I’ve been wanting to see this movie for a long time. I have seen Les Miserables, the play, a few times and am a little curious as to how it will turn out as a movie. I have to admit other movies that had been a musical play, Chicago, Rent, Mamma Mia, The Producers, A Chorus Line, to name a few didn’t live up to my expectations.

I was surprised that there were as many people on a Sunday noon matinée. Most of the audience were older people. I wondered how many of them had also seen the play before seeing this movie?

I love Hugh Jackman and he’s been getting rave reviews, including his Best Actor Oscar nomination. I desperately want this movie to be great just for him because he’s such a nice guy, too! I worked as an extra on movies he’s been in, here in Vancouver. He has the best reputation for being a friendly, down to earth guy to cast and crew alike. If a star is not nice, their reputation goes through the local film industry here faster than anything.

I also worked as an extra on an Anne Hathaway movie in an airport scene. She comes running in the airport, desperately looking for somebody and she comes rushing at me and pushes me! I was so shocked the first time because she’s such a skinny thing, you don’t expect somebody her size to have any strength but she almost floored me! After a few takes, I learned to pull away so she couldn’t push me too hard!

I also worked as an extra on an Amanda Seyfried movie filmed here. In that movie, we played prisoners in prison. We wore a lovely orange-colored uniform. I was placed far away from her in every scene. She was very quiet and kept to herself.

Anyway, those are my connections to some of the actors in Les Miserables. I love the music and could easily sing along through out the whole thing if it weren’t for my bad singing voice. I am hoping that the set design will really bring the book to life!

Unfortunately, I was not overblown by this movie. It was okay but it wasn’t great compared to the play when seen on Broadway. I’m glad that I saw it but I don’t know if I’d see it again. I would, however, not hesitate to see the play on Broadway again.

What I was really surprised about the movie was Russell Crowe’s performance. That poor guy has been excoriated by critics! I think he’s a great actor and I have also been a fan of his rock band and even have his CD! Anyway, I loved his performance! I thought he acted it well and sang it wonderfully! I thought that he sang better than anybody in the movie actually! I can’t understand why I seem to be in the minority about this? I think he deserves an oscar nomination!

After the movie, I had a nice run home. I felt fine, no reverberating arm pain, no coughing. It was nice to have a relaxing Sunday where I don’t worry about the reality of my life. I’ll do that tomorrow…

Day Two Hundred and Twenty Eight of Unemployment-Fifty and Unemployed

Sleep Problems Again

I woke up a few times last night, partly due to my coughing and partly due to my sore arm and shoulder. I wondered if I still have a fever because I was feeling really sweaty as well. I hope that it isn’t a fever because that would mean that the antibiotics aren’t working after all.

I wondered if my increased pain was due to my physiotherapy yesterday? In any case, I am still not able to sleep through the night without waking up from some pain and it’s really aggravating me. I will bring it up with the doctor today.

Walked to My Orthopedic Trauma Clinic Appointment

Although I felt a little better today, I decided to walk to my appointment. I’m not quite to the point where I am well enough to run to the hospital. It’s still cold so my lungs still hurt when I have to breathe in too deeply. It’s not as cold and frosty as yesterday so I can walk a little more briskly without fear of falling.

As in the other area of the hospital, this area also has a person asking people to wash their hands before entering the offices. I do notice some people, mainly staff, who do not bother to take heed to the notices and warnings of the norovirus outbreak. That bothers me when I see staff ignore hand washing, including some doctors!

I am still a little concerned about having coughing fits as I wait in the waiting room. To my surprise, I get called in to the clinic room within ten minutes of arrival. From there however, I waited almost an hour before the doctor came to talk with me.

I got interviewed by a different resident than the other times I’ve been here. She asked me some questions about how I’m doing and does a brief examination to see what my range of motion is. I had written a few questions down so that I can ask her some as well.

My first question was whether or not she thought that I was making good progress in my recovery. I had read what my physiotherapist had written in the progress report for them and she said that my recovery was slow. My chiropractor had mentioned that he thought that my recovery was slow as well so I was a little concerned.

She said that she thought that I was on track for somebody at 4 months in. She also said that I had to remember that I had experienced the added trauma of the dislocated shoulder, soft tissue damage and the arm and shoulder fractures. She also said that I should always remember that every person is unique and nobody ever has the exact same circumstance so you can’t make the same judgment on how long it takes to recover. I was glad to hear that.

I also asked her about my difficulties sleeping. I told her that I didn’t like to take any painkillers. I told her that I feel sleep deprived since I’m constantly waking up from pain from my injuries. She reassured me that this was normal since I had experienced nerve damage and that unfortunately, that takes longer than fractures to heal.

My orthopedic surgeon came over and basically concurred with everything that she had told me. He has been the most patient and kind specialist that I’ve ever had in all my many years. He has gone out of his way to answer all of my questions and has been very empathetic. That is very rare in my experience. He told me that this was my last appointment and that I didn’t need to do any follow-ups unless something happened. I was glad to hear that. That’s another indication that I’m on my way to a full recovery!

Service Canada Visit

I decided to go directly to the Service Canada office to submit my medical extension note. I only have two weeks remaining but I do need to submit the paperwork and talk with an officer. I could have just dropped off the note but then I’d have to go home and then call the call center and have somebody make the changes over the phone anyway. I figured that I might as well do it all at once.

There are quite a few people waiting. I waited over eighty minutes before I was able to meet with an officer. I was a little surprised that it took so long. It’s a good thing that I was prepared to wait a long time at the clinic, so I had a book to read at this office as well.

The officer I’ve been assigned to is friendly, energetic and enthusiastic! Generally speaking, they are not like that. This woman is eager to help and also make suggestions as to where I can look for job leads. I wrote down a lot of places she suggested. Most of them are places I’ve thought of, but I’m impressed because she seems so sincerely helpful.

I place she had mentioned was the Alumni center of my university. She said that her college regularly sends her job alerts all the time. Unfortunately, UBC was eager to take my $20,000 in tution but offered very little in the way of post graduation job search help.

I have to end up talking with somebody from the call center anyway but I get through faster when they dial directly from the center. That takes another ten minutes but it is all finished. I’m glad that the paperwork is all complete for now.

Day Two Hundred and Four of Unemployment-Fifty and Unemployed

Difficulty Sleeping Again Due to Pain

Just when I thought that I was on the road to recovery with my broken arm and shoulder running injuries, I had a difficult night. It’s been thirteen weeks since I had my running accident and for the most part, I’ve always had trouble sleeping.

It was the worst at the beginning of course, because in addition to the broken bones and torn rotator cuff tendons, I had to contend with the road rash on my palms, knees and overall bruising. I’ve never been a sleeper who can lie in the same position all night long, so every time I turned and moved, I would wake from the pain.

Now that most of the superficial injuries have healed, it’s not as bad. I have been told many times that the nerve damage that I sustained will definitely take longer to heal, perhaps as long as a year. That’s a little discouraging for me.

Home Physiotherapy Exercises

I’ve decided to try to do most of my home physiotherapy exercises first thing in the morning. My holiday season has been so hectic lately that I can’t seem to find time to do them more than once a day.

Most of these exercises can be done in bed, so it’s just as well. I watch the morning news and count out the sets. I still feel the pain when I do the exercises so I’m confident that I am increasing my range of movement.

Cooking and Baking for Holiday Potluck

I was busy cooking and baking for my friend’s potluck tonight. I decided to make potato pancakes, similar to potato latkes. I added a lot of vegetables to make it a little more healthful. I have a little trouble chopping the vegetables because of the pain emanating from my shoulder and elbow. Although it has lots of vegetables in it, I fry them in lots of butter, so they aren’t that healthy after all.

I did some baking as well, a Mexican style flan, peach cobbler and raspberry squares. My screwy rationale about healthy cooking is like saying that the peach cobbler and raspberry squares are healthy because it has some fruit in it. It does, but there’s so much sugar, that it cancels out any of the goodness of the fruit! Oh well.

Sun Yat Sen Garden Visit

I wanted to use my Vancouver Inspiration Pass that allows free admission to different attractions today so we went to Chinatown’s Sun Yat Sen Gardens. It wasn’t too busy, I’m sure in part due to the holiday season.

I have been in the gardens before, when I was an extra on a TV show filming there. We were all Tai-Chi participants in that scene. I had never done it before, but faked it to get the gig! I do remember how beautiful the gardens were from that time.

It is a nice serene spot, oddly enough, in the hustle bustle of chinatown and not too far from the downtown eastside. I’m glad that we were able to visit here today.

Police Museum Closes Early

We rushed over to the Police Museum right after. It’s not too far from Chinatown. I had checked the website and it was supposed to close at 5 PM. We got there at 4 PM and they were all closed up until next year. I was so mad! They totally lied on the website! This was probably the one attraction that I was most looking forward to! If I had known that they would close early, I would have gone there first.

Holiday Potluck Party

We went to another holiday dinner party later that night. It was nice to see friends that I don’t often see. As par for the course, we ate too much but all the good food and drink was too much to resist. Hopefully we can walk it off tomorrow.

Day One Hundred and Ninety Six of Unemployment-Fifty and Unemployed

Short Sleep Due to Financial Worry

I had a difficult time falling asleep last night because unbeknownst to me, my bank account had become seriously empty. My bank card had been declined for a mere $12 amount which had been quite embarrassing. The reason why it became empty was because I didn’t receive my employment insurance payment when I was supposed to. It didn’t even occur to me that I didn’t receive it until I tried to use my debit card for that $12 purchase.

When I checked my online account, it said that my online report was being checked. Until it was checked, I couldn’t submit my next online report, too. I worried about why they might want to investigate my report.

In addition to that worry, my arm and shoulder was giving me pain as well. Although the pain level is improving, it is still bothering me, especially at night. A heating pad did help me a bit but I don’t like to fall asleep with it on all night.

Called the Employment Insurance Office

I had to call the Employment Insurance Office in the morning but was worried about what they might tell me about my claim. Would they tell me that I was no longer eligible for some reason? Was it something I did or didn’t do?  Would I be able to pay my bills this month?

When I called, the message said that there would be a thirty minute wait. That was fine, I was scared of what they might tell me so I was dreading talking anyway. I put the phone aside and went to check my email. After fifteen minutes, I thought I’d check the phone. It was a good thing that I checked because there was an agent on the line just then.

She checked my account and saw that the EI office hadn’t converted my regular employment insurance to a medical benefit one. I went into the office in October so I had assumed that it would have been done by now, but it was not. I guess there is a backlog. Because it was still showing a regular account, when I input that I was not searching for work due to injury or illness (a regular account allows four weeks of injury/illness before it must be converted to a medical claim), it rejected and therefore, flagged my report.

She assured me that she could convert it for me while she had me on the line. She put me on hold for a few minutes. She then came back on the line and said that she had to check with her supervisor about something and put me on hold again. That made me nervous again but it was okay. All in all, it took at least forty-five minutes to get it done. She was very pleasant and helpful.

What I wondered was why they couldn’t have emailed me to let me know that there was a problem with my report? For me, once I knew that my bank account was overdrawn, I was able to juggle money from other accounts so it wasn’t a total catastrophe. But for somebody else, I’m sure it could have been a real problem.

Holiday Lunch with my Old Co-Workers

I went downtown to meet some of my old co-workers for a holiday lunch. Last year, we went out after work but this year, it was too difficult to organize, so we opted for lunch instead. The difference is there’s not as much time and people don’t usually like to drink because they’re going back to work.

We went to an upscale Thai restaurant. One of my co-workers is Thai so she ordered a combination of several dishes for the six of us. It was a very nice lunch. At the end, we were told that the bill would be $30 each! I was shocked! I don’t even spend that much money on dinners, never mind lunch! I think a couple of them noticed my shock and said that I could just chip in $20 since I’m not working. If I had known, I would have ordered the $8.99 lunch special just for myself.

It was nice to catch up with everybody though. I haven’t seen most of them for five months or so. I want to keep in touch with them because I really liked working with them. When you leave a company, you go from knowing the everyday minutiae of a person to suddenly seldom knowing anything about them.

I explained my running injury three months ago when I tripped on a sidewalk, dislocating my shoulder, breaking my arm and shoulder and tearing my rotator cuff tendons, in addition to all the road rash. I told them all of my aggravation and delay with getting an orthopedic surgeon referral, of having to go back and forth between two hospitals and having to wait for my physiotherapy referral. Everybody else had a story of sports injuries (two cycling accidents and one ultimate accident) so were able to commiserate with my pain.

I am meeting some other old co-workers next week. Next time, I’m definitely going to make sure I know how much the bill will be before hand! I just can’t afford much these days but I do want to meet with them!

Day One Hundred and Seventy Eight of Unemployment-Fifty and Unemployed

Running to the Hospital

Today is the third day in a row of sunshine and I want to enjoy it. I decide that this is the perfect day to try running to and from the hospital for the first time since my running accident over nine weeks ago.

It is approximately one mile to the hospital from my home. I had run it last week to my appointment but that was more because I was late and I needed to get there on time.

This time, I deliberately set out to run there and back. I started a very slow and deliberate jog. Since my running accident when I fell and tripped, dislocating my shoulder, breaking my arm, shoulder and tearing my rotator cuff tendons, the biggest fear I have had is tripping again and injuring myself again.

I was very careful as I ran on the sidewalk. Luckily, the route to the hospital is fairly flat. The last two times I’ve tripped, I was running uphill. I don’t know if that was a factor in my accident but I don’t want to take a chance.

My arm hurts as I run. The pain is radiating from my arm and shoulder. I still proceed though. It hurts but not enough to prevent me from continuing. I do not have my usual form though. I do not allow my arms to swing naturally. I am still favoring my left arm and keeping it closer to my body.

I am enjoying this short run though I am still apprehensive about tripping and falling. I am watching the sidewalk more than the scenery. I get to the hospital in around twenty minutes. I am not out of breath since I am jogging so slowly, but I am warmed up. I am satisfied.

Fourth Physiotherapy Appointment

I have my fourth physiotherapy appointment today with a new physiotherapist because my original one has gone on holidays. I had met her in passing last week. The room is almost deserted which is unusual considering it is a Monday.

I am given a heat pad to warm up my arm and shoulder before I begin treatment. The heat pad is so warm it leaves a pink mark though it didn’t seem that hot when I had it on. This feels good and I close my eyes while lying on the bed.

The first thing I did was worked on the arm bicycle for a few minutes. The last time I did it, it seemed a lot easier to do. This time, I could really feel the strain and it felt painful to me. While I was peddling, a fellow patient lying on the bed adjacent to the machine started chatting with me. We traded stories of how we came to be here.

The physiotherapist then worked on my arm and shoulder and it is quite painful. I was trying to relax and breathe but it was difficult. I tensed up every time she worked in a sensitive area. Beside me, my neighbor was also experiencing pain while her physiotherapist worked on her knee. So there we were, both of us groaning and moaning in pain.

After, I also did some work on my own with the arm pulleys, shoulder slide and shuttle. I was very diligent with my form and tried to do as many repetitions as possible.

I asked the physiotherapist about the pain I’ve been experiencing in my shoulder-blade area and also below my elbow. She thinks that if could be referred pain. She said that referred pain means that a problem exists somewhere else in the body other than where you feel the pain. The other physiotherapist had mentioned this as well.

She worked on the shoulder-blade area for a few minutes. It did seem to feel better. My neck has been bothering me as well. I may be overcompensating by using my neck instead of my shoulder.

She also showed me some exercises to work on that area. One was a very slight exercise to show the muscles in that place what to do again. The action is so subtle, it’s difficult for me to see. It’s curious that I have to teach my muscles to do these things again.

Run Back Home

Although I have had a thorough workout at the physiotherapist’s today, I decide to run home. I run at a slightly faster pace this time. I’m feeling a little exhilarated as a jog in the sunshine!

When I get home, I lie down and before I realize it, I have fallen asleep. I guess I may have overdone it. Either that, or I’m getting used to this afternoon nap thing. At least I feel as though I’m getting back to my old life with some running.