Mid-October, I’d started going to PT for my shoulder, which was on the upswing. I’d been swimming, winging over the summer, and then doing some resistance training.

Then one day, I got some fairly severe Achilles tendon pain. Then that pain over the course of a few days migrated to the top of my foot. Then it became absolutely unbearable pressure inside the foot. Went to the doc. Got X-rays. Went to the ER. Got an ultrasound. More X-Rays. Ruled out life-threatening things, but no info on what it could be. Tons of painkillers. Pain became bearable, but still present. A week later, it surged. Went back to the doc. Referred for an MRI. Appointment for that took a month. Just got the MRI. No actual word on what it could be, still. Referred to a foot specialist. Appointment Wednesday. Current status: pain is bearable, but significant and constant.

Diagnoses have included potential clot (ruled out), potential fracture (ruled out), potential ligament damage (waiting on MRI), gout (initially plausible, but continuing symptoms have made that less likely), stress compensating for bad knee (maybe, but probably not the source of the absolutely unbearable pain from that one day).

It sucks, not knowing.

Not knowing what it was. What I could do differently. If it’s going to come back.

Hopefully the foot specialist will be able to get to the bottom of it, but having it take 2 months to get to this point is not great. Not really a shining beacon of the healthcare system, and particularly given the murder of the UHC CEO, I’m in a more understanding mindset, let’s say. Not that my dad’s plight over the last decade hadn’t already made me fairly sympathetic.

We’ve been playing through Clank: Legacy S1 (now there’s an S2 coming, so that’s cool). It’s fantastic. We’re one game away from the end, and it’s been a really fun evolution of an excellent base game. Totally perfect candidate for a legacy system, since it’s a deck-builder, and expanding the deck-building options is a natural way to do Legacy stuff. We’d previously played through the two narrative expansions of Space Base as a family (Shy Pluto and Terra Proxima) and both of those were fun, too. Not sure what we’ll do next. We got the Slay the Spire game, which is fun, and it has some mild progression elements. Both kids have been playing the videogame a lot and enjoying it. We played one run so far, and while it’s different, it’s a pretty excellent adaptation, with the addition of cooperative elements. Lots to like.

Swimming in the bay has gone from being fun & good exercise to torturously cold. So I think maybe Sean & I will end up in the pool more often than the bay for the next 3-4 months. Been poking more at music, too. Reorged the downstairs music setup to be more specifically focused on Ableton, with the only two things being the Push and the Elektron Syntakt on the table. It’s good – feels more focused. Upstairs, I have a bunch of grooveboxes hooked up to an amp, and being able to quickly program a bass & beat and then play along on guitar or bass has been fun, and good practice. Been taking guitar lessons since the beginning of the year, and have learned a lot. Still pretty terrible, but terrible in a way that’s “Yeah, I’m learning guitar” rather than just aimlessly noodling around and making no actual progress.

Saw Green Day in concert in Sept, which was great, and it’s kicked off a desire to see more shows live. J came to his first concert with Ei-Nyung, Sean and me – Hoa, who was supposed to come, had an obligation that popped up. So his first concert was Social Distortion at the Fillmore, which is pretty wild. In March, all four of us will be going to the Linda Lindas, also at the Fillmore, which’ll be K’s first show. Then Sean & I will be going to see Camper van Beethoven in April, and we’ll also be seeing comedian Josh Johnson in Feb. Feels like a significant evolution from our COVID isolation, and it’s nice to get out & see live performances. I think Ei-Nyung and I are also gonna go see The Temptations & the Four Tops or something in Feb?

Overall, it’s been a weird year. A lot of time spent doing stuff for my parents – it’s not a huge time commitment, but it’s like being on call. A certain amount of attention is constantly devoted to it, and that part of it is exhausting. There’s no ability to disconnect. My dad’s living in an assisted living facility, but he’s home with my mom most days. Should theoretically be easier for her, but a certain stubbornness means she’ll never really be able to let some of that stress go. Hopefully it’s a better experience in total, but who can say. His memory is almost totally shot, so while it’s nice to see him, and in the moment he’s cogent, it doesn’t stick, and feels like things are just stuck in an awful limbo. But you make the best of what you’ve got, I guess.

Kids are great – doing great things. Both animating a lot. K’s joined some clubs and groups – AAPI afterschool club for him starts this week, and he’s doing animation after school and a Restorative Justice group during school. J’s been doing a 2-day/wk after school animation program, and making a fun choose-your-own-adventure game from scratch for his CS class. It’s *delightful*. Both kids are incredibly creative and charming, and I’m constantly surprised by what they make. It’s great. K’s almost as tall as J now, despite being 3.5 yrs younger, and their feet are the same size. J’s lanky and tall, but mostly normal-sized. Seeing K with his friends is the only real reminder I have at times that he’s still quite a lot younger, and *isn’t* basically J’s peer. Seeing them together is confusing because of the size. I know that being tall can be mixed up for being mature/advanced, and the good thing is I think K can keep up with expectations. But it’s pretty wild.

Anyway. I think that’s about it. Mostly a strange year. A little directionless. If I look back at last year’s resolutions, I failed them all, I think. But it was a really good year in most respects regardless. Some meaningful change, lots of progress, some … if not direction, understanding, for the future. Time spend with great friends (a lot more with Max this year, which has been great), and seeing a lot of friends making progress in various positive directions has been really nice.

Yeah! Onward.