Rib(s) Rocked

Hello, and a Happy pre-Christmas Thursday to everyone. Hope you're already on vacation, or will be after tomorrow.

Yours truly is working, and will be next week as well. It's been frantic at work the past few months (more so than usual), and exhausting, so you do what you have to do. The bright side, such as it is, is that no one is in the office, so I can get a lot done without interruption.

There is one complication, however:

I broke two ribs last night. :c(

Or, to be completely accurate, I broke two ribs again last night.

What happened? Follow along after the jump.




Long story short: I tripped over, well, nothing, as far as I can tell (friends call me Cass the Klutz for a reason) while walking last night. I landed on my left side, with my left elbow being driven into my ribs when I landed.

The injury tally, when all was said and done: a) one scraped right hand; b) five stitches in my left knee, and c) two re-broken ribs - or one less than the last time I tripped and fell in March 2012.

It's a bad sign when the staff at the local emergency room greets you by name when you stagger in, as  they did to me last night when I arrived. Dr. Robert (as I call him, to his amusement) frowned when I told him what had happened during the intake interview.

"Am I mistaken, or did this happen before?" he asked.

"It did. I broke three ribs on the same side."

"What," he said. "Once wasn't enough?"

"Umm... practice makes perfect?" I replied.

Anyway, as anyone who's had the misfortune of breaking ribs can attest, there's really nothing they can do for it. I have a very high pain threshold, but even I find them very uncomfortable. I didn't sleep a wink last night, wincing every time I moved (or, worse, coughed).

I had to go to work today because I had a number of important meetings; I arrived at 6:30 AM (as I said, I couldn't sleep), but at 2:30 I had to concede defeat and head home. Several colleagues had been pestering me to leave, so it was for the best anyway.

I've been alternating applications of my heating pad and ice pack, and taking Ibuprofen; hopefully I'll sleep tonight, because I have a lot to do tomorrow at work. Cross your fingers for me, please (if only because doing even that hurts right now).

***

The holiday season has been more difficult than usual this year, as I mentioned in my last post. Christmas used to be one of my favorite times of the year; one of my favorite posts, in fact, is about my favorite Christmas of all. Now, however, and since I went full-time five Decembers ago, I just try to endure it.

One way that I do, oddly enough, is to listen to Christmas music. In addition to my long-time favorites, like Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, Bruce Cockburn's Christmas (check that one out if you aren't familiar with his music; you won't regret it), and We Three Kings, by The Roches, I try to pick up one new Christmas album a year.

2018 has seen a number of excellent Christmas albums that have helped make the seasons somewhat more tolerable. I highlighted new albums by The Mavericks and The Old 97's in my last post. I've been listening to them nearly every day since Thanksgiving, and can recommend them without reservation.

For this post, I want to highlight an album that I just started listening to last weekend: J.D. McPherson's Socks. He's an acclaimed retro-rock artist (and a superb guitarist, by all accounts), who, I'm now ashamed to admit, I had never really checked out previously, despite reading rave reviews for his albums and performances since his 2012 debut.

Oddly enough, what caught my eye about Socks was the cover. One look and I think you'll see why I instantly knew I had to check this album out:

All of the album art is courtesy of Annika Orrock, and the entire package is a hoot. Even better, the music is equally charming. I've been wearing this album out all week, and will certainly be exploring his back catalog in the weeks to come. Hope. this convinces you to do the same; I am hooked.

Here's J.D. and his ace band performing the title track on The Current (be sure to check out those backing vocals on the chorus).

Next is the first of three songs from his performance on CBS This Morning, which has quickly become a Saturday morning must-watch, thanks to the terrific live performances it features on a weekly basis. This is "Hey! Skinny Santa":

Next up is "All The Gifts I Need":

And finally, a really fun one - "Claus vs. Claus," a duet with Lucie Silvas (who is also new to me):

J.D. gained a new fan this week; hope this post nets him several more. He deserves it. While you're listening, here's a link to a recent interview with Rolling Stone, in which he explains his approach to recording the album. It's a good read.

I'm going to try to post one more time before Christmas - have a good weekend 'til then, all...