Stuck in Our Heads - Vol. 27 - June 2009

Holy shit. Sometimes the more time you have to lie around, the less inclination you have to do anything else. Which is to say:

Holy shit. Sometimes the more time I have to lie around, the less inclination I have to do anything else.

It hasn't all been out of straight-up lassitude. Part of the delay has been the result of having too many ideas, having too much time to mull over them, having too much opportunity to feed my recovery by napping. Another part of the delay has been finally going off the pain medications, which, among other things, has done wonders for my attention span. I briefly considered telling you about the other things among which my attention span has rebounded, but, as a dear friend recently expressed, "it's all so terribly undignified."

Rather than go mucking about in that sort of information, let's just settle for an update on my recovery. The orthopedic surgeon told me not to walk on my right leg before my next appointment with him on July 1. After a few days of trying to negotiate the three-story house where I live on one leg (and a close call or two on the stairs), I decided my recovery would be better served by a location a little less adventurous. Last week, I flew back to my mom's house in coastal Georgia where I will stay until the end of the month. I've been going to physical therapy twice a week since I got back here. Although my ankle isn't allowed to bear any weight for a few more weeks, my physical therapist has been focusing on regaining my ankle's range of motion and stretching out and realigning all of the muscles and ligaments and such that have been tightening up or wasting away since the fracture. (One of the exercises involves tracing the alphabet in the air with my toe. Never before in my life have I hated the letter Q so intently.) My hope is my doctor will clear me to bear weight on my ankle on July 1, which means I should be back on my feet shortly after my return to DC. Of course, that's all conjecture right now.

In the meantime, I'll be kicking it in coastal Georgia, rehabilitating some soft-tissue structures, and watching the wood storks and roseate spoonbills feeding in the marsh.

(Hey, DC sparrows, they're way more interesting than you are.)

Title - Artist

Let It Be - The Beatles
Polythene Pam - The Beatles
She Came in Through the Bathroom Window - The Beatles
Rainy Night in Georgia - Brook Benton
Halo - Beyonce
Ain't No Rest for the Wicked - Cage the Elephant
Weather With You - Crowded House
The Climb - Miley Cyrus
We Used to Be Friends - Dandy Warhols
Against All Odds - Gavin DeGraw
Stillness is the Move - Dirty Projectors
Lord Give Me a Sign - DMX
Most of the Time - Bob Dylan
Glamorous - Fergie
Bones Don't Bleed - Thomas Function
The Break Up Song - Greg Kihn Band
Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
Reproduction - Tab Hunter & Cast
Parents Just Don't Understand - DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
Bennie and the Jets - Elton John
Mudfootball - Jack Johnson
How Long Do I Have to Wait for You? - Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
Feeling that Way - Journey
All Summer Long - Kid Rock
Homesick - Kings of Convenience
Use Somebody - Kings of Leon
Poker Face - Lady Gaga
Rockstar - Nickelback
Sleepyhead - Passion Pit
The Reeling - Passion Pit
Free Fallin' - Tom Petty
I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) - PitBull
I Hate This Part - The Pussycat Dolls
Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
Crack the Shutters - Snow Patrol
I Love You, Ono - Stereo Total
Go, Diego, Go! Theme Song - The T-Boppers
Gypsy Woman - Crystal Waters
NYC Ice Cream Truck Melody

Stuck in Our Heads - Vol. 26 - May 2009 - The Bonescrew Edition

You may recall I included in last month's Stuck In Our Heads collector e-mail a brief apology for being late in sending it out. It was something lame about getting caught up in other things and letting the collector message slip until I found myself too far gone to pull of the miracle it would require to make up for my tardiness.

This month started out much the same way. (It also continued along that path.) Last Monday was the first Monday in May, and I found myself engrossed in some other small issues that led me to push back sending out this e-mail. Because of the poor showing of April, however, I swore to myself I wouldn't let it go any further than Wednesday evening. I even put it on my calendar to ensure I made good on it.

Then, of course, I broke my ankle on Wednesday afternoon, and that sort of put a crimp in my plans.

The story goes like this:
On Wednesday, it was Field Day at my place of employment, and I was a contestant in the Balloon Pop Relay Race. The race essentially consisted teams of 6 racers running, one at a time, about 50 feet to the finish line. Once a racer crossed the line and successfully popped a balloon by sitting on it, the next racer had to run to the finish line and pop a balloon by sitting on it, and so on until all of the racers had crossed the finish line and popped a balloon. Somewhere in the transition between running and popping a balloon with my ass, I managed to pick up what the doctor's call a closed trimalleolar ankle fracture. In layman's terms, there are three points of contact that make up the ankle joint, and I got all three of them. In visual terms, it meant that when I was lying on my left side waiting for paramedics, the sole of my left foot was facing the wall next to me, while my right foot, which rested comfortably on top of the left, faced its sole up to the ceiling.

After my first ambulance ride ever, I spent a few hours in the emergency room where two separate teams of medical personnel reduced the fracture (or, for those of you who prefer the colloquial, "popped it back into place"), but it turns out, despite their respective badmouthing of each other's work, neither of them got it sufficiently right because my orthopedic surgeon called me up on the drive home to tell me I had to come back in the morning to get what they call an external fixator installed. It is about as gruesome and effective as it sounds. So, now I have five pins screwed in to various bones in my left leg to stabilize the joint while the soft tissue swelling goes down so I can go back in for surgery to actually repair the ankle. That is currently scheduled for Monday, May 18th, at which point the clock starts on the official six- to eight-week recovery period for this injury.

So, I'm sorry I'm late this month. I've been awfully busy breaking my first bone, which apparently I've done with style. While I'm waiting out the swelling so I can get on with the surgery and the subsequent recovery, my girlfriend and her roommates have kindly ceded a sizable portion of their living room and patience for my use. I expect the next week and more will give me plenty of time to catch up on all sorts of things like capturing your Stuck In Our Heads submissions and the Rob & Big marathon that I appear to be about two-thirds of the way through right now.

And, do me two favors.

Forgive my egregious tardiness, and watch your step out there.


Title - Artist

I Want Alabama Back - 2000 Fred
Around Your Neck - Annuals
I'm Making Eyes at You - Black Kids
Once in Love with Amy - Ray Bolger
My Maria - Brooks and Dunn
Down - Suzanne Buirgy
Turpentine - Brandi Carlile
Bad Liver and a Broken Heart - Hayes Carll
She Left Me for Jesus - Hayes Carll
John Saw That Number - Neko Case
Under the Milky Way - The Church
Coming Home - Cinderella
I Want You D.A.N.C.E. - ComaR
Sweet Jane - Cowboy Junkies
One Less Set of Footsteps - Jim Croce
I Was Once a Loyal Lover - Death Cab for Cutie
Come Back - Depeche Mode
Mykonos - Fleet Foxes
Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz
My Left Foot - Stewie Griffin
Concerto for Cello in C Major, Adagio - Haydn
Atlantic City - The Hold Steady
Money Honey - Lady Gaga
Let It Be Me - Ray LaMontagne
Back When I Was 4 - Jeffrey Lewis
Footloose - Kenny Loggins
Like a Boss - The Lonely Island
Little Bit - Lykke Li
Samson and Delilah - Shirley Manson
Refried Dreams - Tim McGraw
All the Young Dudes - Mott the Hoople
Treat Your Mother Right - Mr. T
Ruby Blue - Roisin Murphy
Spoiled - Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band
Apologize - One Republic
Mama, I'm Coming Home - Ozzy Osbourne
Olde Tyme Mem'ry - Erik Petersen
Anywhere - The Presets
It's Late - Queen
Science Fiction Double Feature - Rocky Horror Picture Show
Soul Man - Sam and Dave
Sleepwalk - Santo and Johnny
New Slang - The Shins
The Ghost of Tom Joad - Bruce Springsteen
Artists Only - Talking Heads
Mad World - Tears for Fears
Tokyo Drift - Teriyaki Boyz
They'll Need a Crane - They Might Be Giants
Thomas' Anthem - Thomas and Friends
Mother Lover - Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg
That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings
Red Hill Mining Town - U2
Ball and Biscuit - White Stripes
Be My Baby - Yayahoi
The Biggest Loser theme
The Noble Duke of York
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star